The Lesson of a Lifetime

The Caspian Sea 

Turkmenbashy, Turkmenistan  

October, 2004

Hebrews 4:16 NIV

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

In 2004 I was selected for an exchange program to Turkmenistan through American Councils for International Education and the U.S. State Department.  I had to Google “Turkmenistan” as I hadn’t heard of it before. 

Since then, I’ve returned three times to work with teachers and students through a program I co-founded called the Turkmen Writing Project.  I work with English teachers and their students, but I also help in other ways.

In 2008, the teachers requested I show them the Heimlich maneuver when I returned in 2009. All the next year, I gathered materials: pamphlets, videos and posters and refreshed myself on the technique to teach it to them. 

The summer of 2009 I taught the Heimlich maneuver to teachers, students and community members. My lessons on the technique were the first ones these individuals had ever received.

When I left for home at the end of my visit, I left training materials with the teachers so they could teach their students the manuever.

A few months after my return home, my daughter, Allison, was talking and laughing as she ate dinner. I was in the kitchen when I heard her cough.  Then she didn’t cough. I looked in the dining room and saw her red-faced trying to breathe. I ran to her and began to administer the Heimlich. 

I reacted. No thoughts went through my mind.  I pumped and pumped.

My husband, John, who had been in the garage, walked into the house to witness these events.  He called to me, "Lori, you stop once she's breathing!"

I looked at her and realized she was breathing again. I let go, found a chair and shook with nerves.

During all those sessions in Turkmenistan, I never once thought I was preparing to save my own child's life.

Had it not been for an award in 2004 to a country I had never heard of before, I may have never taken the time to brush up on my first aid skills in 2009 when I needed them most.

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Dear Lord, thank you for your grace, which goes before me to prepare me for what is coming next in life.