Memorial Box Monday

Hallie has always been a bit 'accident prone'.  Last June we were at the the Cardel showhome early on a Monday morning signing some papers for our new house.  The kids were behind us sitting on big leather chairs and feasting on timbits (one of my standby bribes).   We had been there for about 45 minutes and we suddenly heard a LOUD smash, followed by silence.  Chris and I quickly turned around and there was Hallie, laying on the tile floor.  The Cardel employee that was facing the direction of the kids said, "oh, she's been jumping from chair to chair".  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Who allows that?  We certainly wouldn't have!!!   There wasn't any ice there or anything we could do to help her.  Chris had his own vehicle there because he was heading to work so I quickly signed what I had to and left with the kids.   I had just gotten them all buckled in the van and Hallie started to throw-up.  GROSS!!  There wasn't much I could do...I couldn't take her back into the brand new show up and they didn't have anything there to help clean her up anyways.  She had managed to get most of it into my Tim Hortons coffee cup thankfully.  I made sure she was *okay* and began to drive.  I only made it a block and a half and it started again.  There was no way I could make it through the 20 minute drive home with her getting sick.  So, I called our friend Ashley that lives two blocks from where we were and begged her to let us in for a bit until Hallie was done being sick.  We got into Ashleys and Hallie's head looked like it was about to split open.  The bump above her eye went all the way to the side of her head and was sticking out about and inch off her head. The skin looked like it was going to break open.  Ashley kindly offered to watch Raya and Theo so I could take Hallie to the walkin clinic.  There was already a huge wait as it was Monday morning.  The triage nurse took one look at the bump on Hallie's head and we were taken to a room right away.  The Dr. came to see her and decided she should be taken to the Childrens Hospital.  Ashley has a dayhome and had enough kids there without mine, I couldn't leave them there.  The Dr. let me leave on the basis that I would get her to the hospital as soon as possible otherwise he'd like her taken by ambulance.  A quick call to Chris and he was on his way back home.  He met me at our place and I was about to take Hallie to the hospital.  Well, she seemed to be going down hill a bit and I was nervous about her getting sick again.  She was feeling light headed and confused.  So, we called the ambulance.  She ended up suffering from her 3rd concusion.  :(   It took her a few weeks to recover completely.

this was a few days later

She seemed better for about 2 weeks and then started to get confused and forgetful.  She was getting really frustrated with herself.  Every SINGLE day since the 'incident' when I'd brush her hair over the left side of her head she'd say "OUCH".   I decided to take her back to the Dr before we left on holidays for Green Bay Bible Camp (one of the BEST places EVER).  He said she had what was called "Post Concusion Syndrome" and we could except this to last up to 3 years.  YIKES!

It came and went.  We were at Green Bay and she fell and became confused again.  It was really hard to watch her being so frustrated with herself.  Chris and I have met some wonderful people at GBBC.   Two of them being Mike and Candace.  We were instantly drawn to them our first year and last year we were able to spend more time with them.  They are an amazing couple, grounded in the Word and willing to let the Lord use them.  I had shared with Candace a bit about Hallie's situation.  She told me that she had recently suffered from a concusion as well and shared a bit about how frustrating it was for her, even as an adult.  She explained things to me that helped me to better understand how Hallie must have been feeling.  She had suffered from symptoms for quite a while until Mike and another fellow from their church prayed over her and she was healed!  What a MIRACLE!!!

At fireside that night, or maybe the next night, we were sitting with M&C.  When it was over, she turned to me with tears in her eyes and said

"Hallie is healed! The Lord asked me to give my healing to her and I did.  I don't have to pray with her or lay hands on her, she's already healed!!!!!!"

WOW!!!  For the first few seconds I was stunned and in disbelief, how could this be?  I could see in her eyes how serious she was and I chose to BELIEVE!!

