All Are Precious In His Sight: Reach Out to Rowan Part 2, B&B Day 24, May 12

I know you're going to be blown away by the God-connection stories that Rowan's mom, Carrie, is sharing with you today. Be sure to read her message below. You don't want to miss this!

Day 24 of Mission Boss Your Heart Memorial Blitz, Focus #4 (Final Focus): Reach Out to Rowan! View his mommy's blog HERE. View his foundation HERE.

Day 24 of Chrissie's 31-day battle, May 12, 2010: Post 1 (salvation praise!), Post 2 (this post has a miraculous outcome: This child (from this post) went to heaven, but I never saw him nor did I meet his family. Months after Chrissie went to heaven, this little boy's mom contacted me via email. She told me that she was googling adoption, found our blog, read Chrissie's 31-day battle on our blog, saw this prayer request for a child whose heart had stopped, looked at the day/time, and realized it was HER SON who we had asked people to pray for!!! This post let her know that God was present, and her son didn't accidentally die. God was present! Thank you, God, for connecting me with Collin's momma, and I ask you all to pray for her and her husband today as it is the first anniversary of the day their Collin went to heaven), Post 3, Post 4

To donate to Rowan's family and foundation, visit the blog and click the blue "Reach Out to Rowan" ChipIn button (which is also at the top of this blog post).

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Be blessed as you read Part 2 of Rowan's special God-connection to Chrissie, as written by Rowan's mom, Carrie Windham:

This picture is a picture of Rowan holding a priceless photo of his very special friend Chrissie Patterson. As you know, Chrissie passed away a year ago while hospitalized following major heart surgery. She was just 4 years old, like Rowan. Rowan tells us that he talks to Chrissie, see her in rainbows and sunshine, and that he misses her a lot. He calls her his "Girlfriend in Heaven". The interesting thing is that Rowan never actually got the chance to meet Chrissie while she was alive, but if you read these few short stories, I think you'll find that they definitely have a God-connection that is undeniable.

At the beach last Summer Rowan asked me to write "We miss you Princess Chrissie" in the sand, so she could see it up in Heaven. I did that for him. Rowan said Chrissie hugged him back on the beach and that it "felt pretty". And just look at the look on his face...you can almost feel her hugging him. A few hours later he saw a rainbow in the sky, and he beamed from ear to ear, got tears in his eyes and said "Look Mom, Chrissie loved it!". He was just certain that she was sending him that rainbow as a sign of thanks. His joy made me believe he was right.

This past October (2010), Rowan was back in the hospital again for several weeks. He was suffering from fever, crippling headaches and nausea which they eventually determined was due to increased cranial pressure. After 2 weeks on heavy iv pain medications and repeat spinal taps to remove fluid, Rowan ended up having his second brain/skull surgery. He had a vp shunt placed to drain the excess fluid from his brain into his abdomen. The first thing he wanted to do once he was able to get out of bed, was to walk ALL the way down the hall to the remembrance tree to see Chrissie's memory leaf, which we had told him they had put on the tree the week before. He did just that, pushed his iv pole the whole way too. And here he is, blowing Chrissie's leaf a kiss. His legs were weak, and his body was tired. He had not taken even one step in 3 weeks at this point, but he smiled the whole way back to his hospital room. He said she was happy that she was right by a butterfly on the wall. Again, she gave him motivation, strength, peace and joy. And in turn, we were strengthened and saw light too, after what had been a few very hard weeks again.

While visiting Chrissie's gravesite, at her family's ranch this past November, I took a picture of Rowan looking down at her gravesite. He told us he wanted to give her some love:-) Later when I finally downloaded the pictures on my computer (ironically 6 months to the day of her death) Rowan looked at the picture and immediately said "Oh there she is looking down at me." I said you mean you looking at her, and he said "No Mom, that's just where her body is, see the sunlight shining on me? There she is!" It was amazing. It had been a dark cloudy day, and there was no sun in any of the other pictures, except this one. It had a perfect beam of light right over his head shining down...incredible.

Rowan woke up in the middle of the night one night back in December and said "Mom, I need to make Chrissie's Mom an ornament for Christmas. It needs to have the sun and a rainbow and her horse and lots of flowers on it." I said sure, what made you think of that. He said "It's what Chrissie wants on it, so her Mom can know she is still around in all the things that are beautiful." We of course shared this with Lorraine, and try to remember it ourselves daily too.

Unfortunately, Rowan ended up being rushed back into the hospital first thing Christmas morning, where he stayed another week, fighting another life threatening septic infection. New Year's Eve, just before we thought he was about to be discharged though, he had a sudden complication show up on the echocardiogram of his heart. The test showed that his central intravenous catheter had migrated too far inside the heart wall and we were told that not only was he not leaving, but he would have to go back in to surgery that evening to have the line pulled back out of his heart. We were obviously very upset, because we had really hoped to get home to the rest of the family and finally celebrate Christmas together. I tried to explain things to Rowan and told him we should pray and he prayed that God would help him boss his heart, just like Chrissie had done in that same hospital. He asked God to help him push that line right out of his heart and back into the artery where it belonged. About an hour or so later, after another picture of his heart was taken, they came back in to tell us that they couldn't believe it, but everything was apparently fine. He would not need the surgery and he was in fact getting to go home that night. They told us it must have been a mistake. Rowan jumped up on the bed and started crying and shouting for joy, "It worked Mommy, it worked! I bossed my heart like Chrissie and it worked!" He hugged the little stuffed Jingle Lion named Chrissie that Lorraine had given him months before and whispered to it "Thank you Chrissie, it worked!" I let him call Lorraine right away to tell her that he bossed his heart too. We all cried. We all knew it wasn't a mistake either. It was nothing short of a miracle.

We are forever blessed to have had the opportunity to meet Chrissie's Mom, to pray for her precious daughter, and to now call them our dear friends. Rowan's unique connection to Chrissie continues to bring us treasured stories like these, and we know that it is proof that God has a plan. We may not like what it looks like sometimes, but you can't deny that things happen for a reason and that good things can come out of bad times. Again, Rowan and I are better people for having been "affected" and "touched" by Chrissie's life, without ever having even "met" her while she was alive and awake on this Earth. She has strengthened our faith, given us peace and understanding about death, beyond our own comprehension, and brought us joy and contentment through the beautiful little things in life like rainbows and sunshine. Not only will we never forget Chrissie, we thank God daily for her and her families' presence in our lives!