This year has been filled with so many trials and blessings that I have found it hard to keep this blog updated. But today, I bring news that is too good not to share. God has been so gracious to us this year, and today He has given us such a precious gift.
Today, our little girl came home from the hospital fitted with brand new hearing aids.
(Press Play Below!)
After tons of hearing tests and brain stem tests, we really weren't sure how much she had been unable to hear. But as we left the hospital, she began to TELL me.
As we left the building, my cell phone rang.
"WHAT'S THAT NOISE? What IS it?"
She had no idea that my phone RANG.
As I cranked the engine to the van, she was visibly startled by the navigation voice that plays every time I drive (because I get lost as soon as I leave our neighborhood), and began looking for the extra person in the car.
"WHERE? Where is that lady????!!! Hello...Lady?"
After we got home, I was overwhelmed by what I had experienced at the hospital. I sent her to the backyard to eat her lunch and watched her from a distance, and my little girl stood with her face upturned and her sandwich hanging by her side as she mimicked the birds chirping and smiled at the sky.
After her bath, I knelt beside her and asked quietly if she could hear Mama's voice.
"Yes. Pretty hearing Mama. All better now."
This is a good and perfect gift.
It doesn't matter that this particular gift is "man-made" and contains a battery, or that we have had to make hard decisions for Haven's life in the face of her diagnosis.
God is good, and make no mistake, every last good thing is from God and held together by His Word.
Seeing God sustain Haven this year - whether by the provision of hearing aids or by the miracle of her literal actual life revealed by her surgeries earlier this year - it has been beyond humbling.
Of all the good things we think "we" could provide for this child, or the good things we "think" we have to offer our Savior - nothing comes close to the good and perfect gifts that come from the Father of lights or the truth of Salvation. (James 1:17)
I come to His nativity literally empty-handed. (Isaiah 64:6)
I just don't know what else to do but praise His name.
We have prayed and hoped big things for Haven.
"Foolish" things.
We continue to do so - not just for her - but for all of them.
We are not just praying for health and hearing,
but for "ears to hear" (Mark 4:9).
We are praying for little feet that will join our family mission
in carrying the Gospel truth to a dying world.
This Christmas, as the weary world rejoices, we hope and pray for you the good and perfect gift of Jesus Christ.
We pray that you live in the perfect peace of the Holy Spirit, and the thrill of hope of the Savior who was born in a stable, died on a tree, and rose to defeat death, offering you the grace of salvation and Eternal life as your forerunner.
We pray for you to hear His truth
and accept His gift.
Merry Christmas!!!
and accept His gift.
Merry Christmas!!!
