Unexpected friends

I love getting to tell people I have not one but three miracle babies.  Usually when I say that to someone that does not know our story I hear the all knowing, “Well of course they are”.  To which I quickly respond with, “No literally I have THREE miracle babies”.  That is mind blowing for me to think about.  For those that are not %100 percent sure what I mean let me recap for you.  Miracle number 1, due to the extensive amount of chemo Mark had we should not have ever conceived Adaline, much less had two more.  Miracle number two, I was in a car wreck that totaled my truck when I was 5 months pregnant with Maddox, in which my air bag did not deploy when it should have, sparing his life the first time.  Then if he had not been with my mother in law the day of his accident he would not have survived, as well as being one of the few children that our children’s hospital has seen to survive a drowning unimpaired like he did.  Then there is miracle number three our sweet Brylee.  We knew we were having complications with the pregnancy and were praying ultimately for safety for her, whether that meant being in or out of the womb.  To be frank the statistics of a child surviving an extensive intrauterine stroke are not good, so the fact that she is alive and with us after being born 9 weeks early and surviving a stroke is a miracle within itself.  Then there is the painful truth that if she had been admitted to Our Childrens House even a week or two after she was, her little body probably would have starved.  She showed no signs of it, and no one had any idea the dire shape that she was in at that point, but due to the counsel of a very wise pediatrician we got her in the best hands possible and her life was spared. 

 

Wow, can I tell you nothing will bring a stressed out tired mom to her knees faster than seeing biblical level miracles in her children.  I have been so beyond humbled this year as I have said in recent posts.  And not just from watching my children and their stories daily progress, but from the people we are surrounded with.  If there is one thing that has astounded me in all of this, it is that for so many of the families that I am around on a daily basis, no matter who tells their story, it is unbelievable to everyone else.  It is so easy when you are going through a valley, any valley, big or small, to tuck your head down and try to trudge forward.  The problem with that is, that when your head is down like that, all you can see is the road you have to walk down.  You can only see your trial and your valley.  Let me tell you friends if you have not already experienced that, it is a very dark and lonely place.  The single greatest gift I have been given in the last many months has been the other trials around me, because once I got to the point that I could fully lift my head up I became witness to a myriad of grace, mercy, compassion, and patience that I had not yet been privileged to see.  Please, please, do not hear me wrong in that I am just doing a happy dance about everything that has gone on and think it is all hunky dory.  It is not that, it’s just that when you are watching your child struggle with simple things on a day in day out basis, to get to rejoice little triumphs with someone else is a blessing.  Just the simple distraction is a blessing.  Just this last week we got to celebrate with one our sweet friends, who had a massive brain tumor that forced her to relearn how to do everything.  She finished her last radiation treatment and let me tell you it was a party.  There was another friend whose son was not supposed to survive until birth and now he is about to turn two and learning to walk.  It is amazing when you take your eyes off of your trial, how you can be filled and encouraged by being privileged enough to love on someone else in theirs.  Then you are also given even more people to help cheer you on through your valleys.  I can not even begin to describe to you the joy and emotion of a room of unexpected friends cheering for the most tedious of accomplishments. 

 

The biggest two lately for us have been that Brylee “discovered” rolling over.  Now she has had the skills to do this with some assistance for a month or two but roughly two weeks ago she voluntarily rolled over one side of her body and realized there was a purpose in it.  WooHoo!  Then there was her sitting for 6 seconds on her own!  Again small, small, itty, bitty, teeny, tiny steps, but HUGE milestones for her.  In the grand scheme of her over all life, these tasks are so small but to her they may as well be Mount Everest.  The joy in a room full of trials comes not with the “big” accomplishments, but the small ones.  I think in many ways sometimes the big accomplishments can be easier, because there is an immediate gratification in the result.  It is in the microscopic steps forward that I think you can see the miracle in the task at hand, because with each of those steps there is no big immediate result.  Those require an outlook that extends far beyond the here an now, into a goal that often times seems so out of reach. 

 

I thank the Lord every day for the privilege to be witness to His miracles and the comfort that is found when I remember, my children were designed for something so much greater than their trials.  A trial serves no purpose if it is only to tear us down without us being built back up stronger than before.  As a mom, I pray that my children learn how to face trials with grace, that they are able to hold their heads high looking straight ahead knowing who they will become, and the impact that they can have is so far beyond the battle in the present.