Sunday, August 26, 2012

Miracle on the Columbia

I have to share this amazing experience my friend had with her 19-month old daughter.  This was written by her husband.  Nothing short of a miracle.

My heart is filled with gratitude to God after we experienced a near fatal tragedy Saturday afternoon. We went boating with some friends on the Columbia river and docked about 30 yards off an island to have dinner. Steph and I expected that we all would go eat on 
the beach so as not to get food all over inside the boat. So we took off Maycee's life jacket planning to carry her on shore. But our friends said that we could just stay in their boat and eat, so we did except for the boys who went to play on the beach. I had Maycee with me at the front of the boat where I was talking with my friend, and Steph was talking with my friend's wife at the back of the boat. Maycee was really restless and didn't want to stay on my lap so I let her down, and she walked to the back of the boat by Steph, her friend, Jaron, Shaylee and her friend. Nobody noticed Maycee climb up on the seat and then on to the back of the boat and fall into the river. Shaylee's friend noticed Maycee floating in the river about 15 feet away from the boat and told Shaylee, "Look! Maycee's swimming!" Shaylee then exclaimed, "Mom!!!" Steph looked over and saw Maycee and started to scream and jumped out of the boat towards her. I immediately leaped up and jumped into the river after Steph. Steph got to Maycee first who was floating on her back and moving her head back and forth. Steph grabbed her and I took her from Steph expecting to perform CPR to get the water out of her lungs. But amazingly Maycee did not have any water in her lungs, just a little in her mouth. She started to cry but otherwise had no side effects and was fine. We do not know exactly how long Maycee was in the river but considering how far away she was from the boat we figured it must have been at least a minute or two, which would normally result in a drowning. But since Maycee did not get any water in her lungs we figure that she must have been floating on her back most of the time, otherwise she would have swallowed water if her head was submerged under the water for more than a few seconds. We were dumbfounded. It was as if somebody had their hands beneath her back holding her up and keeping her from flipping over. The thought immediately came into my mind that an angel could have been holding her in the river. I know that sounds crazy to those who don't believe in God and even to many who do, but I have seen miracles more than once in my life and have no doubt that God and angels exist. Regardless of whether there was an angel involved or not, I know that it was a God-given miracle that Maycee managed to not drown or even get water in her lungs. We did pray before we left on our trip to the river and asked that we would be safe, and I am so deeply grateful that the Lord answered our prayers.