Life's Little Blessings~ Day One

"The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men.  It has God for it's author, salvation for it's end and truth without any mixture for it's matter.  It is all pure."
~John Locke

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
~C.S. Lewis

I am pairing up with my bestie, Megan, for a week of posts about the blessings in our lives.  There are so many more than 7, but we will start here.  What better day to start than on the celebration day of our risen Savior? 

On this Easter day, I would like to begin by saying that I am so blessed and fortunate to have grown up in church.  I got very involved in my youth group and I cherish those memories and the wonderful things that I learned. 

I love The Lord.  I am so happy that I married a man that loves The Lord like I do.  We will raise our precious son to be God-fearing and to love The Lord with all his heart.  My grandfather always made sure that I was in church with him.  I remember sitting in church and he would always give me a butterscotch candy or peppermint.  I also remember the jingle of change in his pockets.  He would give me a handful to put in the children's offering.  I remember getting so excited about that! 

I feel incredibly blessed to have freedom of my religion without persecution.  I can profess my love for The Lord with no repercussions.  I can worship and witness to others.  I feel very blessed to be able to say that.  Today and every day, I am so blessed to have a Savior that loves me more than I can even fathom.  He knows all my faults, but loves me anyway.  He knows the number of hairs on my head and He knows the number of breaths I have on this earth.  He died on the cross for you and me.  We are so undeserving.  Thank you Lord for Your love. 

Happy Easter
HE IS RISEN!


I couldn't do a post without a cute picture of my sweet Eli! 

9 Months

Eli,
I know I've said it before, but this is the most fun stage you are going through! You actually interact with us and play peek-a-boo! You laugh at us when we are being silly. You hide from me when you know I'm looking for you! My life is very busy and I wouldn't have it any other way! Here is a timeline of your life from 8 months to 9!

February
13th- You started waving your arm when we say, "bye bye"
14th- Your first Valentine's Day. You had a party at daycare and Mommy was your date! We ate cupcakes and drank grape juice!
17th- You started crying when we drop you off at the nursery at church. I believe the separation anxiety has kicked in. You don't want me far out of your sight.
20th- Your first snow! 3 inches. It was beautiful and you hated it! It was just too cold!
You also started turning on the water in the kitchen sink (while sitting in the bumbo seat) You grab anything and everything that you can get your hands on!
24th- You started dunking your face in the bathtub and drinking the bath water! Yuck!
25th- You started crawling with your knees off the floor. I don't think you like your knees touching the floor!

March
1st- You started having weird symptoms that resembled seizures.
2nd- You were admitted to Children's Hospital in Tulsa.
4th- We got to come home with no bad news of your health. Thank God!
6th- You stood up for 15 seconds by yourself! You also started opening and closing your fingers when waving.

March didn't start out all that well. Things are looking up now! You are so much better and back to your sweet, happy self! Mommy loves you so much. I hope that one day you appreciate these posts. I enjoy writing them and reflecting on the last month and all that you are learning! Love you to infinity...

Mommy

The last picture on the scale was at your 9 month check up. You were 20 pounds 3 ounces and you were 28 3/4 inches long. Weight was 50th percentile. Length was 75th percentile.

Hospital Stay

I really hate it when my baby is sick. He's had the occasional runny nose, low grade fever and allergies. Nothing like what I'm about to describe. Scariest 4 days of my life...

Friday morning, March 1st, I got Eli up around 6:15 to get him ready for daycare. He was completely normal...a little fussy but nothing out of the ordinary. I got him dressed and was about to put him in his car seat. He let out a terrible scream and his left eye was extremely red and swollen. After I noticed the redness, he started losing control of his head movements. It was bobbing back and forth like he couldn't hold it up on his own. Then he started closing his eyes and getting very drowsy. I took him into my room and let Josh look at him. We had no idea what was going on. It only lasted a few minutes and I had to get going so I wouldn't be late for work. I got him to daycare and his left eye was still red but he acted alert and normal. I reluctantly left him with strict instructions to call my department with any changes or concerns.

That afternoon, I took Eli to the doctor. I wasn't sure what was going with him but knew that something was off. Of course at this time, his eye was completely normal. No redness. The doctor looked at his eye and said it was fine. He did have a slight ear infection on the left side but nothing severe.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. It was around 4:00 and I was holding Eli at the bar and Josh was straight across from me. Eli let out a terrible scream, his left eye turned very red and swollen and he became lethargic again. I was in a panic. I am a nurse, and have been for 9 years, but when it's your child, you lose all your knowledge and become "just a mommy." I called the doctor's office and they instructed us to go straight to the urgent care that housed a pediatrician. We scurried around and were gone in less than 20 minutes.

From the time we left our house, Eli had 3 more episodes. The redness would come on so fast that it was like he was slapped in the face. It would last about 15 minutes and then go away like nothing ever happened. What was so concerning to me was the lethargy. He was very sensitive to light and was overall just miserable. They decided to direct admit us to Children's Hospital in Tulsa.

We arrived around 6:30 and they hooked him up to a continuous EEG at 10 pm. Poor baby cried the whole time. It took 30 minutes to put all 25 leads on his head. They each had to be glued and dried before moving to the next. They also drew blood on him during this. I'm kind of glad they just did it all at the same time. Kill 2 birds with one stone.

Eli endured lab draws, continuous EEG(
(For a day and a half), IV stick and an MRI under general anesthesia. I got to go in with him and hold his hand while he drifted off to sleep.

We were discharged Monday afternoon, March 4th, with no answers. They had ruled out brain tumors, blood clots, brain/spinal cord infection and genetic anomalies. The doctors were baffled and had never seen the symptoms together like Eli had.

We did not receive answers about what happened to Eli. The closest thing they could think of was that something was interfering with one of his cranial nerves. I know without a doubt that God healed my sweet baby. Something happened that evening. I felt such a peace and comfort that only The Lord can give.

Eli is already giving his Mommy and Daddy gray hair!

The happy ending to this story is that Eli got a new pirate ship crawl through toy for being such a big boy :)