Madison Andrews: strong at heart

                           Photo by Noelle Andrews
Madison Andrews.

          Though Madison “Maddy” Andrews’ actual physical heart is in rough condition after open-heart surgery of transposition of the great arteries with a pseudoaneurysm (one of her patches split and started leaking blood), she’s strong at heart with a lot of passion for serving the Lord and others. Andrews from Boulder, Colo., a 19-year-old sophomore at University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., is receiving her bachelors in missions and ministries and business administration. While at school, she’s involved with the Baptist Campus Ministries, especially with Appalachian Ministries.
             Lounging in a hoodie and athletic shorts, with her nose ring that she considers her act of being a rebel, Andrews likes to tell it how it is. She’s bold in her opinions, which is used to her advantage when she tells people their worth. “I love getting to hold kids, talk to them and make them feel important,” said Andrews. “A huge part of my heart is wanting to make people feel like they have value and are important.”

                                        Photo provided by Madison Andrews
Anna Andrews and Maddy as a baby
after her first open-heart surgery.

           Andrews understands the importance of showing children their worth because she’s had troubles too. She was born with a congenital heart defect called transposition of the great arteries. When she was three days old, she had open-heart surgery. After this, she lived a fairly healthy childhood running track, playing soccer and basketball.
           During conditioning for basketball in Andrews’ junior year of high school, she collapsed on the court. This led to about seven months of testing. The doctors didn’t understand why she was in pain all of the time. 
           “At first, she really questioned herself because they didn’t know what was wrong,” said Anna Andrews, Maddy’s mom. “A year later, she was very confident. ‘I want to feel better. I feel bad. My issues are real.’ She really grew in understanding her body and what was real and having a voice.”
           They realized that Andrew’s pulmonary valve was not as long or as wide as it needed to be and then they realized that a sternum wire, which was placed in her chest to keep it closed when she was a baby, had broken and was causing the pain. When the doctors were testing to see if it was the sternum wire, they realized other things were wrong. In February 2012, Andrews went through her second open-heart surgery. The doctors were going to elongate the pulmonary valve, but they realized that the valve itself wasn’t in good condition, so they had to replace it during surgery as well as reorganize some of the pulmonary branches.
            Andrews was doing well and healing fast. She got out of the hospital after a week and started running a mile a day. Two and a half months later, she had a pseudoaneurysm. Now, she has a mass in the center of her chest that causes her a lot of pain. She’s visiting doctors and pain management specialists to get that fixed.
          “We want her to live her life to the fullest as much as she can,” said Mrs. Andrews. “I don’t want this to hold her back.”
           Andrews doesn’t let her pain stand in the way of living life. She loves the Lord and wanted to serve him by going on a mission trip to Uganda even though she had just had open-heart surgery. 
           “I traveled two and a half months after I had open heart surgery because I’m an idiot,” said Andrews. “I don’t like to limit myself. I like to pretend that I’m normal and go as hard as possible.”  

                                                              Photo by Paul Andrews
Maddy posing for a picture with children she met during her mission trip to Uganda.

            Before Andrews decided to come to University of the Cumberlands, she was confident that she was going to get a full ride to a different college. About a week out of the hospital, she found out that she didn’t get it and was very frustrated. Andrews has always done very well in school and struggles with trying not to find her value in school and getting the highest test scores.
            “The Lord definitely closed that door,” said Andrews. “I remember being like, “Lord, I went through all of this for you. Is this not enough for you? I don’t understand why you wouldn’t give this to me.’ I am so, so glad that I ended up coming to Cumberlands. It was a big question of the Lord being like, ‘Are you going to trust me? Even when this doesn’t make sense and this isn’t your plan, but this is my plan.’”
            Andrews is sometimes frustrated with the difficulty she has because she’s very independent. She loves being outdoors hiking, backpacking, kayaking and doing other activities. She can’t hike as far as she would like and can’t carry the weight of a backpack. She also misses running. She has to watch what she puts into her body so she won’t have high blood pressure or plaque build up in her arteries.
            However, there are days when she understands why the Lord would cause this to happen to her and is okay with it. She firmly believes that the Lord could take it away from her if he wants to, but that there must be more glory in her having this difficulty than if she didn’t. 


                                  Photo by Annmarie Lake
Maddy and Sarah Beth Hunt after a hike to Dog Slaughter Falls.

            “As her roommate, I see her in a lot of pain and she doesn’t like to ask for help,” said Sarah Beth Hunt, Maddy’s roommate and friend from University of the Cumberlands. “That’s really hard, but she has a very strong faith. I see her trying to think of other things or read her Bible to overcome that. She understands that everything is going to be okay and everything happens for a reason.”
            Andrews wants to help others in any way she can, because she understands how short life can be. She realizes that she could have died and wants to use the rest of her life to help others reach their potential. 
            “A big part of my life is feeling very helpless and out of control,” said Andrews. “This [feeling] empowered me to really want to help people when they feel out of control. My desire is to empower them and let them know that they are important. I want people to know that they are loved and that their value comes from an incredible God. I understand that there is no guarantee and people have no idea that they are so loved. Why would I not share that?”
             Andrews hopes to accomplish this by working for a non-profit organization using her photography skills or doing micro financing. She would like to help widows who’ve never had the chance to be self-sufficient become so by helping them with their loans and starting their own business. She wants to help people out of poverty and not just give them things, but help them become self-sustaining. She would like to do this overseas, but isn’t sure whether a company would hire her with her medical issues.

            Since Andrews is so independent, she doesn’t like to be a burden to others. This summer she began to learn that people want to help her in a loving way and not because they pity her. She’s learning that letting other people help her doesn’t make her dependent, but lets them serve her.
            “Maddy’s not a very empathetic person,” said Ms. Andrews. “It doesn’t come natural. Within our family, she understands that her youngest sister has taken it really hard and really worries. [Maddy] goes out of her way to spend a little bit more time with her little sister to help explain things so that she feels in the loop. Her youngest sister has a real fear to lose Maddy. [Maddy] makes an effort to get some one on one time to talk her through things and help her know what she’s feeling.” 
             One of Andrews’ friends showed her the Bible verses, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 which says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
             “I firmly believe that the Lord caused that sternum wire to rip because it showed so much more that was wrong that they had no idea was wrong,” said Andrews. “If they had not known, then I probably would’ve been dead because I would’ve had a heart attack from my valve giving out. Now, there are days that are really, really hard and that don’t make sense. I rest in that the Lord is good and he is sovereign and that he has gotten me this far.”