God Provides, God Heals !

“Why is my smaller leg always aching mommy?” Asked our three year old Gilda. I overheard the conversation so I joined. I stooped down to my daughter and explained to her that there is no such thing as smaller leg. I examined both of her legs and there seemed to be no problem. But the pain persisted and became more frequent. Gilda would wake up many times at night, sweating and screaming in pain. A dose of baby aspirin would take care of the pain. Until it came to a point when she needed the pain killer five times during the night which was too much for her small body to handle.

The last doctor who examined her simply brushed it off as growing pains and I didn’t believe that anymore. So we took Gilda to a specialist. “Your daughter has  not been using her right leg as much as her left so it’s experiencing muscle atrophy, her right thigh is half an inch smaller in diameter than the other.” Our daughter was right when she said that her aching leg was smaller. The doctor then ordered an x-Ray on the extremity in question. The result showed an abnormal bone growth on the upper part of her femur. “The extra growth on your daughter’s femur is pinching some nerves that causes the great pain, which is next to pain experienced by a laboring woman.” Dr. Fontanilla, a Filipino orthopedic doctor at Al Nahda Hospital, Muscat Oman told us. “At this point we do not know if the growth is cancerous or benign. We need to operate on her to remove the tumor. Then we will send tissue samples for biopsy. If the tumor is cancerous there’s nothing much we can do, even leg amputation will not help because cancer cells in the bone can easily spread to all parts of the body. I’m sorry to say this but if such is the case, be ready for the worst. But, the growth could be benign, let’s pray that’s the case.”

Listening to that long litany from the doctor was the most grueling experience I’ve ever had in my life. Our hearts sank and we had never been so afraid. He told us to pray, and pray we did! We learned to fast and pray. We cried out to God. We pleaded. We called our friends from around the world to pray for our daughter. The bone surgery for my little girl was scheduled.

Meanwhile, my wife did some research at the Sultan Qaboos University library. She found a picture of a bone x-Ray very similar to our daughter’s and the description of the bone tumor was benign. We prayed that would be the case for our darling Gilda Grace.

“Because you’re working for the Oman government, all expenses for your daughter’s medical procedure are free.” Dr. Fontanilla informed my wife and I. “You’re lucky, if this procedure is done in the Philippines, it will cost you hundreds of thousands of pesos.”

Now I understood why I had to leave my family three years ago. Gilda was only five-days old when I left for a job in the Sultanate of Oman. My wife’s C-section wound was still fresh and I wouldn’t be there when the doctor was to  remove those sutures. I had to leave my young family in this dire situation because our financial situation called for it. My heart ached!

The economic climate in the Philippines prodded me to leave.  My wife and I both lost our jobs. This was brought about by the political unrest in the country during the latter part of the Marcos regime.  

I tried my hands on farming but the rice crop I planted from which I expected a good harvest was badly devastated by a strong typhoon just before we were to harvest. Needless to say we were broke and desperate.

Our first child had been born, we had a house on mortgage. I needed to earn and provide for my family. I could not pass the opportunity of working abroad in the Middle East. I had no other recourse but to make this sacrifice.

As the airplane bound to Muscat Oman soared high and away from home, I felt like my heart was torn apart. The lady beside me started crying too for leaving her three young children to work as a domestic helper in the Middle East. I wondered how many other Filipino overseas workers like us were there in that airplane with a broken heart leaving their families behind.  I was not alone doing a pity party in that airplane en route to the Middle East. I would be away for two long years from my family and the pain of separation was so severe-I cried. “Lord, why do I have to leave my family?” That was the big question on my mind.

Then three years later, we were reunited in Oman. That’s when Gilda was diagnosed with a bone tumor. If we were in the Philippines, I would not have been able to afford a major surgery. It was a blessing that we were in Oman. When I left my family to go to Oman, God knew that down the road we would need His great provisions. That’s God’s prevenient grace actively at work in our lives.  God in His foreknowledge had orchestrated a help that we needed.

“Daddy, hold my hands, I’m scared.” Pleaded my little girl as she was laying on a stretcher on her way to the operating room. Anak, I’ll pray for you, and you pray too, okay? After I prayed, my little Gilda prayed aloud also. Her innocent prayer made the medical staff around her giggle and smile. I believe God also smiled when He heard this innocent prayer of a three-year old. “Dear Jesus, please help me. Jesus you are stronger than my Dad. Jesus you are more handsome than my Dad. Please heal me so I will not feel pain anymore.”

A month after the surgery the biopsy result came. The tumor was benign. It was exactly the same case as what my wife found in the medical book-osteod osteoma-benign bone tumor. Praise the Lord! She was on a cast for a month and when it was removed she had to learn how to walk again.

The many ordeals encountered by my family-lost of jobs, economic losses, family separation and sickness were great trials that would have brought discouragement to us. But all through those difficult times, we saw the hands of God at work. Thus, our tribulations served only to strengthen our faith in God.

We came to know God as our Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, Jehovah Rafah, our Healer, Jehovah Shalom, our Peace. Praise be to El Shaddai, our God Almighty!

Today, Gilda Grace is a mother of two beautiful children, married to a God-fearing man, Cameron Cornette. She’s a living testimony of God’s wonderful grace in our lives.