All too Familiar

As I pulled out of Texas Children's on Monday (more on this tomorrow), I had this strong feeling of this all becoming too familiar. I clearly remember our first appointment, thinking that this was a one time thing. We had no idea where we were going, where to park, or how to find the office. We would be told that he had GERD, maybe have his formula changed, and be on our way. How wrong I was! Now I know it all to well, as I am sure many parents feel. I don't need my GPS to get there anymore. I don't need the police on the corner to tell me where to go and park. I know the process for valet parking. I actually recognize the men who park my car and help me with my stroller. I have become an expert at parking an SUV in a parking garage not made for anything much larger than a Mini Cooper (cause who can valet all the time? :) ) I know where the vampire's nest is (read lab where his blood is drawn), where the McDonalds is and of course where to find Chick-fil-a. I know when my caller ID says, "Unknown" that it is the B's doctor. I know things about that hospital that I honestly never imagined I would know. And yet, I still don't know as much as many parents there. You look around the hospital, and there are so many children all there for various reasons, and you wonder where the parents get there strength. I honestly don't know how anyone can endure watching there child go through test after test, or treatment after treatment, or transfusion after transfusion, without a relationship with God. Many people have asked me how I still have any energy left, how I function with now months of no sleep and many stressors? And really, the only thing I know is that it is a God thing. God has given me peace that passes all understanding while we wait for a diagnosis. He has given me strength. Now don't get me wrong, there are moments where I do feel overwhelmed, but I know that He has loves me as far as the east is from the west and takes care of me and my family. And I thank Him for that...all of it, really.

So many other things have become all too familiar over the last five months...waking up at night to feed a baby, waking up at night too hold a baby and never return to sleep, pharmacies, spit up, doctor's offices, the smell of formula, the even better smell of spit up formula, recording medicines, recording feedings, size 1 diapers...

Please pray that we are able to keep on going in a medical world that is becoming all too familiar.

"His eye is on the sparrow... and I know He watches me." Matthew 10:29-31