His Mercies Are New Every Morning

Yesterday just before noon the nurse practitioner for Joshua told us that they would come Xray Joshua and take the chest tube out right away if everything looked okay because his levels were still up even after the pain medicine. She explained that with him waiting so long to get anything for the pain, it would be more difficult to calm him down; but once the chest tube was out, that would help with much of his discomfort. She was leaving but her replacement would take care of him, she assured us. Xray came at noon on the dot, and our nurse said the other practitioner should be there shortly to read it and remove the tube. An hour passed with nothing. The nurse paged the practitioner (letting us know that only the practitioner could remove the tube), and she said she didn't realize that the Xray had been finished. She promised to be right over. Another hour passed. Our nurse went to find her and came back to tell us that she was on her way and meanwhile our nurse was going to lunch. Our nurse returned from lunch and still our poor son had his chest tube in. At 3 p.m. the practitioner entered the room. She took 20 minutes to talk with a family whose son was happy as a lark and doing quite well, then answered two pages by phoning the people back, then promptly checked her email and did a google search on the computer. Still Shawn asked me to say nothing. At 3:30, she FINALLY came over and told us to leave the room while she pulled the tube -the Xray had been fine this entire time. While 3 and a half hours may seem like not a long time, it felt like an eternity when we saw dear Joshua with tears in his eyes, unable to cry because of the pain, grunting and moaning...it was awful. Shawn said we could file a formal complaint with the hospital because of her gross neglect. Our son had been lying there feeling terrible since we had arrived early that morning, and God knows how long overnight. I cried out to the Lord, "God, why are you allowing them to torture our son?!?!" At that moment, I got a picture from the Passion of the Christ. I was immediately humbled again by the work done on the cross, where God's only son was crucified for our sins.

Looking on the bright side, our son did very well with surgery. They even fixed his hiatal hernia, which would have caused him more problems. He has survived everything, and we'll be able to take him home with us to grow and lead a normal life. We have seen God's hand throughout our time here, even before we arrived. For example, since I resigned from my job we have been on an extremely tight budget. My mom came while I was teaching at Millersville the night before Joshua's surgery and gave us cash to cover our food expenses while here. Shawn's sister Missy had called us and let us know that his side of the family had gone together and gotten us a WAWA giftcard for gas that we picked up on the way to the hospital that morning. And, we have been extremely blessed to get one of the five rooms the hospital has for families of patients for free for the past two nights. We haven't had to worry about food, transportation, or where we will sleep or shower. And, if our Heavenly Father cares about the little details in our lives, I know He cares deeply for the well-being of our son. Joshua is truly in His hands.

Today, our son has been doing much better. The medicine was all ordered at once, so we don't have to wait for the pharmacy anymore. He does seem to be doing better since the chest tube was removed, and we can even hold him now, which he absolutely loves. He even started eating last night, so they removed the IV that was giving him nutrition. He is still laboring some with gas, and every once in awhile he will cry. But, they said that that's very normal since he is learning to breath with just one and a half lungs instead of a full two, and he just underwent major surgery. Shawn and I still aren't impressed with the level of care over the weekend from this hospital (if they have such a skeleton crew on the weekend, they shouldn't perform surgery on Fridays and say the first 24 hours is most critical - duh!), but I am glad that I bit my tongue and showed Shawn that I love and respect him as the head of our household since he has been given the authority over Joshua and me. I trust Shawn and know that he is wise beyond his years, and I also know that I can let my emotions get the better of me. When I see Joshua in pain, my momma bear claws tend to come right out.

On another note, we read today that Joshua's surgeon is the one who convinced the medical community that surgery is possible on babies in utero, and this facility is one of the only two in the whole world that will perform surgeries in the womb. He has saved many lives doing that, and there have been people from all 50 states and over 46 countries coming to have surgery performed. Joshua truly got the best of the best as far as the surgery was concerned (even though this guy has less personality than my hairbrush, as far as I can tell). But, what matters is that Joshua is on the mend now, and we shall have a happy Christmas as a family this year with our worries behind us.

I have been reading to Joshua while he's here from a book that the hospital's library has. It has several cute Christmas tales in it, including Jesus' arrival into the world, one about a young child in Mexico trying to give flowers (weeds) to Jesus and they turned into Pointsettas, another about elves helping a young poor shoemaker feed his family, the Nutcracker tale, and one by Louisa May Alcott about a poor servant girl who finally received presents from her uncle's family where she served. That's all the further we've gotten, but they are cute, and Joshua seems to like it.

Thanks for all the prayers. We look forward to giving more good reports! Blessings and love to you!