Okay, so life has just been a little crazy. I have heard from some of you that you wondered if I was ever going to get to my blog again. :-) Well, I am back. Unfortunately, we had a lot of sickness at the beginning of the year here. It actually started with Olivia while in SC. I got something when we came home that lasted for almost two weeks, and then poor little Emma got it worst of all this past week. She has never had something wipe her out like that in her life. Two Sundays ago I took her to Urgent Care in the morning and found out she had acute bronchitis that just came on pretty suddenly the day before. We got her on an antibiotic, but her fevers were still going over 103 degrees at times. She would hardly eat anything either. She had to have lost a bit of weight last week. Finally her fevers were gone after a few days, but her cough seemed worse. :-( We were up every night from Sat. until this past Fri. night with her during these "episodes." Thankfully they realized she was probably having reactionary asthma with this and put her on an inhaler and then a prescription cough med. with Codine. That started to help better than anything over the counter. This past Sat. night, she finally didn't need any meds of any kind and slept well all night. Yesterday she was finally able to go out for church and do well. Praise the Lord! She missed a whole week of school last week, but Kris kept bringing papers home from her teacher, and we got them done here. Whew! I am so glad she is feeling better. I must say, although it was hard to see her so miserable last week, I had some really precious times with her. I haven't held her like that (all curled up on me for long periods of time) or had so much snuggle time every day since she was itty bitty. I'll take those moments!
I've been reminded a lot about life and it's tough times but how we have an amazing God, Who is always doing things for our good and working to conform us to His image. These sicknesses we've had are just little bumps in the road, nuisances really. In the past month I have had a friend lose a baby in her second trimester, had my friend, Laura, who I have requested prayer for in the loss of her daughter, Lindsey, lose her father to cancer just two weeks ago (it was found just before Thanksgiving and just weeks after Lindsey died), had my Aunt Carolyn struggling while going through chemo out in AZ, heard recently of other extended family members in and out of the hospital, and been reminded of how much we miss Kris' mom. His sister, Karmen did a tribute to her on her blog. On Jan. 30, Mom would have been 64 yrs. old. She died just five days before her birthday seven yrs. ago.
Kris just got a book by John Piper in the mail. It is entitled When the Darkness Will Not Lift. On the back of the book it says, "It is utterly crucial that in our darkness we affirm the wise, strong hand of God to hold us, even when we have no strength to hold Him." I have gone through most of the book. He addresses Psalm 40 in the beginning as well as Psalm 30:5. So many other passages of scripture are given in the book to remind us that it is not in us to be able to make it through the struggle. We have to look to God and trust Him with no reservations. I definitely recommend the book. I also have been encouraged in reading the book of I Peter lately. Talk about reading of struggles. Again, the answer is God! A song that has gone through my head regularly through all of this in the last month is "By the Gentle Waters" by Cindy Berry. I guess it is against copyright to put the words on here, and I can't seem to get a link for you on the internet, but it is based on Psalm 23 and has been a favorite of Kris' and mine to sing together. It talks of God's leading us through life, whether it be calm or "rough and rugged," the rest that God gives us and will offer even if we've gone astray and will turn back to Him, His leading "til I'm safely home," etc. I am so glad we serve the God of all comfort as II Cor. 1 states and that His grace is sufficient as found later in II Cor. 12:9.
Well, these are some of the thoughts that have most been on my mind lately. I have much more I'd like to post about, so we'll see what I can get to.
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