We went to bed thanking God (and Candace).  I was anxious for Hallie to wake up in the morning so I could see it for myself.  She woke up and seemed "normal" to both Chris and I.  The true test came when it was time to comb her hair.   I carefully grabbled the comb and began at the other side.  I worked my way around her head as I had for the past 2 months and this time she was SILENT!  Not a word!!  To this day, she still hasn't ever said "OUCH" or "That hurts".   She is healed!!!  

I can't wait until I feel the time is right to tell her this story. 

The item going in our Memorial Box to remind us of this gift given to us by our our Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God will be a  

which will represent the bruise on her head that was healed first on the outside and then on the inside!!

Thank You Jesus!!

She's so typical (or maybe not)

We were driving today to a friends place for coffee.  Their middle child is the same age as Hallie.  When we were pregnant we'd talk about how it will be so cute and fun to watch them grow and play together.  It was devastating when we all learned that life would be more difficult for K.   Hallie has always been pretty good with K.  She pays attention to her and talks to her and about her.  I knew the day would come when she'd start to ask questions.  Today was the day.  I did my best to explain a bit without saying to much.  At the end of my little spiel, Hallie says "God made her that way and He has a great plan for her life doesn't He mom?"

She then said
"Mom, what do you think God's plan was for my life last year?, Do you think I did everything that He wanted me to?"

Her birthday is coming up on Saturday and she wants to make sure that when she was 6, she did what God had planned for her :)

Made me think I should make a list of what I think God has planned for me this year and make sure to get it done!

Memorial Box Monday

This is a first for me... I follow a blog of an amazing woman with a great heart.  She does "Memorial Box Mondays" and has encouraged her readers to do the same.  Since I've been thinking of it anyways, I thought I should rise to the challenge :)

The idea behind it is to have a 'box' of tangible items that remind you of what God has done in your life.  It's so easy to forget how He carries us through.  When we look back at each item in the box we will be reminded of Gods faithfulnes.

So here it is...the first item to be in our box will be a fantastic reminder of this...

When I was pregnant with Raya we had many ultrasounds.  We were told, and shown, that she had a two vessel umbilical cord instead of three.  We went often to make sure she was growing and getting everything she needed.  Each time, the specialist would show me pictures of the cord afterwards along with a bunch of charts that I couldn't understand.  Raya was gaining and growing at an appropriate rate despite the missing vessel.  Chris and I prayed that she would be healed and that the cord would be fine. 

As most of you know, Raya was born prematurely after a horrible labour.  There were no medical staff in the room when she was born.  It was myself and my exhausted husband and sister.   Raya had a rough start and you can read about her story here.   It was shortly after she had been recessated and the Dr was prepping her to be transfered to another hospital.  They had finally let me in to be with her and I was still waiting for Chris and Hallie to arrive for our 'family picture' (ugh) before they moved her.   Things started beeping and flashing and it was all crazy.  The Dr said to the nurse "Grab me a central line" and she replied with "we can't use that, she only has a two vessel cord".  The Dr looked down at my precious little babe, covered in more cords and tubes than I could count and said back to the nurse "What do you mean, her cord is PERFECT". 

Her PERFECT cord saved her life.  I had seen the two vessel cord, Chris had seen the two vessel cord, there are pictures of the two vessel cord and our sweet girl was born with a complete and perfect 3 vessel cord.  The Lord healed her.

It still drives me crazy that the comments we heard afterwards were things like
"the medical people make mistakes like that all the time" 
"those specialists didn't know what they were talking about"
"that's our health care system for you, they get people worked up for nothing"

NO people, that's not true.... We prayed for healing and we got it!  She was healed by Our Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God! (as Linny would say)

The first item to go in our Memorial Box will be ....

A Cord. 

And it will remind us that God still performs miracles

today and He has His hand on our Raya from the beginning!

 I can't find spell check and I know I have a ton of errors in this post.  Blogger is being super slow and I don't have time to fix them right now...school is calling...hallie is WAY to fast at her math :)