We (Phil and Gloria Shaffer) live in the San Francisco East Bay area in a
quaint little town called Clayton. We
were vacationing in a beach house in southern California with our three children, Vanessa (26), Stephen (23) and A.J (20) along with Vanessa's husband Ben and their son (our grandbaby!) Beckham. Ben's family was also vacationing with us, along with lots of Phil's side of the family. It was a lovefest to say the least!! We were having the time of our lives when suddenly our fabulous vacation took a very wrong turn...
On July 4th, our family was having the time of our lives at Disneyland. Unbeknownst to us, our eldest son, Stephen, (23) was gravely ill. Although Stephen showed almost NO symptoms except fatigue (and who isn't exhausted at Disneyland???) his heart was only working at 25% and his potassium levels were dangerously low.
Early in the morning on July 5, Stephen's younger brother, AJ, woke up to the sounds of his brother gasping for air. His whole body had seized up with his wrists curled under and he could not wake him up. AJ cried for help and Phil ran in and tried to wake Stephen up. Stephen took one more gasp and that was it. He stopped breathing.
I dialed 911 and the rest is a blur. Really, it was the most horrifying moment of our lives. As the paramedics worked on Stephen in the beach house, we gathered in a room crying and praying and weeping and wailing. The paramedics shocked Stephen's poor little heart three times with no results.
On the ride to the hospital, I remember praying over and over, "Please Lord, let us keep him a little longer." but when we arrived at the ER, his heart was still not beating. The staff at Hoag Hospital worked and worked on him. They tried everything to get his heart working. It took a looooooong time and many defibrillator shocks to finally get a weak pulse. Phil and I were certain we had lost our son.
Fast forward to today, July 9, when I was encouraged to write this! Stephen is still in ICU teetering between this life we have on earth and eternity with Christ. He is a Christian and I know if he dies, he will wake up in the arms of Jesus. This gives us comfort. We selfishly want him here but have placed our trust in what God wants to do with Stephen's life.
Right now Stephen's condition is a medical mystery! The doctors are baffled. How does a healthy, athletic 23 year old with no family history or prior incident have a very damaged heart that is barely pumping?? If you read through some of my earliest updates, you can read about some theories, but honestly, we really don't know.
Here is what we DO know: God caused this to happen. It sounds nicer to say God allowed this, but my God is no wimpy God. He controls everything and He chose to have our son's heart stop. Why? I can rattle off a hundred different reasons why that God has already revealed to us, but today, this is the reason that I feel God caused this: He wants His name proclaimed around the world.
Our prayer is that through Stephen's story, people who have walked away from their faith, or never knew God in the first place, would become believers and have a relationship with their Creator.
quaint little town called Clayton. We
were vacationing in a beach house in southern California with our three children, Vanessa (26), Stephen (23) and A.J (20) along with Vanessa's husband Ben and their son (our grandbaby!) Beckham. Ben's family was also vacationing with us, along with lots of Phil's side of the family. It was a lovefest to say the least!! We were having the time of our lives when suddenly our fabulous vacation took a very wrong turn...
On July 4th, our family was having the time of our lives at Disneyland. Unbeknownst to us, our eldest son, Stephen, (23) was gravely ill. Although Stephen showed almost NO symptoms except fatigue (and who isn't exhausted at Disneyland???) his heart was only working at 25% and his potassium levels were dangerously low.
Early in the morning on July 5, Stephen's younger brother, AJ, woke up to the sounds of his brother gasping for air. His whole body had seized up with his wrists curled under and he could not wake him up. AJ cried for help and Phil ran in and tried to wake Stephen up. Stephen took one more gasp and that was it. He stopped breathing.
I dialed 911 and the rest is a blur. Really, it was the most horrifying moment of our lives. As the paramedics worked on Stephen in the beach house, we gathered in a room crying and praying and weeping and wailing. The paramedics shocked Stephen's poor little heart three times with no results.
On the ride to the hospital, I remember praying over and over, "Please Lord, let us keep him a little longer." but when we arrived at the ER, his heart was still not beating. The staff at Hoag Hospital worked and worked on him. They tried everything to get his heart working. It took a looooooong time and many defibrillator shocks to finally get a weak pulse. Phil and I were certain we had lost our son.
Fast forward to today, July 9, when I was encouraged to write this! Stephen is still in ICU teetering between this life we have on earth and eternity with Christ. He is a Christian and I know if he dies, he will wake up in the arms of Jesus. This gives us comfort. We selfishly want him here but have placed our trust in what God wants to do with Stephen's life.
Right now Stephen's condition is a medical mystery! The doctors are baffled. How does a healthy, athletic 23 year old with no family history or prior incident have a very damaged heart that is barely pumping?? If you read through some of my earliest updates, you can read about some theories, but honestly, we really don't know.
Here is what we DO know: God caused this to happen. It sounds nicer to say God allowed this, but my God is no wimpy God. He controls everything and He chose to have our son's heart stop. Why? I can rattle off a hundred different reasons why that God has already revealed to us, but today, this is the reason that I feel God caused this: He wants His name proclaimed around the world.
Our prayer is that through Stephen's story, people who have walked away from their faith, or never knew God in the first place, would become believers and have a relationship with their Creator.
