Anointed

For all of you who don’t know- we are home, and have been home since the 13^th! Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this update out. I never know when I will have time to sit, let alone sit and try and put some thoughts together.  Between appointments, work, and enjoying the kids it’s busyness as usual, and since coming home, we are even more keenly aware of how grateful we are to have our normal, busy days.

Part of our busyness included Meghan’s second appointment at the wheelchair clinic! She was able to get in a power wheelchair for the first time and try it out. She did great! It was a lot of work for her, and she really has to work hard to sit up for an extended period of time, as well as move her neck and head to operate the chair. BUT, she showed signs of understanding the cause and effect of being in the chair which is a really big step in her being able to use one independently. It’s so funny how at one point I might have looked at a wheelchair as something difficult to deal with. Upon receiving the “hydro” diagnosis most people are very concerned about whether their child may or may not be in a wheelchair, or be able to walk- I know we were at first. Now, all I see is opportunity and excitement and independence for my little girl.

 It’s taken a couple weeks to process all that happened during that week, and settle back in to our routine. This was the first time since Meghan’s shunt failure last year that we have faced the unexpected, and were suddenly reminded once again that we are not in control. After 3 days of testing, and antibiotics that should have eradicated any causative bacteria she continued to spike high fevers, without any other symptoms to suggest a viral illness. All of her lab work was pointing to a bacterial source of the fever, and the Infectious disease specialists were “stumped”, and concerned that she was not improving. We have always trusted that God is in control of Meghan’s life, but we also know that He desires for us to be active participants in believing that He is capable of doing “immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine”. James 5:14 instructs:

 “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.”

So we did just that. We called our pastor, who came along with one of the elders from our church, and we gathered around her delicate, feverish little body and in obedience offered prayer for healing, as our pastor anointed Meghan with oil. Placing our trust in the one who never fails, we prayed, and waited expectantly.

I put a lot of faith in “medicine”, and I want the answers to be black and white, to arrive at a diagnosis, and even if there isn’t a medicine that can “fix” it I at least want know the reason for the suffering. There’s control in knowing the answer, and security in that knowledge. But this time, there were no answers. There are a million explanations for why Meghan could have started to get better that night. The doctors can’t agree on what caused her illness, or what caused her to get better. I choose to believe it was the Lord’s way of teaching us that in accordance with His will, belief leads to faith, faith leads to obedience, and obedience leads to blessing- this time that blessing was in the form of answered prayer for healing.  At other times, it seems it’s the difficult experiences in our lives that end up being blessings in disguise, when we look back and see how we were carefully brought through them. Perhaps God allowed Meghan’s illness because it the end, my faith was increased because of it.

           

And maybe, just maybe, yours was too.

Thinking about it!

Contemplating her first wheelie.

Dream night at the zoo. A night out for kids with special needs and their families. Hands down, one of the most fun nights I have ever had. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo did an amazing job of making this a very special evening for everyone.

Catching some pool time!

The music therapist at Childrens. She was amazing, and after some silliness, she sang Meghan to sleep.  We were so grateful she visited us!

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:5