Words of Encouragement & Prayer

First, I want to thank so many of you who responded to the last blog and the ones who read it and spoke with me at services this weekend. I am not kidding - there were people at every single service this weekend that came up and said they read the blog and wanted to let me know they were praying for us. I praise God for setting people in my life path to fill me with encouragement right when it is needed.

Last week was one of the hardest on our marriage that I can remember. We have been together for 16 years and married almost 10 years now. As I shared last time so many changes in our recent years have tested not only our faith in God but our unity as couple. Financial strains will always rank as a highly common ground for marital stress. When you combine that with the unknowns of your baby child's health it starts to compound the tension. Not to mention all the other "stuff" that we are going through. Katherine had what many would call a 'meltdown' on Thursday near lunchtime. Of course I was in our weekly staff meeting and she tried calling me like 8 times. Funny thing was I really needed that worship time at staff as I sat on the floor against the back wall of the auditorium and just starting crying uncontrollably. I read and sang the words "he gives and he takes away". (Thank you Chris for being there for me; I really appreciate your friendship and your encouragement really lifted my spirit.)

So as I began to gather myself I happen to reach for my phone to turn it off 'silent' mode. I see that Katherine is calling in and she sounds terrible. It's only the 3rd time she's ever called me at work in 16 years and said please come home now because I really need you (the other 2 times were when she went into labor). I immediately spoke to John and told him I needed to go. He was so supportive.

When I got home Luke was fussy, Isabella was sad and Katherine looked really torn up. She was on the phone with her mom so I left her alone and hung out with the kids. Isabella tells me that Mommy has been sad all day and crying lots. It is all so emotionally draining. So Isabella and I comforted Luke and he went to sleep. Then we went into the living room and kneeled on the floor together. I said to her, " Isabella, what do you think we should do for Mommy?" She replied, "let's pray to Jesus to help her, Dad." So we prayed there together. She said things that amazed me. I knew God was working through her. Her words encouraged me. As much as I love my son, my wife and daughter mean everything to me. Isabella is Daddy's little girl for sure. When Katherine got off the phone we all prayed together. That was a turning point.



Again, her day was filled with phone call after phone call with insurance companies and scheduling doctor appointments. The best thing that happened was we were able to get Luke's Cat Scan scheduled sooner. It is now on Wed May 16th around 10:30 at Doernbecker's Children's Hospital. The teams of people serving patients there are amazing. So, please be praying for Luke's CT Scan on Wednesday. They will need to sedate him for the Scan. That scares me since we don't know how he will react to the medication.

As for what we will find out, we will get 2 things out of the test: 1) we will get to see the cochlea area within the inner ear; this will help doctor's with learning more about what is causing his hearing loss. 2) they will determine if he has synostosis and what it would take to repair.

We did get Luke's hearing aids fitted on Friday. Soon you will see the coolest 6 month old with blue hearing aids!

I will keep you all posted after Wednesday's CT Scan. I really want to thank a few people who just helped lift Katherine and me this past weekend. Some were via personal email, some in face to face conversation, some in prayer. Anyway - thank you for your words of encouragement and prayer: Eric D, Mahoneys, 2nd "G" Gene, Chris and Don, Amelia, Mark, Kathy, Jolene, Jimi, Chris and Heather, Teri and Jim, Marge, Cheryl and Mark, John and Natalie, Steve and Shellie, our entire Lifegroup, Chuck and Rhonda, so many from Sunday evening service and Matt. I am sure there are many other, just a few that hit my head as I was typing.

As I prepare my sermon for next Sunday I found God's humor in that John asked that is be on "Endurance". God allows us to walk through the experience so we can share our stories. I look forward to sharing next weekend. In the meantime my focus is on Katherine, Isabella and Luke.

Thank you Sunday nighters for all your support. I will rest in HIS embrace everyday this week.

George