Podcast

124. Miracle at the Mall: Kari Hoffman
Kari: [00:00:00] so I just fell to my knees crying, saying, “I forgive the man who did this. I didn’t want to think about this man. I just wanted him removed from my mind and my body so that I had full access to God, because all I cared about was Landon living.
Welcome to the Unshakable Hope podcast, where real life intersects redeeming love. I’m Kelly Hall, and this is where we wrestle through faith questions, such as how do I trust God’s heart when His ways and delays are breaking mine? We’ll hear from people just like you and me who have experienced God’s faithfulness when life didn’t unfold as they expected.
My prayer is that God would renew our hope in His Word and His love through these conversations.
Kelly: Hey, friends. I am so glad you’re here. You’re about to hear a story that reminds me so much of one of my favorite promises in God’s word, Deuteronomy 31:8, “For the Lord himself [00:01:00] goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. So don’t be afraid and don’t be discouraged.”
Kelly: You’re about to see all these truths about God lived out in the miraculous details of today’s story. In 2019, five-year-old Landen Hoffman was thrown off a third-story balcony and fell to the concrete floor below. This horrifying incident made national headlines. You’ll hear about a series of jaw-dropping miracles that ultimately led to Landen’s full recovery.
stick around to the very end because you’re going to hear a story from Carrie’s childhood that God used to prepare her heart to walk through a situation like this.
It’s so amazing
Kelly: Kari will be sharing the story captured in her book, Miracle at the Mall: The True Story of Landen Hoffman, who survived being thrown from a 39-foot high balcony at the largest mall of America. Carrie is a devoted wife and mother of three, and [00:02:00] she is passionate about speaking hope over those walking through loss, heartache, or fear, and pointing them to God, the one who is still working miracles today.
Kelly: Kari, I’m so excited you’re here. Welcome to Unshakable Hope.
Kari: Yes, thank you so much for having me.
Kelly: I just want to say, your book is just wonderful. It captures the suspense, the miracles, and your weariness as well. You’re very transparent, and at the end of each chapter, you include , a scripture and a prayer that is very relevant for each person that is walking through any kind of loss.
Kelly: Loved your book had a hard time putting it down.
Kari: Thank you for reading it, and that is the reason that I wrote it, just to encourage others and to share the story from beginning to the end, which didn’t even just begin at the Mall of America. It began with me as a child.
Kelly: Yes. And I want you to remember to share that story-
Kari: Yes …
Kelly: so let’s go to that day where you and your family’s lives changed forever. You were so full of gratitude. You were overflowing, but you also had an [00:03:00] odd sense of trepidation that was a little bit confusing. So walk us into that day.
That’s very true, ’cause that morning was conferences for Landon. He was five years old. He was at preschool, and he was moving on to kindergarten. And so that morning, I have two children who are two years older than Landon, and they’re twins- And my daughter had all kinds of needs.
Kari: She just relied a lot on her brother. And so conferences were always hard. She was later diagnosed with autism, now I see why when she was so little she needed to be, have him there. But conferences were always hard for me. I was not always getting great news. It was, “What are we gonna do?
Kari: Where should we put them?” I usually left there crying. But Landon was so amazing that morning, because he was just such a precious little boy. He was really shy, really polite., Got along with everybody. You know, very obedient. And so the conference, when I left there, I just remember feeling, ” Okay, we don’t have to worry about him.
Kari: He’s perfect.”
Kelly: Wow. Yeah.
Kari: And he could go with any teacher [00:04:00] in kindergarten. They said, you know, “Split him with any kid, any teacher. No worries. He’s, he’s okay.” And so we wanted to go celebrate. Yay, you know, this is a great, this is great news. Like, we’re moving on to kindergarten. Let’s go do something fun with this mom
she had a conference behind me, and these two were friends. And so we couldn’t decide what we were gonna do that day. It was snowing. It was April, but in Minnesota it was a snowstorm. And so we couldn’t really do anything outside or go to the zoo. That was another option. So we decided the Mall of America was only 20 minutes away from our house.
Kari: They have a Crayola factory there where you can go color and pretend to be a crayon and make all kinds of things, and go through a jungle gym. So they thought that was fun, so that’s what our plan was. So we got in the car. We started driving there. And I was hesitant.
Kari: I remember having that feeling, like, do I feel like going here today? We could just stay around our city, find something else to do. But the boys were so excited when we had mentioned it that we, I felt like we have to go So we went. I even called my husband on the way [00:05:00] there that morning to tell him what a good boy Landon is and that we don’t have to worry, and I just had this peace.
Kari: Like, I don’t have to worry about him. There’s nothing no concerns. He can just color in the back seat. He w- he had a water bottle and Sharpie markers. Can’t remember why they were in there, but he was coloring all over his water bottle on the way down there. And I called my husband, who travels for work, so he’s always on the phone, so he does not like to get phone calls during the day ’cause I will be interrupting, you know, his work calls.
Kari: But I called him just to say, “Conferences were amazing. Kindergarten’s gonna be no problem for Landon.” And so I don’t know, I just remember feeling that the whole way there, until I drove into that parking lot. I had gone, I was getting into the ramp, and I just had a feeling that I should pray. Mall of America was a place we went all the time because it’s close to our house, especially on Black Friday.
Kari: And I always wondered, you know, it’s such a large tourist attraction, something could happen there. I didn’t really have the feeling that it was going to be against me, but I just kind of, in the back of my [00:06:00] head, like if there was something that happened, where would I go? You know, I just wanted to have a plan in my mind.
Kari: If something happened, where would I run? Where would I go? But I thought, “I’ll just pray for protection.” So I just prayed for heavenly angels to go before us, to keep us in all our, our ways. I prayed, pleaded the blood of Jesus. I know that the enemy can’t cross the blood line, so I pleaded the blood of Jesus over our car, over both of our families as we walked.
Kari: And then I thought, “Okay, I prayed. We’re going to go have a good fun day, and there’s nothing to worry about.” And so we parked on that third level, got out of the car. The mall was not open yet, but they let you in, 15 minutes early just to- you can mall walk. There’s coffee shops open. So we knew where we were going.
