Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Lord is my strength

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
~Isaiah 40:28-31

This verse has been my security blanket for the last few weeks. Why, you may ask? Well, it's the same reason I haven't posted in a while.

Life has been difficult.

Back in December I posted that we were expecting again. It was a bit of a shock. Our youngest was one in January and Hubby is still unemployed. But we looked at it as a blessings and embraced the excitement of expecting another child.

And then my world fell apart.

The first week in February I went in for my 12 week OB check. The doctor and I chatted for a few minutes about how things were going and he told me everything looked great. Then he got out the doppler and...........

Nothing.

I tried to stay calm as he went out to get the ultrasound machine. "This happens all the time," I told myself, "He'll see the heartbeat with the ultrasound."

He checked with the external wand first and..............

Nothing.

I was shaking as I undressed to prepare for the internal wand, but I was still trying to convince myself that everything was fine.

After a few minutes with the internal wand, he looked at me and I knew. My precious baby had been taken to heaven.

Somehow I made it home to cry on my husband's shoulder. And then we faced the painful decision of what to do next. We decided to go with a D&C. It was scheduled for the following Monday morning (this was Wednesday evening). I spent the next few days in a daze desperately trying to come to terms with the fact that my baby was no longer living.

And then it happened.

Late Sunday night I miscarried. And hemorrhaged. Which resulted in an ambulance ride to the hospital and two units of blood. My grief got put on hold as I dealt with my medical emergency.

Now that I'm starting to feel better physically, I'm once again facing my grief. It hasn't been easy. But....the Lord is giving me strength and, slowly, peace.

And tonight.....comfort.

As I was sitting on my bed knitting, I was reminded of the verse:

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
~Psalm 139:13-16

And it reminded me of what some of my family members had said about God taking an incomplete fetus. As I thought on it some more, I looked at it from the perspective of a knitter.

"You knit me together in my mother's womb."


How many times had I ripped out rows, or even an entire project, because it wasn't quite right? I would imagine God is a perfectionist. If, as He was knitting my baby together in my womb, He looked at it and thought "this is not quite right", why wouldn't He "start over"? I would.

"But," you may say, "God is perfect, he doesn't make mistakes."

And I would agree with you wholeheartedly. But, while God is perfect, he is working with imperfect materials. I am a sinner. My husband is a sinner. And our baby, while it would seem perfect when born, is a sinner. Given that, I find it amazing that He can create a baby in the first place.

Think of it this way. As I said earlier, I'm a knitter. And I've gotten pretty good at it. Not an expert by any means, but I can follow a pattern and turn out something that looks good. However, if someone were to hand me a pair of chopsticks and a whole bunch of shoe laces (in different lengths and types) and tell me to create a sweater to be worn on the popular fashion runways in Paris, I would struggle. I could probably eventually come up with something, but I can't imagine how many times I would have to "start over" in the process.

So, as I said, it's amazing that God can create something as wonderful as a baby with the imperfect materials that he is given without having to "start over" many times first.

I am still sad to say goodbye to my baby. I wish I could have held him and told him how much I loved him. But I will take comfort in knowing that God is the Master Knitter and that He knew what was best for my baby. And I will trust, that when the timing is right and the stitches are "perfect", I will have another baby to hold.

Blessings,
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Monday, September 20, 2010

Boulders and other ramblings...

I'm way behind in the blog world right now. Not only have I not posted anything in a few weeks, I haven't read any posts either.

I also haven't been taking pictures {gasp!}.

We've gotten a little bit of school done, but not much. Overall, I feel like the last few weeks have just been a big blur. My husband has been working out of town and that's been very hard on me. I don't do well with my hubby being gone. I tend to get depressed.

It also doesn't help that last Tuesday I woke up at some horrible early hour of the morning in excruciating pain. I finally called my mom around 4 and had her take me to the emergency room. My dad came and sat with the older three kids and we took the baby with us. The diagnosis? Kidney stones. They sent me for a CT scan to verify. The scan came back that it wasn't kidney stones, but a kidney BOULDER! The scan showed it to be approximately 8mm (you can pass stones that are 6mm or less). Then after much confusion and many phone calls (and lots of pain pills!) I was scheduled for a procedure to have it taken out. That happened on Friday. I wont go into all the gory details of said procedure, but I will say that they have to leave a stint in for 5-7 days afterward. So, while the boulder is gone, I've still been having some discomfort due to the stint.

Thankfully hubby was home over the weekend, so I got to take it easy. He was very sweet and took care of me :o) He even went grocery shopping for me for the week!

But, alas, he has left again already. And, unless it rains, he wont be home again till Friday evening. I miss him already :-(

I need to get back into a routine, but that may need to wait till I can get this stint out (which I just found out isn't going to happen till Friday, ugg!). I was already planning on taking a short break from ECC to do some other things. We went to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum recently and my kids loved it! So we are going to do a short unit study (and lapbook) on Amelia Earhart. Then I'm going to do my best to put together another short unit study/lapbook on Hawaii.

Why Hawaii, you may ask? Well, that's the exciting part in all of this. Hubby's family is taking us to Hawaii in October!!! The kids are beside themselves with excitement (and in all honesty, so am I!). So, being the homeschool mom that I am, we are going to study up on Hawaii before we go :o)


Well, I think that's pretty much my last few days in a nutshell. Hopefully I will find my energy and motivation here soon. I need to get out of my PJ's, I've been in them for three days! I would appreciate any prayers you could send my way!

Blessings,
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Friday, January 16, 2009

Healthy Kids

I was thinking as I was getting ready to refill my soap dispensers (I use the Pampered Chef Foaming Soap Dispenser) that my family has escaped the usually "winter sickies" this year. We haven't had any flues and no colds. As I was contemplating that and wondering "why?" it occurred to me that it probably has a lot to do with essential oils. I have been encouraging hand washing a lot and I have added the essential oil, On Guard, to all of my soap dispensers. On Guard is an oil blend formulated by the company doTerra that is designed to support healthy immune function. I love the doTerra oils and firmly believe that they are helping me to keep my family as healthy as they have ever been. I encourage everyone to check them out.
 
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