What Cutting Down a Basketball Net and Preparing a House for Lana Has in Common

I am gonna sidetrack here for a minute, but it’s to make a point about fear and doubt. I am sports fanatic and thus a lot of my analogies come from it. Jim Valvano was an NCAA basketball coach for NC State back in the early 1980’s. When he first took over the head coaching position, the basketball team was rather terrible. However, he was committed to his players and believed in them.

If you’ve ever watched college basketball in March, you have probably seen the iconic tradition of the nets being cut down by the team who won the championship. Coach Valvano had so much faith in his team that he would dedicate a whole practice of just climbing up the ladders with scissors in hand, and slice through the strands of the net. Despite not being very good, they would do this regularly. Imagine the reactions of the players who are devoting their first day of practice to cutting down the nets after just having a losing season. Each player had to do this as part of practice. Some of the players admitted that they felt goofy and awkward doing this. However, Coach Valvano had a vision for his team because he believed in them, even if they didn’t believe in themselves. Eventually, that awkward feeling when cutting the nets started to dissipate, and his players started to believe that anything is possible.

They barely made it into the tournament after having a mediocre season. NC State wasn’t even considered to be a contender, let alone win the championship. But Coach Valvano had planted a seed in the minds of his players. They went on to play Houston in the championship game to win one of the greatest games ever played in college basketball history. As they cut down the nets after winning the NCAA tournament, you can tell it was second nature to them. (Link to video).

So at this point, you’re probably asking yourself, “What does this have to do with Lana?” Well for the longest time I’ve been putting off doing all the things I’m supposed to be doing to get our house baby-ready. Part of it is because we spend so much time in the NICU. But the other part of it was because I was afraid. I thought to myself how much it would hurt to come to an empty room with all the baby decorations if somehow Lana didn’t make it. It would just be a sad reminder. Then I came to realize that I had to stop doubting and start believing. Yes it would hurt to come home to an empty room, but it would hurt just the same whether I prepared it or not. However, it speaks volumes about my faith in her, and my faith in God. Does this guarantee anything? Of course not. But we have to believe. Tomorrow is never promised today, but whatever tomorrow brings, we’ll be ready.

Soon, Lana will be cutting these nets...

Update (15:00): They performed another ECHO today on Lana and it shows that hole in her heart (PDA) is still there. On the brighter side, it also showed that her pulmonary hypertension seems to have resolved. So much so that the technician performing the ECHO was shocked. He continued to assess her thinking that he may have just missed something, but in the end her pulmonary pressure stayed low. =)

She will likely have another ECHO on Monday or Tuesday next week, so we will continue to hope and pray that it will start to slowly close on it's own. Thanks goes out specifically to Lana's prayer warriors who have been dedicating time out of their daily schedule to pray for her well being.