The Brendons Smile was founded in 2009 to raise awareness and educate about strokes in babies, even unborn, and children. Through the work I have done over the years I have learned that the picture is so much bigger than simply strokes - sounds weird to say especially when you are the one trying to deal with the needs of a child who has endured a stroke. What I mean is there is so much inspiration that comes from these children. It also doesnt stop with stroke but carries on to any incident, diagnosis, or life altering situation that forces you to actually reflect on the entire picture and gain a perspective that helps you embrace life to the fullest. I was inspired to share this as I was guided to a facebook posting by a father, with faith big enough to move a mountain - actually bigger - as I read his post. Thank you Michael Martinez for giving me permission to share what you have written: Not many people know Nathan’s whole story so I tell this to hopefully inspire people to have faith in the Lord. I promised the Lord I would do this after Nathan’s successful heart transplant surgery. When Nathan was born in Feb 2000 he had a stroke in utero and had to be resuscitated back to life as soon as he came out of the womb. Nathan was born with a very rare form of Muscular Dystrophy. He was placed in the NICU for 9 days after his birth. During those 9 days we were not sure if Nathan was going to survive. Dee and I would take turns staying up at the NICU during the day and would have to come home during the night. One evening Dee was coming up the elevator in the hospital to come get me at the NICU and take me home. Dee at this time was very distraught and a man was standing behind her in the elevator. The man touched Dee on the shoulder and spoke to her saying, “Don’t worry St. Christopher walks behind you.” At the time Dee was very aggravated and didn’t say anything back to him. She just looked at him and was thinking to herself “Whatever”. As the elevator doors opened up she turned to the right and walked out of the elevator and she saw the man behind her walk out and turn to the left. Dee took several steps, stopped and turned around to look at the man who got out of the elevator with her. When she looked back the man was no where to be found and what was even more startling to her was he could not have turned left because there was a wall there. When Dee got to the NICU she told me what happened and said it was the weirdest thing. Well a few days later Dee looked up St. Christopher in a religious book and the man who spoke to her in the elevator had the same face as St. Christopher in the book. Needless to say Dee and I were totally in shock but we felt very blessed. Now around this same time before Nate was born Dee had been having problems with her pregnancy with Nate. On two separate days Dee had been driving down the winding swamp roads in South Virginia near the North Carolina border and the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Dee twice on the side of the road. She said they were the most beautiful images of Mother Mary she had ever seen and then they just disappeared. Fast forward 13 ½ years later when we found out about Nathan needing a new heart and around the 3rd day while Dee was driving from home back to the hospital down Griffin road she saw another gorgeous image of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the side of the road. When she got to the hospital she told me what had happened and that’s when I realized that everything would be ok no matter what the outcome would be for Nate. The Lord was with us and all we had to do was put Nathan in his loving hands and that’s what we did. I didn’t pray for a new heart for Nate because I knew it would mean someone would have to lose their child for Nate to survive and what right did I have to do that? I simply said to the Lord “Your will be done Lord, if you are calling Nathan back to you then take him but if you want him to have a new heart then please give it to him!” Three weeks later when Nate was scheduled to get the artificial heart I had requested Father Babin from Nativity Catholic Church down the street from Joe DiMaggio’s Children’s Hospital to come and give Nathan communion, confession and the anointing of the sick just in case he went in for surgery over the weekend. Father stopped by and gave Nathan all of his sacraments and Nathan proceeded to tell him that he would be getting his new heart this weekend and Father Babin kind of chuckled at Nate and said “Ok Nate” thinking Nate was crazy or really doped up on medications. Well the next day as Dee and I were inspecting all of the equipment that came in for Nathan’s artificial heart (Berlin Heart) Ms. Chris who helps run the Heart Transplant team got the phone call that we had a real heart coming for Nate. That afternoon I called Father Babin back to pray over Nate again and as he entered Nathan’s room he bowed down in front of Nathan and said “Nathan you told me you were getting your heart this weekend and I didn’t believe you and you were right. You have more faith then I do Nathan, please bless me. “ Needless to say that brought tears to all of our eyes. A few months later Nathan is doing very well and heads back to school tomorrow. Nathan has begun his second chance at life. We noticed that Nathan has changed quite a bit. He seems to have matured a lot in the last couple of months and he really is trying to live life a lot more then before. As he told Dee one day “Mom, I almost died!” Why am I telling you all of this? First I am keeping a promise to The Lord and if there is something anyone who reads this can take from Nathan’s story and our experience, its we are ordinary people just like you, no different, no more, no less then anyone. Life happens and it can be scary but if you can put your faith and trust in The Lord it will always workout for you. It might not be what you expected but he knows what’s best for you. Love The Lord like a child loves him and you never know what could happen, just ask Nathan. ~Michael Martinez
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 19:51:03 +0000