We (Phil and Gloria Shaffer) live in the San Francisco East Bay area in a
quaint little town called Clayton. We
were vacationing in a beach house in southern California with our three children, Vanessa (26), Stephen (23) and A.J (20) along with Vanessa's husband Ben and their son (our grandbaby!) Beckham. Ben's family was also vacationing with us, along with lots of Phil's side of the family. It was a lovefest to say the least!! We were having the time of our lives when suddenly our fabulous vacation took a very wrong turn...
On July 4th, our family was having the time of our lives at Disneyland. Unbeknownst to us, our eldest son, Stephen, (23) was gravely ill. Although Stephen showed almost NO symptoms except fatigue (and who isn't exhausted at Disneyland???) his heart was only working at 25% and his potassium levels were dangerously low.
Early in the morning on July 5, Stephen's younger brother, AJ, woke up to the sounds of his brother gasping for air. His whole body had seized up with his wrists curled under and he could not wake him up. AJ cried for help and Phil ran in and tried to wake Stephen up. Stephen took one more gasp and that was it. He stopped breathing.
I dialed 911 and the rest is a blur. Really, it was the most horrifying moment of our lives. As the paramedics worked on Stephen in the beach house, we gathered in a room crying and praying and weeping and wailing. The paramedics shocked Stephen's poor little heart three times with no results.
On the ride to the hospital, I remember praying over and over, "Please Lord, let us keep him a little longer." but when we arrived at the ER, his heart was still not beating. The staff at Hoag Hospital worked and worked on him. They tried everything to get his heart working. It took a looooooong time and many defibrillator shocks to finally get a weak pulse. Phil and I were certain we had lost our son.
Fast forward to today, July 9, when I was encouraged to write this! Stephen is still in ICU teetering between this life we have on earth and eternity with Christ. He is a Christian and I know if he dies, he will wake up in the arms of Jesus. This gives us comfort. We selfishly want him here but have placed our trust in what God wants to do with Stephen's life.
Right now Stephen's condition is a medical mystery! The doctors are baffled. How does a healthy, athletic 23 year old with no family history or prior incident have a very damaged heart that is barely pumping?? If you read through some of my earliest updates, you can read about some theories, but honestly, we really don't know.
Here is what we DO know: God caused this to happen. It sounds nicer to say God allowed this, but my God is no wimpy God. He controls everything and He chose to have our son's heart stop. Why? I can rattle off a hundred different reasons why that God has already revealed to us, but today, this is the reason that I feel God caused this: He wants His name proclaimed around the world.
Our prayer is that through Stephen's story, people who have walked away from their faith, or never knew God in the first place, would become believers and have a relationship with their Creator.
quaint little town called Clayton. We
were vacationing in a beach house in southern California with our three children, Vanessa (26), Stephen (23) and A.J (20) along with Vanessa's husband Ben and their son (our grandbaby!) Beckham. Ben's family was also vacationing with us, along with lots of Phil's side of the family. It was a lovefest to say the least!! We were having the time of our lives when suddenly our fabulous vacation took a very wrong turn...
On July 4th, our family was having the time of our lives at Disneyland. Unbeknownst to us, our eldest son, Stephen, (23) was gravely ill. Although Stephen showed almost NO symptoms except fatigue (and who isn't exhausted at Disneyland???) his heart was only working at 25% and his potassium levels were dangerously low.
Early in the morning on July 5, Stephen's younger brother, AJ, woke up to the sounds of his brother gasping for air. His whole body had seized up with his wrists curled under and he could not wake him up. AJ cried for help and Phil ran in and tried to wake Stephen up. Stephen took one more gasp and that was it. He stopped breathing.
I dialed 911 and the rest is a blur. Really, it was the most horrifying moment of our lives. As the paramedics worked on Stephen in the beach house, we gathered in a room crying and praying and weeping and wailing. The paramedics shocked Stephen's poor little heart three times with no results.
On the ride to the hospital, I remember praying over and over, "Please Lord, let us keep him a little longer." but when we arrived at the ER, his heart was still not beating. The staff at Hoag Hospital worked and worked on him. They tried everything to get his heart working. It took a looooooong time and many defibrillator shocks to finally get a weak pulse. Phil and I were certain we had lost our son.
Fast forward to today, July 9, when I was encouraged to write this! Stephen is still in ICU teetering between this life we have on earth and eternity with Christ. He is a Christian and I know if he dies, he will wake up in the arms of Jesus. This gives us comfort. We selfishly want him here but have placed our trust in what God wants to do with Stephen's life.
Right now Stephen's condition is a medical mystery! The doctors are baffled. How does a healthy, athletic 23 year old with no family history or prior incident have a very damaged heart that is barely pumping?? If you read through some of my earliest updates, you can read about some theories, but honestly, we really don't know.
Here is what we DO know: God caused this to happen. It sounds nicer to say God allowed this, but my God is no wimpy God. He controls everything and He chose to have our son's heart stop. Why? I can rattle off a hundred different reasons why that God has already revealed to us, but today, this is the reason that I feel God caused this: He wants His name proclaimed around the world.
Our prayer is that through Stephen's story, people who have walked away from their faith, or never knew God in the first place, would become believers and have a relationship with their Creator.