A dear friend of mine emailed me a few days ago about a heart-wrenching health crises her family is going through because of an unknown disease her two-year-old is facing. It made me think about how I don't have a corner on stressful and sad in this world. There have been many of you who have been facing some really terrible and sad things in your lives, especially in the past few months.
I sent an email to my friend sharing some of my sentiments of the past 9 months and thought I would share some of it here. You see, the past few weeks Michael has been having some on and off days. Yes, he's doing great, but he's also not 100% either. So I'm constantly on edge, monitoring, wondering if everything is okay. Is it the 4 molars breaking through? Is it the constipation? Or is it the deadly brain cancer? I'm surprised I still have fingernails some days, that they aren't all bitten off.
Yes, the stress, the stress, the STRESS! It's so incredibly scary and stressful to not know what is going on with your child. Yes, indeed that is one the hardest parts is not knowing, no road map, or idea what you are facing.
It's so crazy how these medical terms become so much apart of your life and you learn the brain in and out. You try desperately to keep your family and life together. And feel like screaming out "I have a life, I don't have time for this type of stuff to happen, I have other kids and a husband and he works!"
And yet, there is so much good that comes from it all. The countless acts of kindness and service to our family. Even just the smallest acts of kindness from others mean the world to us. Some days I've just needed someone to come over and hold Michael for an hour as he will be so so sick but I need my arms and hands to wrap around my other three little ones or help practice piano or do homework or clean up messes or get dinner on the table. It's such a balancing act. The other thing the Lord keeps telling me is to get more sleep. It's so hard and there are many nights interrupted by worry, grief, and sorrow. But then the sun comes up in the morning and I feel so much better, like the sunrise is Heavenly Father's way of telling me everything is going to be okay, not perfect or maybe not the way I want things, but okay.
And probably the best advice we got when our world turned upside down was this: Liz, take care of Tim. Tim, take care of Liz. There are many people to take care of Michael, but only you can take care of each other. So we try to go out on a date whenever we can and spend a lot of time whenever we can talking, grieving, understanding, and processing together.
Hang in there everyone! You are known by our Heavenly Father, He has a plan for you and your family. Have faith that it will be okay. It will be, in some way, some how, it will be okay.
Thank you for your wise words of comfort, cheer and love. I also know that we are known by our names from our Heavenly Family. We are ever present to them. I am grateful to have this knowledge. The sunrise also gives me energy and is another reminder of "The Son" who is the source of ALL light, all comfort, all joy and all healing. You are awesome, thank you for sharing your thoughts today, reading them has been a blessing! xo
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