Matthew Today

Well, here he is. He turns 18 July 28th. Then he is heading off to Lipscomb in the fall. His story is far from over.
Matthew's story is really a story about how God cares for us and works in all of our lives - not because of us - but in spite of us - not because of who we are - but because of who he is. Lynetta and I are just grateful to have had the chance to watch him in action.

Part Four

Thank you all for your interest and comments on Matthew's story. It is one we have been longing to tell for a long time. We just haven't had many chances to do so.

Part Four

The surgery was a success and Matthew became an instant celebrity.
He was only the 7th person in the United States to have this surgery. He was one of even less who survived it. He was in all the Medical Journals. His case is still talked about in the teaching curriculum at Vandy.

Everything was fine for a while. Matthew was finally starting to grow. You can only imagine how truly thankful and happy we were.

But everything was not fine. We noticed that Matthew didn’t seem to have much energy. This little fireball who never sat still was now having trouble even walking from the car to the house. So, it was back to the doctors.

When the blood work came back the results were not good. Matthew's Red Blood Count was dangerously low. Test revealed that his bone marrow had stopped producing Red blood cells.
As far as we knew this could only mean one thing.

In a perfect world, the words “Pediatric Oncologist” would never be needed. But this world is far from perfect.

I remember walking into the office. This time I was mad! I was mad at God. How could he allow such a thing? After all we had been through – why me?
Then I looked around the room at the faces and the bald heads of the kids waiting there to see the doctor. I looked into the tired desperate eyes of the parents. Then I started thinking, “Why not me?” Why do me and my family deserve God’s blessing and protection and these people do not?

It wasn’t cancer. It ended up being a simple thing that the doctors had simply over looked. The part of Matthew’s intestines that absorbed B12, (The nutrient needed for your bone marrow to make RBCs) was missing. He just had to have a few shot each month to fix it. I remember feeling so guilty walking back out of that office through the crowd of parents and kids that were not going to hear such good news.

Part 3

Part 2 is an interesting story about how God moved us to Tennessee. But while it may be interesting, it is not really relevent to the rest of the story. Other than to say that God made sure that we just happened to be in the right place - at the right time - talking to just the right people. So, skip to part three......

Part Three:

William survived the initial surgery but it was only the first of many. He was hooked up 24hrs per day to TPN (Total Peripheral Nutrition) and Lipids (intravenous Fats) to keep him alive. He was in tremendous pain. He should have been miserable but he didn’t know it. He smiled and laughed a lot. He won the hearts of his Nurses, who renamed him, Matthew (God’s Gift)

The director of the adoption agency did not forget his promise. He and his wife went and spent 2 months at Shand’s Hospital in Tampa, Florida learning how to care for the baby.

Shands had a revolutionary new program where children with Matthew’s condition (known as short gut syndrome) were given little transistorized IV pumps which they could carry in a little back pack. This allowed them to leave the hospital for short periods of time, and try to live as normal of a life as possible. 3 Months and several surgeries later Matthew was finally ready to leave the Hospital.

He went home with Larry & Nancy Carroll, the directors of Christian Family Services.
Larry and Nancy loved Matthew and they took tremendous care of him, but they knew that they were not the ones to adopt him. They began praying along with their church family (The Crossroads Church of Christ in Gainesville) for God to find a forever family for Matthew.

The Bible talks about Peter having the courage to step out of the boat and walk on the water. Well, as far as Lynetta and I were concerned, it wasn’t courage – we didn’t actually step out of the boat, we sort of fell out of the boat. Looking back now it was more like we were pushed out.

We just happened to be in the right State, the right Town, and the right Church, on just the right Sunday to hear from a couple who had just returned from Gainesville. They were there adopting their daughter. While there, they meet this beautiful little boy who needed a forever family – and the rest was history. Against all odds Matthew came to Tennessee.

The next 3 years were a blur. We spent more time in Vanderbilt then we spent at home. Matthew's 2 new older sisters, Kari and Andrea, were crazy about him and took tremendous care of him, but I know that it was very hard on them. We were never home.

We spent all of the holidays at the hospital. I remember one Thanksgivings in particular: We were all at the hospital, eating the same old cafeteria food. We should have been miserable. I would have usually complained and felt sorry for myself. But, I remember us all being happy and being truly thankful that we were all just able to be together.

The Nurses at Vandy learned to love Matthew as well. One of his favorite nurses lovingly nick named him POOP HEAD. She said he could fill up a wagon quicker than anyone she had ever seen. (He'll kill me for that one)


Matthew’s condition remained critical. He struggled with fevers and infections and life threatening sepsis. His hospital chart far out weighed him. Each time we ended up back in Vanderbilt we feared that this hospital stay would be his last.