Kari: We were just gonna go wait outside the door of the Crayola Factory until it opened. Boys were kept running ahead, and I kept saying, “No, come back.” They were just so excited. They knew where to go. We bumped into this cleaning cart lady. I remember she was singing, and she’s like, “Oh, it’s okay.”
Kari: It was a fun, peaceful morning, yet I had this stirring [00:07:00] that just be cautious. Like, I felt like I just needed to be cautious. So that’s why I kept saying, “Come back,” you know, “Just stay by us.” However, I really didn’t feel like it was enough to not go- Yeah … and I didn’t feel like it was enough to get out of there.
Kari: Like, I still felt like I was okay.
Kelly: Yeah.
Kari: I just wanna say that ’cause a lot of people say, “Well, why didn’t you just leave?” But it, I didn’t feel like that. I just felt like I needed to pray- Yeah … and that we, we would be okay. You know, you don’t expect something like this. Right. You can’t even imagine it.
Kelly: Right, of course. And I thought it was very, I thought it was really good for us to know that God knows what’s ahead. Yes. God knows what’s coming. And he wasn’t telling you to run and hide. He could’ve told you that.
Kari: Yeah.
Kelly: But He just told you to pray. Yes. You were just prompted to pray, and He was reminding you, “I’m with you,” and He just got your focus on Him- Yes
Kelly: and Him alone, and you didn’t let fear control you. You were just-
Kari: Yeah …
Kelly: safe in the presence of God. And so I, I loved that.
Kari: That’s
Kelly: exactly it.
Kari: Yes. That is how I felt. I felt, like, peace. Like, He’s with me, I’m okay. [00:08:00] Yeah. That’s exactly how I felt.
Kelly: Yeah.
Kari: So we get up to the, the entrance of that Crayola Factory, and it’s not open, so the Rainforest Cafe is right outside of that experience.
Kari: And there’s, like, kind of a, a r- rocks with a moat with a alligator inside that goes on and off and up and down. And so that’s where the boys were, you know, waiting to see, is it gonna turn on? It moves and stuff. And so they were looking at it trying to see, while I’m just chit-chatting with this mom that I was with.
Kari: Well, this man comes up during this time, and he leans over the rock with the boys. And to me, in my mind, he had a white T-shirt on and blue jeans, and it was a snowy April day, like I said, so we all had, like, winter coats on and boots. And he had that on, so I thought he was a maintenance worker. I thought he was going to turn that alligator on.
Kari: But I did feel weird because he was really leaning over, s- talking in their ears, that I went up to him and I asked him if it was okay that we stay on this rock. And he told, he smiled at me nicely and told me that it was okay, it was no [00:09:00] problem. And see, in my mind I’m still thinking he works here.
Kari: I’m not thinking he’s just a random person. So I stepped back and then he’s got closer. He moved even closer and was whispering to them, and the boys were giggly. Now they’re five years old, so whatever he was saying was funny. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, which is why I stepped back in and said, “Are you sure that it’s okay that we’re sitting here?”
Kari: Like, I just wanted to hear what he was saying. And he said, “No, no, no, you’re fine.” And as soon as I’d said that to him, he reached… So Landon was with his friend Will. He reached around Will and grabbed Landon which to me, that is so odd. Under the armpits and just ran to the balcony as fast as he can and threw him.
Kelly: Oh, cannot imagine.
Kari: I mean, it was a blink of an eye. It was not fa- you couldn’t even react. You don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s just I sat there kind of stunned, and then I screamed, “No, take your hands off my son.” And I was speaking to the enemy. I was speaking to the devil because I felt like God had prepared my heart before I went in there to plead the blood of Jesus and ask for angels, so [00:10:00] I felt like this was a spiritual attack.
Kari: And it- the man fell to the ground because, you know, Landon wasn’t, he was little, but he was still heavy, so the man fell after he threw him. And I remember seeing his shoes trying to get back up, and I ran past him to get down to Landon screaming, “Somebody threw my baby. Somebody threw my baby.
Kari: Everybody pray.” And when I was screaming that, I mean, I don’t even remember going down those escalator stairs. I got to the bottom and nobody was there. But there was one woman who came around the corner, and I s- I couldn’t find him, and she pointed where his body was. She just pointed, and I ran and picked him up, and she said, “No, you have to put him down.
Kari: You can’t pick him up.” I guess she was a nurse and knew that you can’t. … But, you know, your instinct is just to scoop him up. However, I don’t remember what he looked like down there. I don’t remember blood or anything broken. I just remember picking him up and she yelling at me to put him down, which I did.
Kari: And as soon as I put him down, two nurses were behind me ready to give him C- CPR. And so one kind of got me away from the scene while they started CPR instantly.
Kelly: Wow.
Kari: Which [00:11:00] was incredible. , These two nurses happened to work at Children’s Hospital where Landon was going. And they work in the cardiac unit where they restart hearts and give CPR daily, so they knew what they were doing.
Kelly: Okay, number one miracle. There you go.
Kari: Yes. So that is what saved Landon’s life. I mean, I believe that I was, I was prepared, that I was telling the enemy to take his hands off, and I was- Yes … refusing to let Landon die. I said, I kept yelling, “He is going to live and not die.” And I looked up and people started surrounding the atriums up there.
Kari: There was three levels up, and people were just all over, and I just kept yelling, “Pray. Everybody pray.” And people were shouting back at me that, “I’m with you. I’m praying with you.” at, while they were giving CPR, and, um, when they did-
Kari: They said, they said, “We have a heartbeat.” And I said, “Yes, we have a heartbeat.”
Kari: And then they said, “We took a breath.” I said, “Landon, you took a breath.” I wanted him to hear me. I wanted him to fight for his life. And I just, everybody around got to witness we’re praying, he got a heartbeat. We’re praying, he [00:12:00] got a breath. And I just kept saying, “Everybody pray.” And the other nurse that was with kept trying to calm me down, and she said I would let her calm mor- calm me down for a minute, and then I would just push away and keep saying, “Everybody pray.
Kari: We need to be praying.” And so I just feel like it happened because God knew what I was going to do in front of the world to witness this miracle.
Kelly: Yeah. And was this like you? Did you normally-
Kari: No …
Kelly: ask people to pray, pray out loud?
Kari: No. I did grow up in a very charismatic church, and I was on the puppet team there, like Where we prayed and did things like this.
