Right now, three years ago, I was on the phone with my amazing lactation consultant who was walking me through a minute by minute situation for pumping and feeding Abby while in the hospital for her heart surgery. Three years ago. I can still remember it so well. Cynthia was a gift from God. She assuaged so many of my "practical"fears in that phone call. And soon after that, I remember heading to bed, my alarm set for 2am for Abby's last feeding. We needed to leave for the hospital at 4:30am so sleep was short.
In her jammies, 3 years ago, heading to bed, none the wiser...
What is so very cool to me now is that a virtual stranger to us at the time offered to give her blood to Abby for the surgery. This stranger became a friend and now, our daughters are very close friends. In fact, today they did ballet together (they are on either side of their pal, Emerson).
Isn't that amazing? That this person who blessed our lives through the gift of her blood has moved to our town and now our daughters, who had almost the same due date are BFFs? It's so cool how God moves and orchestrates all things, isn't it?
And while I've given these stats before, it seems appropriate to do it again...
-- Congenital Heart Defects are the #1 birth defect and the #1 cause of infant death related to birth defects.
--1 out of every 100-150 babies born will have a CHD. (1 out of every 800-1000 babies born has Downs Syndrome).
--In the US there are nearly twice as many deaths due to CHD than that of all forms of childhood cancers combined. Yet there is 5 times more research for pediatric cancer than for CHD.
--There are approximately 35 know Congenital Heart Defects.
--With advances in medicine, many of those born with CHD will have their first and sometimes only corrective surgery before age 2.
And here she is, the next morning waiting to go to surgery...
I wrote these words a week or so before surgery...
Now that we have a date on the calendar, my heart is flooded with hope! Many, many times during those months, I read Spurgeon's wise words :
"Who told you that the night would never end in day? Who told you that the sea of circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing left but long leagues of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told you that the winter of your discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow, and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Don't you know that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Then hope! Hope forever! For God will not fail you. Do you not know that your God loves you in the midst of all this?"
..........
Even now, three years later, I can't escape the goodness of God and the hope that he brought us then, and does now.
A few weeks ago, we went to Abby's yearly cardiology check up. I actually forgot to schedule it. Again. I did the same thing last year. It's just not on my radar anymore. I do not ever worry about her heart. And yet, leaving, just like last year, I was so convicted as I heard him say, "thing look good on the Echo... she has no restrictions" that I need to remain prayerful that her little heart continues to grow correctly and that everything keeps going well. It was a humbling reminder that we just don't know for certain what is going to happen in life. But do know life is precious. Oh, how we know this. Especially on anniversaries like this.
I think tomorrow she can have the biggest scoop of ice cream she's ever seen. Here's to happiness.
740. thinking back with joy
741. seeing God's sustaining hand
742. intimacy with God
743. treasuring our girl even on "not so good behavior" days
