Sunday, March 3, 2013

HOPE UPDATE continued


Hello dear praying friends and family! I have a few posts I'm going to try to do tonight! Let me start with one addition to the last LONG update that I forgot to mention. . . Hope's progressing and severe scoliosis! Please keep this in prayer as well!
Hope saw an orthopedic surgeon in January and now will be followed by that clinic as well. Her severity of scoliosis was called a Level 1. Her back is dramatically shaped like an "S" from neck to pelvis. It twists her whole ribcage, pulling one side of her ribs forward and folds that side of her ribs into her pelvis. It also twists her pelvis up and back on one side, causing one of her legs to be shorter than the other. Walking with this severity of scoliosis would be next to impossible with Hope's already existing obstacles. It greatly affects her ability to balance even just for sitting by herself, which she is unable to do currently. 

The orthopedic surgeon was very determined to impress on us the nature of this scoliosis. . . it is due to her brain injury and it will NEVER get better. . . it will only get worse. Eventually they will need to do surgery on her back and fuze her spine from the neck down. The good news is that, although she is horribly bent out of shape, she is still very flexible and so this surgery will not occur right away. They will continue to follow her and assess when it will be necessary. He also emphasized that there is NOTHING that we can do to make it better. It is what it is and will only get worse was the message he repeated several times to be sure we understood and did not put "false hope" in any options to improve her posture.


How's this for flexibility?


Hmmmm. . . does not sound good, eh! But what a different perspective and hope we can have with our sovereign all-powerful God over every tiny detail of our lives! We know without a doubt, that our God can heal our sweet girl in a second of not only her scoliosis, but every aspect of her severe brain injury!!! We also know that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9) and we do not always understand what He is doing. But we can be assured that He is working out a good and perfect plan for His purpose and glory (Romans 8:28-29). So we are called to bring our requests before our Heavenly Father (Philippians 4:6-7) and then trust Him to give good things (Matthew 7:11) with His loving answer. . . yes, no or wait! All the while giving Him the thanks and praise that He is so worthy of!!!

One quick story that illustrates this heart. . . it is not meant as a prophetic statement but rather a heart that is rightly both hoping in God's ability to do beyond what we can ask or imagine and yet remain joyfully submitted to and under the trial He has allowed in our life for as long as He deems best. I was with Hope earlier this week and noticed her say something that made it appear that she had just seen what I had done. . . I was surprised and our conversation was as follows:
Mom: "Hope did you just see that?
Hope: "Yep, I saw it!"
Mom: "Really! You just saw that! Is God starting to heal your eyes, Hope?"
Hope: "Nope!"
Mom: "Oh, is He telling you something different, Hopey?"
Hope: "Yep. . . WAIT!"

This is the heart that we desire to have as we lift these requests up to our great God! We can never thank you enough for the blessing of you joining us in this journey of praying for Hope!!!

You are so loved!

No comments:

Post a Comment