I Thank God For Everything!

I was born at a very early age, seriously I was born 3 months premature, I was born on my brother Joey’s ninth birthday in my parents home that they still live in today,

I grew up in a very violent home that was riddled with drugs, crime, and severe alcoholism. I was personally introduced to drugs and alcohol at the age of nine years old; I was drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana daily, taking acid and mescaline, as well as sniffing and smoking cocaine almost every weekend by the time I was in junior high school. Needless to say my childhood didn’t start off very well and I was always getting into trouble, looking to fit in, and doing many juvenile things trying to be accepted. This behavior left me at a major disadvantage because I truly didn’t like myself, so how could I ever feel as if I could fit in with anyone?, even if you truly did like me, I didn’t believe you and would sabotage that relationship.

At the age of 13 years old I was already in major trouble with the law, and school, and was a full blown drug addict and alcoholic. I ended up in Alcoholics Anonymous, therapy, and countless court intervention programs that attempted to aid me with my problems, but all the help in the world couldn’t help me, for I was helpless. Over the next 11 years I went in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, jail, and I also went to a church and was baptised at the age of 22, looking back I can see how my entire life was protected and how I was drawn to God and to Jesus in particular from as far back as I could remember. Now, A.A & N.A. spoke of a God, but it was never a personal God that I felt as Jesus spoke to me.

On October 10th, 1999; I was released from the Nassau County Correctional Facility in East Meadow after beating a felony exam and immediately started to proceed with criminal activity. Over the last 11 years I became a criminal that thought manufacturing and selling marijuana was a legitimate business as well as flipping anything (whether legal or not) that could turn a profit. My entire life was about fulfilling my needs; (financially,emotionally, & sexually) and I did whatever it took to ensure that I was going to meet those needs. Upon my release from the Nassau County Correctional Facility, I attempted to restart my Marijuana distribution business and I had come up with yet another scam to meet my needs. Here is an overview of the situation that I was in; the federal government had just shut down our indoor marijuana grow operation and that was why the retail distribution routes were not operational. I was attempting while everyone in my operation was out of jail on bail awaiting trial to restart the distribution routes on my own while I had my own unrelated legal problems going on.

The very next day upon my release I was booked on a flight to Albuquerque New Mexico and was not going to get drunk or high anymore because I knew that drugs and alcohol were a major problem for me. The reason that I was going on this trip was to go and purchase 10 pounds of marijuana so I could restart my marijuana distribution ring. Well, the girl that was going to help me in New Mexico asked me to pick her up heroin before I left New York and when I did that for her I also purchased a pocket full of crack and marijuana for me. Well, I did all the drugs before I landed in New Mexico and proceeded to get drunk and high after I landed. As it turns out she did not have the connections that she told me she had before I left New York to purchase the amount of marijuana that I needed so I went into the inner city neighborhoods and attempted to create my own connection.

The drug deal did not go very well, I was discussing the price of purchasing 10 pounds of marijuana from them while trying to setup an ongoing connection so I could start an interstate drug trafficking ring. As it turned out they had different plans, as I was standing there with them and my friend; (It was 8 or 9 of them, me and my female friend), with that I was hit across the mouth with a handgun. A fight broke out when I was hit and I immediately started fighting and hit one of there guys and an all out war broke out, I pushed her and told her to run while they were jumping me - while she was running away I was fighting with them and they were hitting me in the face and head with bats, guns, rocks, and pipes from what she latter told me.

I remember them smashing me in my face and head and me throwing half of the money on me into the air, and as they ran after the money I took off down the road. I can also remember banging on this lady's door and asking her to call me a taxi to the university of New Mexico because thats is near where my friend lived. With that she pulled up in an SUV with some guy she flagged down and they got me into the car. Well, the guy threw us out at the nearest gas station because I was bleeding all over his truck. At the gas station, I went inside and purchased a beer and I told my friend to call us a cab, she was freaking out because I was covered from head to toe in blood, I was wearing an adidas warm up exercise suit which was black and stuck to my body in red blood. I remember passing out and can vaguely remember the ambulance driver cutting my clothes off of me and a tube going down my throat, but I do not remember anything else until the nurse is the hospital was asking me where are you?

I responded New York as loud as I could because I was looking at my parents on the edge of my bed. I was pretty agitated and was trying to get out of the bed and all the nurses rushed in to hold me down because I started freaking out. All I can remember was them holding me down and saying Mr. Donovan we regret to inform you that you have had 4 brain surgeries and your vocal cords were severed and you will never walk or talk again. All I did was immediately start to thank God, over and over all I said was Thank You Jesus, Thank You Jesus - It was almost instantly that I knew that I was going to be okay.

I found out shortly after I woke up that I was in a coma for 40 days amd that I woke up the morning after all of the church members were praying and held prayer vigils in their homes all night for me, the power of prayer is amazing and it really works. I was released from that hospital in a wheelchair and told I was never going to function as a normal person again, I had 4 brain surgeries, a 40 day coma, vocal cords were severed, one third of my brain was removed. I was sent to a rehab to learn how to function as a person with disabilities and limited mobility and was released from there in two weeks and sent home. Upon being released from there I started to go to Alcoholics Anonymous again and was contacted by the District Attorney and told that I had to turn myself in for a charge that they had against me. I turned myself in and continued to thank God for everything, my health, my legal situation and simply said Jesus whatever you want from me I will do and wouldn’t you know it, my initial offer of 10 years in prison turned out to be five and a half months and that is where I actually learned how to walk and talk again. The story is so dramatic and blows my mind of how God maneuvered all of the elements of my injuries, my legal situation and used my prison sentence to heal me not only to what I was before but to better. God not only restored me but He Renewed me and made me whole!

I would love to tell you that I was the best christian that ever walked the earth since then but that is not my story; however, what is my story is that He has used every mistake since then to get me to the very place where I am today, with the very people that I am with today. Each day is a day that I get to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Each and everyday I get to experience the amazing grace of our Lord. A renewed spirit, the forgiveness of my sins, and the encouraging prod that the still small voice gives me to press forward.

All I Can Say Is
Romans 8:28

Tom Donovan