Kari: However, I never even had felt the feeling that I felt to pray the way that I did before I went in there. This was just a very different day- Yeah, it- … that I felt Him inside me.
Kelly: Yes. It really sounds like the Holy Spirit prepared you- … was empowering you, and was spilling out of you with great confidence.
Kelly: You couldn’t even keep your mouth shut.
Kari: No.
Kelly: And these prayers continued even when you were at the hospital. So tell [00:13:00] us what happened as, you know, how did y’all get out of there? Yeah. What was happening?
Kari: So ambulance came pretty fast, got him on a stretcher, and we’re running down the hall, and still people I remember everywhere just staring.
Kari: And I kept saying, “Don’t stare, pray. Please just pray.” I just wanted everybody praying, because I knew that he should not be alive, and I was refusing- Yeah … to let him die. And so I just needed everybody to start praying. And I knew God was the only one.
Kelly: Yes.
Kari: So they got him out to the ambulance, and I got into the ambulance with him.
Kari: And they said, “No, you have to get out ’cause we need room to work on him.” But I wanted Landon to hear me, ’cause I thought if he heard me, he would stay alive. So I said, “Landon, I’m gonna be right behind you in the, police car.” And so he, well, right when I did that, he opened his eyes and looked at me. Oh.
Kari: And so I knew he was alive. So I go in the police car behind, and we start driving there, and they’re asking me all kinds of questions, and I, I called my mom and I called my husband. Nobody answered the phone, so I hung up. My mom did call me back and I told her, “Somebody threw Landon. Go to Children’s.”
Kari: And she was not comprehending what I was [00:14:00] saying, but I just told her to get to Children’s Hospital, and I needed to hang up ’cause I needed to pray. Yeah. And so I just didn’t wanna be interrupted by anything. I just wanted- Landon to be okay. And I on- I needed to go straight to God, and that was it. I didn’t wanna mess with anything else besides- Yeah
Kari: just talking to God. So we get there. We get into the… I don’t know if anyone’s ever been in a trauma situation like that where you get out of an ambulance. But I have never. And they just bring you straight into this warehouse kind of big empty room where they’re just gonna save his life. It’s not really, , a room that’s set up.
Kari: It’s just a save your life room. And they told me later that all these doctors were in there having a meeting that Landon needed. Normally they have- Huh … to be called in for different reasons, and they all happened to be in-house and got the call. And they were all standing in this warehouse room waiting for us to arrive- Wow
Kari: within minutes.
Kelly: That
Kari: is
Kelly: so miraculous I
Kari: mean, so many things Thank you, God. Yes. I mean, of course, I don’t know any of these things at the time. These are things that I learned later, but-
Kelly: Right …
Kari: they start [00:15:00] doing things to save his life in this room, and I got to run in. You know, it’s chaos at the times.
Kari: There’s no setup with signing in and all this stuff, so I ran in there with him. And they are, setting his bones. They are removing his spleen. It was, I guess, the only organ that was bleeding out, so they had to hurry up and remove it quickly. They were stabilizing his blood pressure, all those kinds of things.
Kari: And I was standing on a folding chair in there because I couldn’t see, and I felt like I needed to see. So there was a folding chair in the corner. I stood up, and I was just praying. I was praying for God to be in this room. The enemy is not going to take my son. He is going to live and not die. Be with these doctors.
Kari: Put him back together. He is taking nothing. Those were the things I was yelling. I was just- Yeah,
Kelly: out loud. Yes.
Kari: Which I, again, I’ve never done anything like that, but it didn’t matter. I was in a fight. I was in fight mode. Yeah. Like, I felt like I needed to… And also, like I keep saying, needed him, Landon, to hear me saying these things.
Kelly: Yeah.
Kari: So there was one time where a nurse said, um, “Okay, it’s very chaotic in here, so I need everybody [00:16:00] quiet. I need you not to be speaking unless you absolutely need to.” And, she said, “What is his blood pressure?” And I yelled out, “It’s perfect” Because, a- and again, I have no idea where that came from, but it just came, and I felt like in that moment I was claiming his body perfect, and I was refusing nothing less-
Kari: from that instant. And these nurses and doctors were so nice. They were all chaotic, and they were letting me do my thing. They weren’t telling me to leave. They were letting me do this. As soon as they got done, they were running him across the hall for a brain scan, and I said, “Stop, I need to give him kisses.”
Kari: And they all stopped, and they said, “Mom, kisses are very important.” So I wasn’t being a burden or in their way or trying to interrupt them, but they understood my role, and they let me do it. Wow. I’m so thankful for that.
Kelly: So thankful. I love that. I love how God just covered that whole scene-
Kari: Yeah …
Kelly: that chaotic scene, yet he was in charge of it all.
Kari: Yes. And
Kelly: how he empowered you to pray, and even gave the [00:17:00] doctors compassion to-
Kari: Yeah …
Kelly: to let you keep going, and then to kiss him before he went into surgery.
Kari: Oh, yes. Yeah. I still can picture that moment right now, kissing him, broken.
Kelly: Oh, yeah, I can’t even imagine. Oh, my heart just aches for you. Now, at this point, was this the point where you fell to your knees
Kari: Yes.
Kari: As soon as they let him go across the hall and I kissed him, that is where I fell to my knees, broken. Because I did grow up in a church where you constantly hear if you hold unforgiveness in your heart, you are holding back- your way to God. So if I had held unforgiveness to this man, who I didn’t even know, who I didn’t believe wanted to hurt us or Landon.
Kari: I honestly thought that it was Satan working through him. Something really bad must have happened to him to want to hurt us.
Kari: And so I just fell to my knees crying, saying, “I forgive the man who did this. God, please take him,” because I wanted full access- Yeah … without having that in my heart.
Kari: I didn’t want to think about this man. I didn’t want to know if [00:18:00] he was caught. I didn’t care. I just wanted him removed from my mind and my body so that I had full access to God, because all I cared about was Landon living. And this is when my family ran down the hall and we all hugged and-
Kelly: That’s so amazing.
Kelly: The way you describe it in the book is- it seemed like it cleared the way for your thoughts to be fully focused on- Yes … the Lord, fully focused on Landon. You weren’t distracted at all by thoughts of him.
Kari: Yes.
