“Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid” (Psalm 23:4, NLT).
On the morning of May 11, 2012, I met
my son for the first time. He was the cutest little 8 pound bundle. He had
chubby little cheeks and was full of joy. Everything with mom and baby checked
out ok and we left the hospital. But the mountaintop would soon start it’s
decent into a valley and a big moment of courage and faith.
Two weeks later we would find ourselves
rushing our baby boy to the hospital after I found blood in his diaper. We
spent the afternoon at a local hospital and then he was transferred across town
to another hospital who could better serve him and us. It was found out that he
had a small flap of skin in the urethra that would open and close sometimes
fully blocking the urethra. This was causing the urine he was trying to pass to
be backed up in his bladder and kidneys - causing major damage almost to the
point of kidney failure. Upon the discovery of this they gave him a catheter
which pushed the flap of skin open and he showed significant improvement over
the next few hours and days. But this wasn’t the end.
After spending a few days at Memorial
Hospital, it was decided that he needed to go to Riley Children’s Hospital in
Indianapolis for further treatment. Once there, we found out that he would need
surgery to remove the flap of skin. The surgery seemed to take forever. But
finally it was over and was a success. He began to improve even more over the
course of the next 10 days. He was finally released to go home and what a great
relief it was to have him better, home and still with us.
He is now 6 years old and finishing up
kindergarten. He is so full of energy and life. I can’t wait to tell him more
of his story and how he is a blessing.
The 3 weeks told about in the story
above took a toll on life for myself and my wife. We had to have a lot courage,
strength, faith and love in order to make it through that valley. We couldn’t change
what was happening, but what we could change our thoughts about the situation.
I, myself, chose to believe from the start that my son was going to make it
through and be ok. But that took courage.
Walking through the valleys of life
takes courage. It takes courage for us to go through the valleys that we can
see coming and even more courage to walk through the ones that we didn’t see
coming.
God is in the valleys with you. He’s
there walking along right beside you. Choose to have courage in valleys and
make it through to the other side. Because on the other side of a valley is a
mountaintop and "bright, sunshiny days."[1]
________________________________
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The idea this series of posts "Clear" is based on the song "Clearly" by Grace Vanderwaal and the "Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Niebuhr.
[1] Songwriters: Chloe Angelides / Grace Vanderwaal / Ido Zmishlany / Johnny Nash / Mike Watters / Neil Ormandy
Clearly lyrics © Ultra Tunes, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
“Clearly” is available on Spotify and YouTube.
The idea this series of posts "Clear" is based on the song "Clearly" by Grace Vanderwaal and the "Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Niebuhr.
[1] Songwriters: Chloe Angelides / Grace Vanderwaal / Ido Zmishlany / Johnny Nash / Mike Watters / Neil Ormandy
Clearly lyrics © Ultra Tunes, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
“Clearly” is available on Spotify and YouTube.
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