Matthew lost several room mates and friends
There was Josh the little 6 year old who loved to share Matthew’s pop tarts. He died of a brain infection
There was Dalton, a beautiful happy little 9 mos old that died of the exact condition Matthew had.
There was Mandy an unbelievably sweet little 3 year old girl with the same problem as Matthew, who died on the way to the Mayo Clinic where she was going to have a life saving transplant.

Finally when Matthew was 3 years old his Doctors came to us and told us we had a very serious decision to make. It was obvious that Matthew could not live much longer in the condition he was in. His only chance for survival was a new yet untested procedure in which his short distended small bowel was cut into pieces and manipulated to form a more normal shaped intestine. The trouble was it was an all or nothing gamble, either it worked or it didn’t. Failure meant certain death. So we prayed like we had never prayed before

As we were waiting in the Matthew's room on the day of the surgery, Matthew started laughing and talking with someone who wasn’t there. He told us there were beautiful butterflies flying around the ceiling by his bed. The Nurses said it was hallucinations caused by the sedation medication they had just given him. Perhaps it was. Lynetta and I knew that they were not butterflies. We knew they were angels. But we didn’t know if they were there to protect him or take him home.

The hardest thing we have ever had to do in our lives was hand that baby over to the surgeons not knowing if we would ever see him alive again. So we wept, and we prayed, and we left him in the hands of God.

Part One

The following story is true - or at least it is as far as we know and believe. It happened eighteen years ago, and Lynetta and I were not there for part one.


Part One:
Her name was Laura. She was seventeen years old, soon to be eighteen. She was tall with a slender build. She was a very beautiful girl. She had done some modeling. She loved sports and music. She was very talented and very popular.

Perhaps she grew up to fast or not fast enough. She made a mistake – a terrible mistake – one that would change her life forever.

The advice she received was overwhelming. She was too young, too pretty, too talented. She had too much promise to be side tracked by a simple mistake. An abortion was the only solution. Everyone thought so, that is everyone but Laura. Call it conscious, call it guilt, or better yet call it a “still small voice” that said “no Laura,” “trust me,” “have the baby.” Everyone thought she was making an even bigger mistake, but she was determined this time to try to do what was right.

She contacted Christian Family Service, a Church of Christ group out of Gainesville Florida that takes in unwed mothers. They take them into their homes, take them to their doctor visits, pay their medical expenses, and teach them about the love of Jesus. All in exchange for allowing them to place the babies into Christian homes for adoption.

They welcomed Laura, and everything was fine - fine that is until the fourth month doctor visit.
The ultra sound showed a serious birth defect. The doctors detected a hole in the abdominal wall that allowed the small intestine to herniate or protrude and develop outside the abdomen. They called this congenital defect gastroschisis and the prognosis was very poor.

Again the advice was overwhelming. An abortion was the only answer. Laura was scared and uncertain, but she remained determined. But this time Laura was not alone. The Christian family that had taken her into their home assured her that God was listening, and if anyone had the power to make it right, it was him. So they prayed.

Perhaps it was because she was so young, perhaps it was because the baby was too sick, and didn’t have a chance anyway, but the doctors choose to allow the baby to be born naturally. A vaginal delivery for this baby was to say the least devastating.

Most of us are born with at least 12 feet of small intestines. The trauma of the delivery destroyed the unprotected intestines. The baby was rushed to the OR and after extensive surgery only 18 cm were salvaged. Not enough to sustain him nutritionally. He would never leave the hospital. He would be condemned to live out his painful short existence hooked to wires, tubes and IV’s lying in a hospital bed.

She named him William. She stayed for a while. But the tubes and wires and the pain finally got to be too much. She wondered if she had done the right thing. She prayed, she wept, and then she left him in the hands of God.

The Circle

One of my "defining moments" during our Belize trip was "The Circle."
Each morning before we began the clinic, we would all form a circle, sing a song, and say a prayer for the people of Belize.
Sounds pretty ordinary and boring I know. But given the fact that 100 people were already there waiting in line, listening and watching, made it very powerful and moving. I could'nt help but wonder what these people were thinking as they watched us strange Americans - most of us with tears in our eyes and big smiles on our faces. It was absolutly the pretiest music I have ever heard.

Wes Relaxing

Here is Wes Duncan (He was the life of the whole party) Relaxing on Ambergris Cay.

Wes was our Eye Doctor this year. You can't see it in this picture but Wes has a heart the size of Texas.

Lynetta & Gary

Here is a picture of me and Lynetta from our last night in Belize. We were at a mexican restaurant on Ambergris Cay. So our trip wasn't all work and no play.