Kelly: You were just gonna focus on Landon’s healing and what God had during this space.
Kari: Yes. Like, I was not going to let go of Landon.
Kari: And this man did not need to interrupt me.
Kelly: No. That’s just- Yeah … absolutely astounding that you were able to say that out loud. … Let’s step into Landon’s recovery process. It was a long road, very long road. Yes. And let’s start with that MRI.
Kelly: You and your family had been waiting for an MRI that would tell you the state of Landon’s brain and what was going on.
Kari: Yes. Um, so we had 10 days to … After he went through, after that, then they went upstairs and did a bunch [00:19:00] of surgeries. Then we had 10 days to wait for all of those things to come to truth.
Kari: Because when you’re hurt, when you are hurt, you have so much inflammation in your body that it takes that many days to come down to see what your actual injuries are. And so he had a brain drain in that was draining fluid out of his nose and we had to wait 10 days and then go do a new MRI, and that would tell us, are we getting Landon back or not?
Kari: So we didn’t know if he would walk. We didn’t know if he would talk. We didn’t know if he’d have his personality. So that morning of that MRI, we were counting down these days, but my pastor from the church I grew up in came that morning with his wife, and when he speaks to me, that’s just home, and he’s just so powerful when he speaks.
Kari: I needed him that morning. Yeah. And he came in and just spoke life over Landon, anointed him with oil. I still remember being in that room and that feeling of just everything, God is holding us in a perfect peace. I didn’t let my mind go to any doubt. I knew it was there. It was always, like, right in the background, that, [00:20:00] what if this could
Kari: And I never let it come in. I never finished the thought, because I couldn’t. And so I just kept believing whatever these pastors were saying, whatever truth was coming to my mind, whatever verses I was reading, that is what I was going to believe. And so- My husband also had, was not able to see Landon so broken.
Kari: Mm. He is just a very sensitive, man. So he came every day to the hospital, stood outside Landon’s door, walked the halls, speaking with everybody, but he never came in. But he wanted to be in here for this prayer and for anointing Landon with oil. So he came in with, holding onto a nurse’s shoulders with his eyes closed for that prayer, and then he left with his eyes closed.
Kari: Mm-hmm. Um, so he was there, but I’ll never forget that either.
Kelly: Yeah, but he continued to fight for your family in tremendous ways and protect your twins- Yeah … and protect y’all from the media- Yes … all kinds of ways, and he was always talking to someone to get information about how Landon was doing and praying for him.
Kari: Yes. We decided that first day my role is to sit with Landon, [00:21:00] not move, and pray, and his role was to do all the chaos on the outside. We still had two kids at home. He needed to keep it normal. Yeah. There was media everywhere who wanted answers. How was he doing? We didn’t know how he was doing.
Kari: Right. We couldn’t answer it. So he had to just constantly not answer and deal with all that. So I was so thankful that he was able to do that, and I wouldn’t be able to. And I was able to stay in there, actually in his bed every day and never leave it, and he wouldn’t have been able to do that. Yeah. So it was a perfect team.
Kari: Yeah. It worked great. Then my other pastor came that we go to now, and also prayed. Then we went down for the MRI, and it was just me and my mom and my cousin, who happens to be also a, surgeon. He’s an emergency surgeon, so he knows. He wanted to be there for all the meetings so he could tell us in regular terms what the doctor was saying, and he also could go into his chart and tell me things
Kari: It was another helpful tool that I had with me all the time. But it was just us three down in the basement waiting, during a thunderstorm, and we were just sitting there kind of not really [00:22:00] talking. All of us were just in our own minds, praying, or whatever we were doing. And I saw the doctor running down the hallway with his computer, like with a big smile on his face.
Kari: I’ll never forget it. I can still picture it. And he wanted to show us his computer, and he said, “You guys, from a brain standpoint,” not his body, but from a brain stand, “he looks like he fell off a bike.”
Kelly: Wow. He’s like, “You guys, look.”
Kari: He just… And you know, I don’t know what that means on his, the images on his computer, but I’m like, “Wow.”
Kari: And we had my husband on the phone, and he was with, at his parents’ house, and everybody was like, “No way. Yay.” You know, everybody was just crying and so happy and thinking- Of course. You know, of course, God. You know, we’re gonna… They- He said we will have him walking, we will have him talking, we will have his personality.
Kari: The only thing that we’re gonna have to deal with is he injured his frontal lobe when he fell, so he has a big scar right there, and that part of his brain will… that died. He said he removes that part of patients’ brains that have cancer all the time, and you can live without it, but he might [00:23:00] be more impulsive as he grows, which means he won’t be able to think clearly.
Kari: And he said as a teenager that is going to be difficult, which I’m already seeing. He’s now 12, and he acts, and then he’s sorry, then he a- you know. Yeah. And I keep telling him, “We have to think about things before we do it,” which he can’t, and so we just have to have grace. Lot of grace.
Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. But- A lot more prayer,
Kari: yes. Yes. But that is what we were told, and of course, we don’t care. If we’re gonna have him walking, talking, we have Landon back, we’ll figure out the other problem later.
Kelly: Right. You know, that’s how we feel. God’s got him. You know God’s got him. Yeah. Yeah. So it, it was… And there was nothing that blocked his fall.
Kelly: There was nothing
Kari: you know, after this, doctors started telling me, “Oh, I think there was a photo booth there that he, that dropped his fall, and then he fell,” or, “I think…” They had all these theories. So I had my cousin, like I was talking about, go watch the footage, and he did not. He went face first.
Kelly: Yeah. It’s like angels protected him. I- Protected him from the full impact …
Kari: I believe that [00:24:00] 100%. I said it the first day, and I still believe that, because I prayed for them going in. And Landon caught himself. He landed with his hands i- in his face. His nose was smooshed into his face. So he, like, caught himself, and he only injured the part of his brain that- Does it ma- matter the least?
Kari: Yeah. The least amount, you know what I mean.
Kelly: Yeah, a- absolutely. Well, I want us to talk about the time in the hospital. Yeah. I mean, this was four months, and it was not as easy as it sounded like it was gonna be initially. Like, initially it was just like, “Oh, we just have to wait for his bones to heal, and his, gotta get this part of his brain okay, but he’s gonna be fine.”
