Micah and Esther

Wow. What a time it’s been. For those that don’t know here’s a quick summary:

Micah looks to be like a very normal baby, albeit his head is a little on the big size. His head was in the 25% percentile when he was born, and around the 75% later, and at his last check-up was in the 95%. Anything below 100% is “normal”. There are babies with well over 100% percentile heads. Micah was also born with a small murmur (that the doctor no longer hears and was/is supposed to heal on its own) and also a small cyst that can be somewhat common with premature babies.

It is not extremely abnormal for a baby to have a head in the 95% percentile. Doctors do become concerned when the baby’s head was not large at birth, but becomes bigger. This does not HAVE to mean there is trouble, but it can. There is a condition known as hydrocephalus. It basically means fluid on the brain. One of the several causes is a cyst on the brain. So needless to say, since we found this out, we have been very, very concerned.

The doctor ordered a CT scan for today. The last couple days have been rough ones. Days that included petitioning God on Micah’s behalf. It was a very….reconnecting…time for God and I. It’s a shame it takes that, isn’t it? I definitely asked for God to heal Micah. To let him be ok. I really felt the story of Esther laid on my heart. So I spent some time with God and that story. I know you know the story, so I won’t belabor that, but I really related to that. And I felt like I was petitioning God in the same way. And God gave me a peace about it. It’s tough to ask God to heal your son, but then to say with all the sincerity you can muster, that not my will, but Yours be done. I tried to imagine what things would be like if we got a bad report. It involves a lifetime battle. A plastic tube being inserted for the rest of your life, having to be lengthened as you grow, dealing with clogging and infection, and being delayed mentally and physically. I tried to think of ways that God would still use Micah. And how down the road, we could look back and see that God used him and used him in our lives despite his difficulties. A difficult reality to imagine. But I felt a peace about it just the same. But still,…if it was ok for Esther to plea, then it was ok for me.

So today, having been wearied by the previous days, we went down to Gainesville to have the CT scan. Poor little fella didn’t even know where he was going. We got there about 6:30 this morning. There was a little confusion about whether he was supposed to have a CT scan or an MRI. They confirmed it was a CT scan. We fed him some more and put him on a pillow on the machine. (The picture above.) Like the good baby he is, he fell right asleep (with his pacifier and clutching his favorite blue doggy blanket). He never woke up during the whole scan. So he got his scan, but we couldn’t get the results right away. The radiologist would dictate them and send them to the doctor. It could be today, it could be tomorrow before we got the results.

So we went on with our day, ate breakfast, went to a church staff meeting and then went home. A little later, Tori decided to call the doctor’s office to see if they had the results in. They did.

The doctor said the CT scan showed nothing. There was no fluid. The report said nothing of even a cyst.

After Tori hung up, we said a very genuine prayer of thanks to God. And I’m here to tell you it was all Him. I got a little choked up and had to spend a few minutes by myself in the backyard. For the first time in who knows how long, I cried – tears of joy. And I think it was from the overwhelming feeling – not as much of Micah being ok – but of the overwhelming feeling of God’s hand of mercy and deliverance.

And still…if some medical complication ever eventually does come of it, or whenever the next bad thing happens; I feel confident in the sovereignty of my Lord. God on the hilltop, is God in the valley. And today, he has delivered Micah…..whose name indeed means, ….“Who is like the LORD?”

^{PS 107:19} Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,

and he saved them from their distress.

^{PS 107:20} He sent forth his word and healed them;

he rescued them from the grave.

^{PS 107:21} Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love

and his wonderful deeds for men