A Year Already???

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRECIOUS HUNTER
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

The 1 year mark of our son's birth has come and gone...about an hour ago. Today we will face the daunting task of a Birthday Party. We all know that first birthdays are not as much for the kiddos, but for the parents who have survived! We will be joined by many of you who have chosen to come and celebrate Hunter's life and healing with us. :) We want this time to be blessed and a testiment to what God has done in Hunter's life over the past year. We are just praying that the weather cooperates for our picnic in the park!

Therapy has continued on it's course. So many times this year we have just had to wait...and be patient. For those that know me you are probably chuckling right now....patient??? Does she even know the meaning of the word?? Well, I must say that it's a lesson God has been teaching me for 12 months now!

"Slow is steady and steady is sweet."

That's something I've heard my Pastor say more than a million times. God taught him how to build a ministry on that principle and God is now teaching me how to build my faith on it. It's funny how God works sometimes. When Hunter was born and his little arm just hung limp at his side I would look at him and see an impossible situation. I couldn't fix it...my family couldn't fix it and at that point I sure didn't want the doctors to fix it b/c that would have meant surgery! So I turned to the only one I knew could.

At first it was like I was holding my breath, waiting for the next moment to see if that little arm would move. After a while I realized it wasn't happening any time soon and I had to just...wait. Ms. Marty had us doing all of these rotation exercises to keep the muscles supple and ready for the day those nerves started firing again. So it was the same thing every day, every diaper change, every morning when we woke and every night before we went to bed. We spent 45 minutes every thursday doing those stupid things. I began to wonder, "God, what are you doing? Where are you? Why is this taking so long? You ARE going to fix it, right?" Praise God that doubt never set in...I just had a major case of the "impatients".

See, in the midst of all that, one could have wondered if God was working at all. We never saw it move. There were no little progressions of movement that gave us any hope. Nothing. Not a lift or a bend or a stretch or anything. Then one day it happened, after an adjustment we went to therapy and he lifted his arm up. Not alot...nothing you probably would have even noticed right off. But we were watching...and we saw it. And then he did it again! And again!! 20% that time! As I've explained in an earlier blog...the excitement in the room was contagious. We were laughing and crying at the same time. It wasn't until quite a few weeks later that it hit me. God WAS doing something in that little arm of his all that time...we couldn't see it happening until it became evident when he lifted it up. Had we given up and had surgery to "fix it faster" we would have completely blown what God was doing in HIS timing. I'm telling ya...I'm bad at the world's math, but I'm even worse at God's...I can never figure his timing out!

See, there are times when we feel like God is not there. That he's not moving or working in our lives. So many times we run out and try to "fix it" by filling that spot with other things. But all God wants us to do is wait and be patient. Wait for Him to complete the work he's started in our situation and for the evidence of his presence to be made known. Just like Hunter's little arm...He's working in us ALL the time. And one day, if we've waited on Him, the evidence of that work will be right there for all to see.

I encourage you to wait on the Lord today. Seek His timing and His peace. Remember that slow is steady and steady is oh so sweet. And in time the evidence of His hand on your life will show. And everyone will laugh and cry and praise the Lord for what He has done...in you!!

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31