Kelly: But then there were some other complications, and it made your time … There were times when you felt weary. So I want you to explain that, and then talk about the ways that you strengthened your heart. We’ll do that next, but, – talk about what you went through in the hospital, what Landon went through.
Kari: Yeah, so it was looking, you know, like such, everything was such a miracle. I, you know, check this off, check this off. His brain’s great, we just have to wait for bones to heal. All of this is going so [00:25:00] good, and you think, okay, you’re like, you’re on this train of everything’s great until J- So Gillette Children’s Hospital is a rehab center where you go after your major injuries to, you know, get rehabilitated back into normal life.
Kari: They came to speak to me on day, like, 12 to talk about transitioning him over there. And so we were getting all ready for that, and then he started having a hard time breathing. And so they looked at his lungs, and he had fluid in his lungs and fluid somewhere in his body.
Kari: And so they said, “Okay, well, we’re gonna drain it off, and then we’re gonna send it in. It’s gonna take about,” I think it was 10 days again, to see what it was. So now, okay, so now we have to be patient. They’re gonna send it in. We don’t know what it is, but they seem like it’s, whatever it is, in 10 days we’ll know what it is, and we’ll take the drain out, and then you can go.
Kari: So I was okay with that. Although the drain was awful. You know, they had to put it in and keep it in, and it never came out. And so now we’re starting… And now he’s awake also. He was intubated for [00:26:00] 10 days, which medically induced coma, so he wasn’t awake. I could just sit in his bed and pray. Well, now he’s awake and there is pain, so it’s a lot harder.
Kari: He’s trying to talk and suck on a popsicle and, you know, different things, which he was there, but he was just in so much pain. So now he has this drain that won’t stop, and we find they, 10 days later, they come and they tell me that it’s, it’s, um, lymph fluid. So they call it a, it’s a chyle leak. So it’s your lymphatic system drains all over your body, and this was coming out of him for some reason.
Kari: And they didn’t know why. And so they said, “Well, we’re gonna put another drain in, and we’re gonna just leave it in there until we can figure out how to get it to stop.” And there were all these protocols to get it to stop. This went on for four months. We did surgeries. We did all these fat-free diets, started it.
Kari: Uh, that didn’t help. Then he went to IV nutrition. That didn’t help. Now we were starting to have surgeries. And not only was it not stopping, we were getting more and more drains and more and more fluid. And so this was a four-month battle of [00:27:00] me sitting there in his bed. Now, he had a broken femur, which healed after six weeks.
Kari: Now he has these drains all over his body. So we couldn’t get up for six weeks. We think his leg is healed, now we can get up. Like at least stand up. We haven’t stood up in six weeks. But he had these drains so it was hard, but we a- we thought we could. So we would start, the rehab person would come and start helping him bear weight, which was like the most exciting thing in our life so he could stand.
Kari: What happened was when he did that, it, his leg broke again. Oh my goodness. And he was on so much pain medication that he didn’t know. And so when they went and do another X-ray they saw that his femur broke again, and now we have another six weeks to stay in bed, plus this leak isn’t stopping.
Kari: And it was just … This is where I was at my breaking point. I was, “Why, God, why?” I was crying. I was … But I still was going to my Bible looking for … I would look up a … Joyce Meyer is one of my favorite people to listen to, so I would look, look her up on YouTube and find [00:28:00] something to fight with faith. You know, whatever keep my mind right.
Kari: I would … Or, you know, whoever. There was three or four different pastors that I would look up these different messages for and just sit in bed and listen. How do I get my mind back on what it needs to get on? Because I’m very frustrated, I’m very hurt, I’m very angry. I just want to stand up. We can’t even stand up.
Kari: You know, it was awful. And then Landon was having hospital delirium, seeing things in the room. I mean, it was horrible. So I was not losing my faith, but I was getting frustrated. And- And I was looking for answers.
Kelly: Right. And there were times when you were so weary. So you’ve talked about some of the things you were doing, but another thing you did was you drew very specific boundaries around your time in the hospital to protect your mind, to protect Landon, and to protect that space.
Kelly: You even brought in special warm lights to make it just feel cozier. Talk about that. ‘Cause you made some choices that I think are good for us to know about.
Kari: Yeah. From, so from right away at the very beginning, [00:29:00] I kept that room sacred. So, my mom’s always made everything cozy, and so right away she was with me on that first day.
Kari: She said, “We have to get these fluorescent lights off the ceiling.” She brought, went downstairs. We had a, they had a room for her to stay in if she wanted to, which she didn’t. But she took the lamp out of there and brought it in my room, so we had a cozy little lamp on. And then she went home and brought me a couple other lamps, so we just had little soft lamps in there.
Kari: I had praise and worship music on, but not the words, just the instrument music in the background. constantly playing. And then we had my, our own blankets and pillows. So we moved in. We moved in with purpose. Yeah. And we had anybody who came, we had, um, memory verses all over the wall, and we’d want them to write on there, too.
Kari: So people would leave what their prayer was. And we also made boundaries on who can come in there. So I was not having anybody who wanted to come, come. It was only a certain bubble of about 10 people, and those were my close people who I knew were like-minded, who were in [00:30:00] there praying with me, wanting what I wanted.
Kari: And I was- asked everybody to come in not crying. We’re not talking about the man who did this. We are not crying. We are fighting for Landon’s life. This is a battle, and he is alive. This is a miracle. This is God’s story. And so everybody knew that they, when they came in there, they could cry outside, but not in here Because I just couldn’t handle it.
Kari: I, if somebody else was breaking down, then I would. So I couldn’t have it.
Kelly: Right. You worked really hard to just- … door up your faith. You were just always cultivating faith and hope, and you didn’t want anyone whittling away at your- No … at your hope. And another thing you did is you didn’t, like you said, you didn’t want to hear about that man, but y’all had a code word.
Kelly: Tell us about the code word.
Kari: Yeah, so for somebody to come and visit us, they had to say a word to come up. And so my cousin Katie, she still helps me today. She’s a spiritual warrior. She, when she would come and s- she flew in from Washington. She stood at his bed every day while I, this is the t- first few days, while I slept on the couch at night, and she’d stay up and [00:31:00] pray next to his bed with her Bible so I could sleep.
