Monday, November 20, 2006

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHER!!

Our little Mr. Wonderful!
You've come a long way baby.
Just one year ago...
Scott wrote this letter and he told me I could share it...
Dear Dr. Miller,

As I sit here and write this letter I can look into the other room and see a 28 lb. boy walking across the room with a Barbie that he just swiped from his sister who is 2.5 years older than he is. He is almost a year now but there was a day in his life when we didn’t know if he was even going to make it past his 37th hour. Scott Murray Jr. was born on November 21, 2005 at Desert Banner hospital at 3:30 in the morning. His mother and I were so happy to have our son come into the world and we were eager to see who he looked like and who’s personality he possessed. We had no idea that in less than two days, in the early morning, he would be going in for his first of three surgeries because his intestines were twisted.
Dr. Miller, my wife Katie and I met you that morning right before Scotty went in for an exploratory surgery to see why there was so much blood in his stool and why his abdomen was swollen. We were both without words but full of tears as the level 4 NICU staff tried to tell us something to make us understand what was about to happen to our son in the surgery. That is when you entered our family’s life. You didn’t know us, but when you came over to us you could see the pain and worry on our faces and you reacted in such a gentle, knowing, but very confident way that it made our hearts rest as much as they were able to at that time. We overheard that you had to change your flight plans to go home for Thanksgiving so you would be able to operate on our son. You had to remove 50% of his small intestines. The next day another surgeon was the one to see if his small intestines were able to come back to life with the blood flow working properly. Sad to say, they did not take. He was given an jujunostomy at that time. That was when we first heard the phrase “short-gut” and the first day that we were to understand that this was a new reality for our son’s life. That meant that we were going to be in that hospital for a very long time. A month later during his 3rd and final surgery while you re-connected his intestines, my wife called in to see how the surgery was going and she heard you yell across the room into the phone “they grew, Tell his parents, they grew!”
Dr. Miller, I don’t know if you will ever really know how thankful we are for you and your medical staff that were there for our son when he needed you the most. We thank God that your desire in life was to be a surgeon. We believe that God was in that operating room with you as you repaired that fragile little body of our son’s. Psalms 126:3 says, “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy”. Even in the darkest times, I know that God has a purpose for all of us. I like to think that one of the reasons that you were created was for the purpose of saving our son’s life.
If you were to see my son now, you would never think that there was anything wrong with him at all. He is one of the happiest babies you will ever meet and his smile is contagious! His weight and height are off the charts. Dr. Miller, thank you for the careful work that you did on our son. We love him so much and he is the perfect addition to our family. Continue to help those little lives heal and become what God intends them to be. You are a blessing to the Murray family like you will never believe!



Scott Murray

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is the sweetest letter... oh, I don't even have words - the tears! the tears! I remember the phone calls in the middle of the night and we prayed hard then and we praise God now. Happy Birthday, Scotty.

Kelley Cole said...

Hey Katie- It's Kelley (Ernie's mom) in CR. These are the most amazing pictures and the story is just incredible. You are such strong people to have made it through that trauma. Look at the beautiful family you have! You are so blessed.
Hope you have a great Thanksgiving and look forward to seeing you next time you are in town!

Astraea said...

Little Scotty,
You share your birthday with our Daddy. It is the birthday for strong, loving, and happy boys! We will think of you every birthday that we are blessed to celebrate with our Daddy. We know you will grow to be as wonderful of a man as he is. We love you and thank God that you are here.
Happy Birthday,
Gracie and Tre

Anonymous said...

Agh, this made me cry!!!!!!!! What a wonderful letter. I don't know if you knew our Lucy went through quite a bit when she was born...we were told she probably wouldn't even live, yet here she is, 21 months old and stomping around in her light-up shoes. God is so good! :) I love your blog!

-Rachel Swanson

Cheryl said...

wow.
I am so thankful for doctors who really care. You are so blessed to have your sweet little Scotty so healthy and alive. Every day is such a blessing!! Praise GOD!!

Cheryl said...

p.s.... what a wonderful letter your husband wrote to the doctor (I bet that doctor will keep it forever) . . . just recently Jake wrote one to his doctor thanking him for the gift of life and he told him how old he was now and sent him a picture of him. I wish I would have taken a picture of his sweet letter to his angel doctor. :)