Tsehay

I'm starting to feel peace about our situation and feel like I can share what is going on. A "blogging friend"  put it into perspective for me in this post on spiritual warfare: http://www.babeofmyheart.com/. When she said "Do you think it's any coincidence that EVERY SINGLE TIME we have said yes to something crazy the Lord has asked us to do-that it seemed everything in our lives started going wrong? Do you also think it's a coincidence that EVERY SINGLE TIME we perservered, the LORD was glorified as we STOOD OUR GROUND and continued on the calling ahead of us? The battle is real. And it's NOT with flesh and blood. The best part is that it has already been WON." We will stand FIRM. It's hard for this stubborn girl to just release and trust, but it does help to have that trait when I'm told that I need to stand firm! Now that I realize what is going on here, it's becoming more clear as to how I need to respond.

 Long story short, here's our prayer request. When we were in Ethiopia, we noticed that Tsehay had an odd shaped head. Very symmetrical, but abnormal to us. We asked the nurse several times if this was "normal" and she replied "yes, it's very normal". We wanted to believe that and accepted it as normal. When we got back to the U.S., it was not setting well with either of us and Luke started doing some research. He came to the conclusion that it appeared she had "Craniosynostosis", which is premature closure of the sutures in the skull. If not corrected at an EARLY age, this can lead to suppression of brain growth, developmental delays and an abnormally shaped head. We were certain her brain has not been affected yet....she is SO bright and from having three little ones, she is way ahead of her 8 month old age in gross motor skills and verbally. She is almost walking for crying out loud! Anyways, our neighborhood is filled with wonderful dr's and we started calling up everyone we knew. I took some pictures to our pediatrician on Monday and without telling her what "we" thought it was, she stated that it appeared to be Craniosynostosis and began to explain what we had just researched. The only way to know for sure would be to get a CT Scan. The more she talked the more defeated I had felt. She had already missed the window for the less invasive endoscopic surgery and if indeed this was it, she would have to face a HUGE extensive surgery cutting open her entire skull, ICU for 3 days, hospital for another 7 days, years of follow up and the list goes on. It was more than I could bear. For a baby coming into a strange home, with strange people, who are inflicting great pain upon her, it was the absolute worst scenario for healthy attachment and bonding. After days of crying out to the Lord and feeling thoughts of anger, shock, overwhelming burden, guilt and sadness, I am daily trusting Him to see us & her through.  In the meantime, we were given a Neurosurgeon's name (by our wonderful neighbor) and had a good conversation with him. He said it was too hard to tell from the pictures, and that gave us a little ray of light. The fact that is was not obvious to him made us feel a little better. I then contacted the chief of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Dept. at DeVos Children's hospital (Do we not live in the best town for specialized medical care!? I always said that not realizing we may need to utilize it someday) He viewed the pictures and her history and was not able to come to any conclusions one way or the other either. Again, we were encouraged. They both said the CT Scan will give us the most complete information. Therefore, a CT Scan has been ordered and we are praying that her head is indeed "normal"and that no surgery will be needed.

Paul reminds us the way we need to fight this battle is:
NOT TO DO MORE
NOT TO WORRY
BUT INSTEAD PRAY!

And that's just what we are going to do. Will you please join us?