Kari: I never wanted Landon to be alone or felt like he was there alone, so I always wanted somebody touching him or talking to him or there. This was just, like I said, the first few days to keep him fighting. But she said, um, ” Emmanuel. Let’s say Emmanuel because it means God is with us.” And of course, I could care less what the code word is.
Kari: They could decide it, so that was the word. So people were coming to visit us for the first week saying Emmanuel to come upstairs. Okay. Then I s- my family also knew that whatever happened in the outside world with this man, with the news, with whatever, don’t tell me. Because if I know something, I don’t want to know, then I’m going to be thinking about that, and I’m only thinking about Landon right now.
Kari: And so they knew not to tell me. But one day, one of my sis- I think it was my sister, s- said, ” We should probably tell her that we found out the name of the man who threw Landon is Emmanuel, and we’ve been saying that word to come up to her room.”
Kelly: Wow.
Kari: And I thought … Okay, so they texted me, “Just thought you should, I know you [00:32:00] don’t want to know anything, but I thought you should know this.”
Kari: And it was so early this morning, at like 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, pitch dark out. I read the text, and tears just started running down my face. And I was thinking, “No, we cannot be saying … I don’t,” I didn’t want to know his name, and now we’re saying his name to come to our room? And a nurse walked in and she said, “What’s wrong?”
Kari: And I said, “We, we’re saying Emmanuel to come up to our room. It means God is with us, but he, it’s the name of the man who threw him.” She goes, “Oh no, we gotta change that right away.” And I said, “What do we ch-” She said, “What do we change it to?” And I said, “Perfect. We’re changing it to perfect.” ‘Cause every time that a doctor left our room, they would tell me what was, uh, going on with him, and then they would say, “But he’s perfect.”
Kari: And I’d say, “Yeah, he’s per-” So we all thought- I love
Kelly: how they clan- climbed on the bandwagon of faith with you. Beautiful
Kari: They did, yes. So we changed it, and I didn’t think much of, of it again until really when I started writing my book that how amazing it was that the name of the man who threw Landon was Emmanuel before he was born.
Kari: And that means God is with us. I [00:33:00] thought that was the… I didn’t see that before. God keeps showing me more and more pieces of him that are, were there that I still am uncovering.
Kelly: It’s absolutely astounding. Yes. Okay, well, one doctor figured out what was wrong. Poor little Landon got to the point where he had four drains coming out of him at one point.
Kelly: Nobody could stop the leak, and nobody could figure out what was causing it. But one doctor finally did.
Kari: Yes. So this doctor kept looking at him thinking, “He’s getting skinnier and skinnier. Veins are all over his chest.” And he thought that was weird, and he kept going home every night and researching, “Why would there be all these dark veins?”
Kari: And I didn’t like him in my room because he knew something was wrong, and I think he didn’t think Landon was going to live. I thought he thought that. There were a few. He actually didn’t, but there were a few who did. And so he came in our room and he said, ” We’re gonna go downstairs and we’re gonna do a CAT scan because there’s a reason that he has all these veins and there might be a blockage.
Kari: He might have a twisted intestine, you know, something.” And [00:34:00] I’m like, okay, this is where I was really b- I was broken when he broke his femur, but I was still fighting. I wasn’t fighting anymore. This time I was… It was, it’s now four months and I can’t take it anymore. I can’t do… He’s not eating, he’s not drinking, he’s getting skinnier.
Kari: Doctors are looking at me like- He might not live. I was at my broken point. And so this day we were gonna go downstairs and do this CAT scan, and I thought something must be wrong because he used to be able to have IV nutrition and not throw up, and now he’s throwing up. Something must be wrong.
Kari: And they said, “Well, if it’s an int- twisted intestine, then, um, we also have to put another drain down his nose and that means you can’t have a drink of water anymore either,” ’cause we were just having a drink of water, and that was our fun. And I’m like, “No, if you take away our drinks, I will…
Kari: I’m done. I will leave.” I remember calling my husband saying, “Get this doctor out of my room. If he takes away drinks, I’m go- I’m going to lose it. Do not- Yeah … I cannot have drinks gone.” We go downstairs and do this CAT scan. He comes upstairs, and he’s happy, and he’s bouncing his leg drinking [00:35:00] sparkling water.
Kari: And I’m thinking, “What is good? What are you happy about?” And he said, “I’m not gonna tell you guys anything until everybody arrives. Call your husband to get down here, and make sure your parents are here.” And I’m like, “Why? You’re gonna tell me that he has a twisted intestine, and you’re gonna be able to fix that by putting another…”
Kari: That’s what I was thinking, another-
Kelly: Yeah …
Kari: tube. He has no more room to put a tube down anywhere. Now we’re gonna put- Right … another one down, you know?
Kelly: Right.
Kari: And so I texted my husband, “When he… When you get here, I’m leaving. I am not going to hear what he says.” So my husband comes in really angry, and he’s like, “Let’s go outside in the hallway to the doctor.”
Kari: And he’s like, “No, no, no, we’re gonna stay in here.” And he’s like, “Nope, outside.” And the doctor goes, “Nope, we’re gonna stay in here.” So I’m sitting there just… Like I said, I was broken. I had no more grace, kindness. I was so… I was not okay. And he starts talking, and the first thing he says is his intestine is twisted, so we are gonna stick another tube down his nose
Kari: and as soon as he said that, I darted out of the room down the hallway. There’s nowhere to go. All I could go was couple feet [00:36:00] down the hallway and hide in a corner. So that’s what I did and sat there crying while he finished talking. And then a nurse came, one of his nurses came running down and she goes, “You don’t understand.
Kari: You have to hear what he is saying.” And then my mom came running down and sh- they said they found the, he found the answer. He said his vena cava had ripped off from his heart from the fall, and it was reattaching itself slowly back to the heart. You cannot injure this and live, so nobody thought to check this.
Kari: But this doctor kept thinking those veins were so funny that there’s something wrong. His body was creating new pathways to get blood to the heart or he would have died. That’s where all those veins were coming from. Yes. They were creating a new way to get blood to his heart, which is why he was getting sicker.
Kari: But it now was the size of a pinhole. And he’s like, “I’m calling my team back.” It was Friday night, everybody was home. He said, “I’m calling my team back. We’re doing surgery tonight. We’re putting a stent in there. The blood’s gonna come back and this leak is gonna stop.”
