Eggs with a side of manna

After a few days in the ICU we began seeing God answer prayers just as fast as I could send out the requests.  Erin kept spiking temps as high as 103, and she would feel like trash during those periods of the day.  We prayed that they would just go away since there was no obvious source.  Well, the next day her fevers started going down.  Erin's white blood cells at one time were 28 (pretty high) and we prayed that they would go back down to normal.  It did.  She had an ultrasound of her heart that showed it was pumping only half as strong as it should.  We prayed.  Five days later they repeated the ultrasound and her heart function had returned to normal.  At one time the doctors were worried that her hormones and pituitary gland would be permanently effected from her episodes of extremely low blood pressure.  After some prayer and testing everything checked out ok.  There were many more ups and downs during our hospital stay, but with each of these answers to prayer we began erecting piles of stones...Ebenezers that reminded us of God's faithfulness.  Then, during the dark times of feeling depressed and like Erin would never get better we would just remind ourselves of how God had been faithful thus far.  

Through all this, I began to understand how the Isrealites doubted God so much while they were traveling to the promised land.  The book of Exodus details all the miraculous ways God revealed himself to the Isrealies and how He provided for them during there journey from Egypt to the promised land.  I'm sure this was a pretty stressful time and the entire Jewish nation's faith was stretched to the max.  I mean, at some points they didn't even know where their next meal was going to come from.  Death loomed close, they were extremely vulnerable, and the end of the journey was far in the distance.  God did provide for the Isrealites needs (manna and quail from heaven) and answer their cries for help, but soon after they would lose faith and begin to worry about the next hurdle ahead of them (.  It was the exact same for us.  Our faith was stretched to the max, death loomed close, we were vulnerable, and the end of the journey remains far in the distance.  God did provide for us, yet we were so forgetful that we let worry creep in and we would forget to trust in God.  My medical brain made this worse.  I could always think of some catastrophic complication to worry about.  We continue to struggle with this, but remembering what He has brought us through keeps things in perspective.  God is good.  His ways are good.  His plans are greater than our plans.  Don't lose faith. Don't lose sight of the promised land. 

After the first week in the ICU Erin began to do the everyday things that you and I take for granted.  She ate eggs and toast for breakfast, and we would take walks together in the hallway.  The walks were very slow walks, trying to keep her butt from showing out of the back of the gown.  I wrote an email encouraging everyone to go for a walk with his/her spouse that day.  I still encourage you to cherish each other and the health that you both have.  At one point that week Erin told me that she was bored.  That was a huge milestone.  No grass grows under Erin's feet, and this was a sign that she was still the same Erin I married seven years ago.  

Erin officially "got out of the woods” that week.  Unlike the last 3 patients with this problem at our hospital, she lived.  This is only a testimony to God’s grace, mercy and divine plans.  However, in order to get back to our house from the woods we had to continue on that long road to recovery.  My biggest prayer request had been (and still is) that there will be NO LASTING EFFECTS of this whole ordeal, only memories and a scar.  I pray that one year from now Erin will be back to her pre-pregnancy weight running in the Riverbank run, and celebrating her health. 

Psalm 40

 ¹ I waited patiently for the LORD; 
   he turned to me and heard my cry. 
² He lifted me out of the slimy pit, 
   out of the mud and mire; 
he set my feet on a rock 
   and gave me a firm place to stand. 
³ He put a new song in my mouth, 
   a hymn of praise to our God. 
Many will see and fear the LORD 
   and put their trust in him.

 ⁴ Blessed is the one 
   who trusts in the LORD, 
who does not look to the proud, 
   to those who turn aside to false gods.^[b] 
5 Many, LORD my God, 
   are the wonders you have done, 
   the things you planned for us. 
None can compare with you; 
   were I to speak and tell of your deeds, 
   they would be too many to declare.