Late Update

First, let me say sorry for the late update. Tammy has been at the hospital constantly and I feel victim to the stomach bug Andrew had last week. I was in the bed all day yesterday, unable to move my head from the pillow. However, I am much better today!! Yesterday's surgery went well, and everything was completed to satisfaction. Last night, well, that is a much different story.

About 10pm, Elijah had another 'episode', as we so fondly call them. However, this time, it was the worst one yet. Tammy had just put him on his bed, and he began to turn blue. A few moments later, they had to push the code button, yet again, as he was not responding. At all. He was foaming at the mouth and his eyes were fixed. She said she felt he might not make it... Boy, that is hard to type!!! They had to bag him and do chest compressions, as he had no pulse. Thank God, he came out of it fairly quickly, and did not have to be intubated. He was moved to the PICU unit overnight for observation and remains there. If we have a good evening, he will likely move back to the floor tomorrow.

He is doing much better today. Praise the Lord!! We feel like he was in a bunch of pain last night, and he could not manage his secretions, which caused him to begin choking. They had a hard time getting the suction going, so he basically stopped breathing. Unfortunately, with him, seconds are all it takes for him to shut down. We are truly thankful that God was, yet again, watching over Elijah. Again, we know he truly has a special plan for him. Honestly though, we are getting kinda tired of seeing these 'episodes'!!! God is in control, but it is extremely tough to see this happen. Honestly, the toughest thing we have ever been through. But, we know he is in the Master's hand. No doubts.

Please, lift us up as we are undoubtedly shaken by this. However, we are truly grateful that God has, once again, saved our child. Our miracle child. Dr. Hess continues to reassure us that he will grow out of this stuff. We believe that, but boy does it seem like it will take forever. Honestly, not much of this whole experience would I want to give up, but I could do with less of the blue spells. Alas, we believe now more than ever that God has a great, master plan, and we are doing our best to find where we need to respond in obedience.

I read an awesome devotional the other day regarding Moses. It was basically saying that he had everything. The nicest of things, due to him being royalty in Egypt. That all changed when he killed the Egyptian for beating the Hebrew. Moses literally ran for his life, because Pharoah had found out about his actions. He fled to Midian where he literally was emptied of every selfish desire he had left. That took 40 years of his life. Basically, the devotion said, sometimes we have to be stripped of everything that we have and are to get to the place God wants us to be. Honestly, I feel we have been. We now realize that things do not matter. Of course, that is a lesson we have been learning very well over the last year or so, but we now see it more than ever. I truly believe obedience to God is our most important task as a Christian. If we truly obey His every Word, deed, command.... Then things just seem to fall where they need to. Or where He so desires. Look at Moses. He had the ability to become a great ruler of Egypt. He had tremendous power, even the power to one day free the Hebrew slaves. But God choose him to wander in Midian for 40 years of his life. Why? Because, no doubt, if Moses had freed the slaves as a Egyptian ruler, he no doubt would have done it his way. Or, at the very least, taken the credit. But because he was stripped of everything, completely broken, with nothing of himself left, he was available and pliable in the hand of God. God could use Moses as He had planned, because Moses was broken, his selfishness and self centeredness was ripped out.

By no means would I say we are Moses. Sometimes I do feel like we have been wandering for 40 years as "strangers in a foreign land". I do know the people here talk funny!! But, I do feel we are having our selfishness and self-centeredness stripped from us. One trying episode at a time. And I truly pray that once we get to the other side, we will be pliable and usable in the hands of an Almighty God, who truly has a plan and a purpose for our lives.

May God bless your day. And may you be a blessing to Him! That is what really matters.