Kelly: Wow.
Kari: And I was like, “Oh, my gosh. Is this true?”
Kari: You know, you’ve heard for four months, “Well, we’ll [00:37:00] try this, we’ll try this.” You know, I didn’t know if I should believe it anymore.
Kelly: Right. And the one thing they didn’t check was something- Yes … that would have killed him the moment it happened, so nobody even thought to consider- No … that the vena cava had been pulled away from the heart.
Kelly: Yes. That is just unbelievable how God protected him through this.
Kari: Yes. And if he hadn’t broken his leg again, he would have been up walking around, which would have been hard for these veins to make new ways to his heart. So he need… Again, at my broken point, I n- kept saying, “God, why?” And I knew I would know one day.
Kari: That was why. We had to stay in bed till they figured this out.
Kelly: Yeah. Wow.
Kari: Ugh.
Kelly: And that was his protection. Yes.
Kari: Yes.
Kelly: So many times delays are protection from the Lord. Yes. He is intervening. Oh, that is so mind-boggling. All right. I want you- Okay, there was something I was going to say. Oh, you know, another thing I wanted you to share, as we just sit in the awesomeness of this beautiful protection of the Lord, and this beautiful miracle that this doctor had the initiative to [00:38:00] continue to figure out what was wrong, I want you to tell us what verse did you hang on to primarily?
Kelly: Was there any verse or any part of scripture that really helped you and, um, gave you hope throughout?
Kari: D- yes. On my wall, I had, “What you intended for h- for harm, God intended for good, saving the lives of many” Yes So I knew that this was an attack of the enemy, and he meant this for evil.
Kari: He was attacking Landon in more than once in his life. There’s other stories about that. He attacked Landon, and I believe that God hel- allowed this to happen because it happened in front of so many people, in front of the world, because he knew that it was going to save the lives of many, that people were going to turn to him, have faith because of what happened.
Kari: Oh. Because the instant Landon was snatched, I cried out. So I knew this was God’s story. I knew he wasn’t going to let him die. I just couldn’t figure out how I was going to get there.
Kelly: Right. Right. So there’s a couple of things I want you to talk about. One is the-
Kelly: transition home, what that was like,
Kelly: I know that was a huge transition.
Kari: Yes. [00:39:00] You know, that was harder. It was harder for us to go home because when I was in the hospital, I didn’t have distractions. I didn’t have to take care of my other children. I didn’t have the world. I didn’t kn- know anything that happened in the news, the media, all of that, and now I’m home. Landon also, what came home, what he was on so…
Kari: When I left Children’s Hospital, this doctor came in and he said, “The amount of pain medication that Landon was on is more than a grown man can handle. So you are going to have months if not years of withdrawals.”
Kelly: Wow.
Kari: So I, I knew it was going to be a battle still going home, and it was much harder not having a team around, that now it was just me.
Kari: He also had, because of all these surgeries, that he had to stop the leak, his belly cut open four times, and it was a big gaping hole that I could not look at when they would come in. I would put a sh- a shade up between me and Landon and we would talk while they did it, while he was on laughing gas. And they said, “Either you [00:40:00] watch and you figure out how to pack this thing, or you have to come back to the hospital every day.”
Kari: And so I sucked it up. I learned how to be a nurse. These things make me cringe, but I did it. We had all the supplies sent to our house, and now I have to do this every night, and it was nothing I could ever do again, but I did it because I had to.
Kari: So the transition home was- Not, it was really happy that we’re out of the hospital.
Kari: Also, it was five days before kindergarten started, and I had it in my mind that he was not taking kindergarten from us, and so I wanted to send Landon. He was limping because he had this femur broken twice, and when you were laying in the hospital bed, the bone had- you have to walk on it for it to grow back to normal.
Kari: So he had a lift in his shoe. He was limping. He was connected to a wound vac because of this horrible wound on his belly, and I sent him to kindergarten like this, and it was hard. . We were separated. We were together, linked at the hip every single day. I slept in his bed. I didn’t leave his side.
Kari: So it was hard for him to be separated from me and for me to be separated from him, but I just wanted life to [00:41:00] go on. Like, I just really was in that fight of not taking anything from us, so I did these hard things, but it was… All I did is cry and want to go get him, which I did a lot of times.
Kelly: Right.
Kari: But he was struggling, too, because now all of a sudden he has to go to school, and his brain isn’t working correctly, and he’s withdrawing from medications, and his eyes were doing weird things, and he has a wound, and it was, it was a horrible year.
Kelly: Wow. Yeah.
Kari: I wasn’t ready to talk to people then. That’s why I’m talking these years.
Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s a lot to recover from. It’s a lot to process, and it, it does take a, a lot out of you as you are just enduring and fighting for the life of your kid.
Kari: Yes.
Kelly: Or, you know, I did that with a couple of children as we were doing Lyme treatments. You just come out on the other side so weary.
Kelly: Yes. It’s just hard to even heal from that.
Kari: Yes.
Kelly: But you felt like when you were a child that God… actually prepared you to be able to [00:42:00] fight through this with Landon. What was it?
Kari: Yeah. I, when I was 11 years old, I was sleeping in my house, and we had left the garage door open. I have a mom and dad and then three children.
Kari: I’m the middle And a man came in through this open garage door in the middle of the night, took a tablecloth off of our kitchen table, wrapped it around his face. He had a gun loaded with bullets, and he started with my little brother, woke him up, said, “Get up and don’t scream.” Then my sister, then me, then my parents.
Kari: Brought us all downstairs, and when he had us downstairs, my dad was praying. And he kept saying, “Kids, you need to be cra- praying. Pray out loud. You need to be praying.” And my mom was just distracting him. Like, “Can I get my glasses? I have to go to the bathroom. I can’t see.” And so I could just… I, I saw this.
Kari: You know, this happened, this evil happened when I was 11 years old, and I saw what my parents did. And he, my dad just kept yelling, “Everybody pray. We are praying.” And he was praying out loud the entire time. A lot of it was in tongues, and it [00:43:00] was really confusing the man. The man didn’t know what he wanted to do with us.
Kari: My mom kept saying, “Well, what do you want us to do?” And he, he didn’t know because he was so confused. And that was the intention.
