Every day is a gift

Today I would like to tell you about my son.

He turned two at the end of April this year and he is just as you can imagine, full of life and energy, curious about everything two year old little boy.

He wasn't always like this though.

He was our surprise. My children are 13 months apart and my son was not planned. I cried for weeks and weeks when I found out he was coming. I'm not happy about this secret but God makes beautiful things from our past, and he made something beautiful in our relationship.
He came out sick. He couldn't keep any thing down, he wasn't growing and no one would help us. Our daughter was the "easy one" she ate everything we set in front of her and wanted more. He wouldn't eat anything and never wanted to eat. When we could get him to eat he would throw it all up in a rocket across the room type way and then scream for hours on end. This put a strain on my husband and I and made the feeling of contempt for him even stronger in my heart. I resented this little blessing for interrupting our happy, our normal.

Moving forward, when he was 3 months old during a normal baby check-up a nurse commented on how little he was and asked about his eating habits. When we explained he didn't have any eating habits she told us to try soy. It turns out my little boy was lactose intolerant, completely allergic to any and all dairy products. After we switched he was a completely different baby, he laughed and smiled and cooed at us, he started growing!

During the next baby check-up he was sick with a cold and they x-rayed his chest. That day our world fell apart all over again. Enlarged heart. Those two words gave me nightmares. For the next 2 months we were in and out of children's mercy hospital where I watched them poke and prod my little boy. They did test after test that should have been reserved for much older adults not my 4 month old baby.

My heart broke for him, I thought I was being punished for my lack of love toward this little boy and I begged and pleaded with God to let him be ok, that I would love him and that I would get right with Him if he would just let my baby be ok. 2 months later a break, we finally saw an actual heart doctor and she said he was completely fine, it was a sack around his heart all babies have.

Thank You Jesus.

During all of this he was in and out of the regular doctors for ear infections. He was still behind in growth and he wasn't talking any more. He cried more, he didn't move hardly at all and the older he got the quieter he got. Tubes. They were now talking about doing surgery on him. To help his ears drain. Dear God why are we going through this, I don't understand. I was going to Church again and starting a relationship with God by the time they mentioned surgery so I prayed, and prayed and prayed. I took him to church one night and had my sweet sisters pray over him and we finally got some relief. God healed him. I know without a doubt it was Him. We went for another check-up and his ears were completely clear. He was behind in his speech and still a little behind in his growth but after 7 months of speech therapy, he can talk as much as any 2 year old little boy. He's learning and still grunts for some things but he's determined to learn, and his momma is determined to teach.

Thank you Lord for my son, he is a blessing and our trials with him have made me more grateful for our time together. I just want to let you know there is hope for momma's with sick children, God hears and God sees. I'm so grateful he doesn't have any heart problems and his ears are better. He does still have his dairy allergy but I'll take that over heart problems any day. (smiles)