How God healed his eyes

We arrived on 8 December 1999 and thought about how to get on our feet. We borrowed 500 dollars and bought a car, a Toyota. Papa went to an auction, his first auction, he did not even know what it was, and won that car straight away. It ran; one fender was a little dented. But it was very reliable: we sold it later and they could not kill it. It was blessed, papa would polish it, sand it, paint it there by the apartments. With a spray can. What else was there to do? To go to a body shop you needed money.

Welfare gave us 640 dollars. The apartment cost 530. What was left? 110 dollars. And we had to pay for electricity, for the phone, and still have something for gas. How do you live? I sold practically all our food stamps: I would go to the store with someone, she would pick out her groceries, I would pay with food stamps and she would give me cash. That is how I learned to survive here.

There was no work to be found anywhere. Then the neighbours who lived above us took papa on, construction. He worked in Seattle: they were throwing stucco onto some hotel. Papa was up on the fourth or sixth floor, and from below they were feeding the mortar up a hose under pressure. And that hose bursts, and it sprays papa all over, his whole face. He is shouting, but nobody hears him over the noise. Lime, concrete, all of it in his eyes. It was his third day on the job.

Some man started whistling and shouting for them to shut it off below. They brought papa down, rinsed his face and took him to the emergency room. The boss said: whatever is needed, I will pay for all of it. He paid for nothing. At the ER they washed and washed, put in drops, gave him a painkiller, and he brought papa home. We had no phones then, and I am waiting, it is late at night, I do not know where my husband is or what is happening. And then a stranger brings me papa, eyes bandaged, he cannot see anything, led him into the house, slammed the door and drove off. I ask papa what happened, and his pain is such that he cannot speak. All night he did not sleep, and I did not sleep.

In the morning I phone a friend and say: help us, we need a doctor's appointment, I do not know where to go. And that quick boss had told us to say it happened at home, that he was repairing a car and it splashed into his eyes from the engine. She says to me: “I cannot be your interpreter. It is not true, and I cannot interpret an untruth. Look for somebody else.” And she found us an interpreter from the bureau.

The doctor looked and says: his eyes are burned out, he will be blind. You cannot imagine what was happening in my soul. I think: how? The man is 35 years old. How will he be blind? They handed us some drops, come back tomorrow.

The next day our doctor was not there, and a Russian doctor took us. She says: I will numb his eyes now and pull everything out with tweezers and clean them. And she pulled things out of his eyes like black peppercorns, and it was concrete. She laid them out in a little pile; a pity I had no phone to photograph it, so it would exist as a history. And she says: all that medicine they gave you, throw it out, or he will end up dependent on it. She prescribed something else and called a specialist herself.

The specialist put drops in his eyes: where it is burned, it shows green; where it is not burned, white. He puts the drops in, and there is not one white speck in his eyes. All green. I say: doctor, what will happen? He says: I do not know. He did one more cleaning, put the drops in again and said: if he can see even a tiny bit, it means not all the sight is lost. And papa saw nothing. Simply nothing. Do you know what it was like for me when the children led him to the toilet… And then papa says: I can see a tiny bit, like a blurred silhouette. And the doctor: prepare for a transplant.

Yura from our church came to see us, simply to visit. We talked, he prayed and says: “Lyuba, do not worry, health is coming soon.” And I received that with faith. The doctor had told me he would be blind, and I did not accept it. I simply did not accept it.

We went to the specialist every other day: he would take the lenses out and put ointment in. About a week later papa says: I can see a little now. Then the doctor made an appointment in Seattle for a professor to look at him. The professor looked and said: an urgent operation is needed, a transplant, because there is infection in the eyes and papa could go completely blind. We said: fine, we will think it over, and if we decide, we will let you know.

Near aunt Nyusya there lived a little old woman through whom there was prophecy. We sent word to her, we did not even say what our need was. The answer was this: do not do the operation, God will heal. Papa did not go for the operation. And his eyes healed: one eye came to 100% vision, the other to about 80%. He saw better than before. Papa never wore any glasses, his sight was perfect.

For about half a year papa could not go out into the sun without dark glasses, he even wore them in the house, his eyes were so sensitive from the burns. The routine was this: drops; papa could already put the lens in himself, and he would put in a cream like vaseline to keep the eye moist, because a burned eye turns rough, and as it heals it has to be kept constantly moistened. In about a year everything settled.

After half a year he went back to work. He worked half a year, and was not paid one kopeck for what he had worked. Not long ago I was going through papa's papers: his whole timesheet was there, how many days and hours he had worked. It hurt me very much. I simply blessed that man. You understand, half a year, a family, two children, and he knew the man had lived through such an accident.

And papa had faith. Sometimes I marvelled. Friday, Saturday, he needs to do something around the house, and rain is forecast. Papa prays: “Lord, give weather for Friday and Saturday, I so need to get this done.” And, the weather turned. We drive somewhere, the parking is full, not a space anywhere. Papa lifts his hands: “God, give us a parking space. Thank You. Amen.” And here a car pulls out. And this was not once. So simple, so within reach. The children learned that faith. It was nothing put on, it was sincere, from the heart.

Sometimes I look at celebrities, at rich people, and then I walk back through my own life and think: “Lord, thank You for my life, for my lot, for the fact that I know You.” The one who knows God is the one who truly understands life. And one more thing I will say: if there are moments, spend time with people, use that time. So that you do not regret it later.