This is a story I have not shared with too many people. Travis was a year old and it was a week before Thanksgiving. For some reason I was really burdened about Travis. I remember in the middle of the day getting down on my knees in my bedroom next to the bed and praying and giving Travis to God. I told God that Travis was His. I didn't understand why I felt the strong need to do this but I did it. A few days later Travis became sick with a fever and flu symptoms. The doctor presecribed medicine and said he should start feeling better soon.
Wednesday we left to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with Jack's mother and Dad on the ranch in Freer, Texas. Travis could not hold anything down. I slept with him all night long and at 5:30 on Thanksgiving day I woke Jack up and told him that we needed to drive back home and see the doctor. Travis was getting worse by the minute. We had to make the decision to stop at Kingsville at the hospital or keep going and make it to Valley Baptist Hospital. We decided to try and make it. However, when we were in the middle of the King Ranch I was afraid we had made the wrong decision. I was in the back trying to get gatorade down him and he kept throwing it up. As I was holding Travis I noticed that he was starting to get very still and his eyes were starting to roll up in the back of his head. I would rock him trying to get him to come out of the trance. I didn't want to scare Jack but I told him he needed to drive as fast as he could. Travis was turning blue and his eyes were huge and his stomach was protruding out.
We arrived and rushed him inside. The doctor "on call" was one of the best pediatricians around and was already at the hospital waiting because "someone" had called but never came to the hospital (God at work). The doctor laid Travis down and began shouting orders.
I remember Mom and Dad along with the Canvilles and others coming and praying with us in the waiting room. For 30 minutes the doctor told us that he did not know if he was going to make it or not. Travis did pull through and had to remain in the hospital for 3 days. The doctor told us that in another 15 minutes Travis might not have made it.
I KNOW that there was a reason that I knelt on my knees a few days before a gave Travis to God. And there was more to come.
In 4th grade he broke his nose playing football on the school playground. Seems normal but...a lot of problems developed from the broken nose. Basketball season began his Junior year in high school. I was at one of the first scrimmages and I saw Travis go up for a rebound and catch an elbow in the nose. His nose started bleeding but he wiped it and continued to play. The next day he woke up and could barely walk and was very sick.
We went to see an ENT and he looked up Travis' nose and said "how can you even breathe? " The doctor took a sonogram and told us Travis was getting no oxygen up his nose, he had a deviated septum. The doctor said that when Travis broke his nose in 4th grade it did not grow back properly and that caused most of the problems. As soon as we could Travis had sinus surgery and they fixed the deviated septum.
I've never publicly praised and thanked God for all he had done in Travis' life and for protecting him. There was a reason that I felt the need to get on my knees and pray for Travis when he was 1 year old. The music on this
page is Travis singing "Haven of Rest". He recorded it for his Papa one Christmas.
It was so touching...Papa and Travis just hugged and cried, along with all of us.
Dad has told us that the song "Haven of Rest" is the first song he remembers
learning after he became a christian. I am so proud of Travis, and I know that he and
his beautiful wife, Jill, love the Lord and Travis knows God has kept him on this earth
for a purpose.
I thank God for the wonderful life he has given me. For many years I came to church and sat near the back. I was afraid to get too involved because for some reason I felt like I could never live up to what I should be. Then one day, I heard Dad talking about how he would love to have a website for our church. I felt like that was the way I could honor my earthly father and my Heavenly Father. The website became a work in progress. I am NOT a computer wiz...but my brother, David, helped me. I feel like taking pictures and working on the website has been what I needed to serve the Lord.
Being a Horton, you might think that our lives are perfect...and we do have good lives, but we are not perfect. Now after almost 32 years of marriage, I can say God is faithful. He proves Himself in new ways each day and through our church family provides healing, restoration and joy in the midst of life's trials. I recently went through a very hard time in my life and God has brought me through it. I look forward to serving the Lord in our church, singing in the choir, and taking pictures and working on the webpage. I love the Lord with all of my heart, and I thank God for taking care of all of us and giving me happiness and peace.
In closing, I love being a wife and mother and through this wonderful gift and identity I can touch eternity - in my kids, my grandkids and maybe even you.
