The Micah Series (part 1)

The Story

Micah, my third oldest brother, was born December 22, 1989.
It all began on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2001. Micah was climbing down from a tree and grabbed hold of a dead branch and fell 20 feet. He was still alive but in great pain. So he was taken to the hospital, where they found out he had a broken femur, torn spleen, hole in his lungs, and fractured vertebrae. He was in intensive care for six days, and then transferred to a different hospital where they put a rod into his leg and found out that he had ALL leukemia. Micah then started chemotherapy and had treatment that lasted two and a half years. He had to be at the hospital most everyday of the first four months, meaning my oldest brother, Jesse, who was only fifteen at the time, had to watch six children while my mom was with Micah and Dad at work. After about one and a half years he took mostly pills and didn’t have to go to the hospital as much. When two and a half years had past they took out his port and finished his treatment, but then he relapsed. It was then decided that Micah would have to have a Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT). Each one of us children was tested to see if any of us was a perfect match. It turns out that my sister, Priscilla, who was only nine at the time, was a perfect match and actually really wanted to be the donor. Also at this time my mom was pregnant with her ninth child which was due in December 2004. To do the BMT he had to be transferred to Duke Hospital, which meant that we would have to move to be closer to the hospital. A couple months before moving into our contemporary cottage, Lydia, my now five year old sister was born on December 22, 2004, the same day that Micah had been born. Not only that, but they had kept her cord blood and found out later that she was a perfect match, as well. After the BMT Micah began to recover and we were able to move back home, but he relapsed again. They thought that they might be able to do another transplant with Lydia’s cord blood, but that was not God’s plan for his life. The leukemia progressed quickly and they soon said there was nothing more they could do. Either God would do a miracle in his body and heal him here on this earth or God would take him home to be with Him. On December 17, 2005, just five days before his sixteenth birthday and Lydia’s first, Micah was taken home to be with the Lord, where he so longed to be. Although we miss him dreadfully at times we know he is in a better place. He is at home safely in the arms of Jesus. Micah has no more pain, sorrow, suffering, sin, or sadness and we will someday go and join him there.