We also had our first home interview with our social worker last week. She is so sweet! Isn't the bond between Christian brothers and sisters amazing?!? She was family before she walked through our door. ;) Our interview mostly covered the topics of our marriage and our children, and we also did a safety walkthrough of our home. Our next interviews will be done individually with our social worker, and they will be based off our autobiographies which we are busy writing. I've answered about half the questions so far, and mine is over 11 pages typed. I hope she likes to read! ;) What a fruitful exercise that has been for me, though. It has given me opportunity to recount the blessings I've received from God, as well as praise Him for the trials which have come through His hands that have shaped my character and prepared me for the work He is calling me to.
During our home interview, our social worker seemed a little surprised and very excited about our "experience" in terms of dealing with ill children. It seems clear that God has prepared us to adopt a child with medical special needs. From the time our first child Sydney was born, we have experienced many an illness with our children. Sydney was born with jaundice, which is fairly common and of which I was already familiar. Sure, I didn't like taking my baby to get pricked in the heal daily or have her wrapped in blue lights all day - but this was no big deal. She also had a very a large hematoma on her head, due to a very traumatic delivery. It was amazing to watch that heal as quickly as it did - praise God, our marvelous Creator! At 3 weeks old, Sydney was admitted to a children's hospital for a high fever. She was vomiting, inconsolable, would not nurse and had a temperature of almost 104 degrees. We were at the hospital for a full week, undergoing countless tests (including an excrutiating spinal tap) and praying over our very sick baby. After the doctors determined that it was a stomach virus and she began to improve, we were sent home. A week or so later, our baby was clearly having trouble breathing. She seemed stuffy and began wheezing. We took her to our pediatrician, and she tested positive for RSV. Her oxygen level was concerning, but our amazing pediatrician agreed to keep her out of the hospital as long as we were willing to bring her in once or twice a day to see her. The next six weeks were filled with breathing treatments on the nebulizer every 4-6 hours and trying to get her to eat enough. It was survival mode for these new parents. Sydney pulled through, and our hearts were filled with thankfulness. Since then, poor Syd has been to almost every kind of specialist you can imagine. Our poor baby has had such a rough start - heart murmur, allergy to dairy and soy, pneumonia twice, scarlet fever, roseola, strep throat twice, sleep apnea (and resulting behavior issues), surgery to remove her very enlarged tonsils and adenoids, severe seasonal allergies and related allergy shots, etc. I have to tell you, it's been quite the ride!
Our son Brody has not had as many medical issues, though he has also had some. He was born with a tongue tie and had trouble nursing, so he had a frenectomy when he was a few days old. Again, amazing to see how God designed our bodies to heal so quickly. He was also born with hip dysplasia, so we made many trips to the pediatric orthopedic doc. Brody soon became one of those babies who never seemed to stop screaming - clearly he was in immense pain...especially shortly after nursing. I could not drive anywhere, because the car seat especially aggravated his condition. He could not lay flat to sleep at night. We soon determined that he had GERD and a sensitivity to dairy. Brody also has a significant astigmatism in both of his eyes, requiring him to start wearing glasses at age 2. He's all the cuter for it, in my opinion! ;)
There has been nothing smooth or easy about having children for Josh and I, though I know other families have experienced trials much more severe with their little ones. We understand what it is like to have sick children and what it is like to lose a baby; but we have also been so utterly blessed to have a supportive, loving family and church families to surround us with prayer and practical help over the years. Grandparents flying to wherever we lived, church family praying and bringing us meals, and wonderful, amazing medical professionals - some of who also showered us with prayer. And, oh, what a blessing these little ones have been to us! My kids crack me up everyday, and they cause me to praise God. They are greatly responsible for these blistered knees, and God uses them to teach me often. On this side of the struggles, we can clearly see God's goodness in preparing us for His purpose and plan for our lives. In our weakness, He has been our strength and our joy. We have prayed and continue to pray for our idols to be crushed and for our lives to display His glory. Following Jesus is so much more than sitting in a pew on Sunday. We desire for our lives to be an anthem of worship to our God. God has used our trials to clear the stage of our hearts - our hearts have been stirred, rocked and broken. I'm embedding a video below about this very thing from one of my favorite musicians, Jimmy Needham. It's worth your time, trust me.
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:1-5 ESV)
We may not always understand our struggles, but if you are in Christ, you can have confidence that He will use them for His glory and for your good (Romans 8:28)! And we have the promise of His strength in the midst of the trials - read Philippians 4:13 and understand the context of this verse. We can ENDURE all things through Christ who gives us strength!