Kelly: Yeah.
Kari: My dad was praying for confusion for this man because he was waiting for the moment. My dad knew he was gonna attack, but he was waiting for the right moment. So he brought us all out into our garage one by one, and he wanted to, uh…
Kari: We have three cars, and so we had to weave in and out. And my dad had a fire extinguisher business, and so there was fire extinguishers everywhere. So we were kind of in this maze, single file, going out to this car that he wanted to put us in this trunk because he thought that he could take my mom to cash machines and get a whole bunch of money that way.
Kari: And so he wanted the keys to the car, and I knew the keys were in the car. So my 11-year-old self told the man. That’s where they were when my parents were trying to stall Oh … but that’s why he brought us out there. But I, I was, you know, a kid. And so I’m going out to the garage really fast and I’m getting the keys, and I held them up in the air and I said, “Here they are.”
Kari: And when he, when I did that, the man [00:44:00] looked, and my dad heard God say, “Now.” And my dad grabbed the gun, the gun went off, a bullet went through his van, and my dad punched him and got him on the ground and held him there until police came. And he wouldn’t… The, my dad just kept hitting him. He kept saying, “I give up, I give up.”
Kari: And my dad said, “Well, if you give up, let the gun go.” And he would not let the gun go. He had a death grip on it. And so my mom was prying each finger off of this gun, and while she was doing that he bit her in the leg. She had to go get a rabies shot because of this. Oh. And he wouldn’t… Fine, my mo- my sister called the police.
Kari: I ran next door to the neighbors. When the police got there my dad let him up and they said, “Good thing you didn’t let him up,” ’cause he had a knife in his back pocket.
Kelly: Oh, wow.
Kari: So, but again, the same thing that kind of went on with me with Landon, , there was news stations circling our house.
Kari: Everybody wanted the story, and it was the story of faith and this miracle, this dad overcame this intruder through the power of prayer. And my dad was speaking at churches about it. And none of us were scared. We [00:45:00] put an alarm system in the next day, but we all saw that God showed up. We prayed, God showed up.
Kari: We’re safe. And we didn’t have any tra- people kept saying, “Don’t you need to go to counseling?” You know, all the … No. I mean, we prayed. God heard us. My dad protected us because God was there, and we had a miracle story to share. And so that happened when I was a child, and I didn’t even connect the dots again until years later after all Dan’s trauma when I started writing the book and sitting down and putting these together.
Kari: I thought, I did what I did because I saw what my dad did when we were faced with evil. I just did the same thing. I prayed out loud, and I refused anything less.
Kelly: Yes. And- That was so ingrained- … in your spirit. I just- Yes … thought it’s so powerful.
Kelly: Well, Carrie, you know, when I hear stories like this, it just fills me with an incomprehensible faith in God that this same God, this great, big, powerful God, is also intensely personal and is working right now on our behalf and our [00:46:00] stories behind the scenes.
Kelly: And it’s so encouraging.
Kelly: But I know- Yeah … that there are some of my listeners who are walking through a long journey of unanswered prayers, and so they may feel, and , I’ve heard this from a few listeners, it hurts when they hear these miracle stories being-
Kari: Yeah
Kelly: played out, and it’s like, “God, you’re answering my prayers in someone else’s life. That hurts me. Speak to me about this.” And I think that’s the right way to pray. Like, they’re looking to God.
Kari: Yes. They
Kelly: know that God is faithful. They know He’s trustworthy, but they’re just looking to Him to bring comfort to their heart because they feel almost as if God has forgotten them- Yeah
Kelly: in their pain. Do you have anything you’d like to say to people that are in a situation like that?
Kari: Yeah, I know that it’s hard. There’s so much hurt and evil in this world, so much pain. So we cannot understand why all those things hap- we can’t even fathom to understand. And I, all I know is that I di- I didn’t have more faith.
Kari: I didn’t pray better. I didn’t get my miracle, miracle because [00:47:00] I prayed more than somebody else or I believed more than somebody else. It isn’t that, and I know that. There was just a reason that that day- The way that I was prepared, that that miracle was answered that way. Now, just because it happened to me doesn’t mean that it can’t happen to somebody else.
Kelly: Absolutely.
Kari: But I really believe that we can still grieve. We can grieve, and we can feel that pain, and the only person who can help us through that pain and that grief is God. People look to the world for all kinds of ways to soothe themselves, but really, it’s our heavenly Father is the only one who has the answer and can hold us and can get us through that pain and that grief.
Kari: When you try to look other places, you won’t feel that comfort. Amen. And I just know if you run to your heavenly Father and you sit at His feet and you listen to worship music and you just feel how much He loves you, He wants what’s best for you. And He will show you. It may not be the way that you think.
Kari: Sometimes you really think it’s this way or [00:48:00] you’re sure that this has to happen, and if it doesn’t, you’re not gonna trust God anymore. But I just know that you have to trust Him no matter what because He knows what’s best. He sees things that you do not see.
Kelly: Absolutely. And that’s so important.
Kelly: We can pour out our heart and our hurt to the Lord, and we can ask Him to speak to our wounded heart. And what He will do in that space is pour out His love for us. Yeah. And as we receive His love and we’re convinced of His love, we’re going to believe that this almighty God who loves us so much is already working behind the scenes.
Kelly: And if we could, if He would just peel back the veil between heaven and Earth, we would fall to our knees in awe of- Yes … the story God was writing right here, right now in our own loved one’s life because He loves us and them more than we can imagine.
Kari: Yes.
Kelly: Carrie, thank you so much for today, for sharing this story.
Kelly: I’m just blown away by it all. I’m sitting afresh in the awe of all that God [00:49:00] did. This is how I felt when I finished reading your book. Mm-hmm. But hearing it from your mouth makes it all the more precious and powerful. Thank you so much.
Kari: Yes, thank you for having me. So nice to speak with you and your audience, and I just want people to be filled with how much their heavenly Father really loves them and hears them when they ca- call Him.
Kelly: Amen.
If you were encouraged in your faith today, it’d be great if you’d help get the word out by subscribing, sharing with a friend, or leaving a review. I’d love to hear from you. You can reach out through my website, kellyhall.org, and pick up some free resources while you’re there. Thanks for listening to the Unshakable Hope podcast.