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Just Wow. The Lord Provides the Ebenezer

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 8:09 PM

Several weeks ago, a sweet lady from Let's Do It for the Kids contacted me and told me her group wanted to provide a handmade quilt with cross stitch squares for Katie - some of them had been following her here. This is the email I just sent her:

Dear ____________,

You are never going to believe what the Lord has done! The package came to Mama's house several days ago, but we've been so busy and she forgot to bring it when we saw her Saturday. Tonight Hal went to pick up Susannah, Katie's big sister, who had been at her grandmother's house while Katie was in the hospital today and picked it up and brought it home. What is remarkable about that is that today we posted something very special to all our email loops and carepages:

[Here I pasted the message HEALED that I sent out earlier today]

Do you see what that means? Her quilt came to her THE DAY WE FOUND OUT SHE WAS HEALED!  I am in tears. How perfect, and timing only the Lord could manage. That we would forget it even last night when Hal took Susie to Nana's, but that it would come today, the day we found out she was healed. She will have this quilt all her life to remember this day and what the Lord has done for her.

As soon as we began to open the box and tell her it was for her, she said, "For meeeeee????" and when she saw the quilt, she yelled, "Butterflies!" We're raising caterpillars to butterflies right now in our homeschooling and Katie has become fascinated with butterflies. She stopped and identified each bear, "Ice Cream Bear!" "Mama Bear!" "Baby Bear!" Could it be any more perfect? It is obvious to me that this is an Ebenezer - a rock of remembrance - "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”1 Samuel 7:12  Only this time the Lord provided the stone for us through you kind ladies!

How can we possibly thank you enough for being a part of what the Lord did in our lives today? For providing a tangible expression of the Lord's love today?  We can only pray that He would bless you all as you've blessed us!

I am attaching a recent picture of Katie and will take one with her quilt tomorrow when we celebrate this as a family!

Melanie & Hal

Just wow.

HEALED!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 12:16 PM

I can scarcely believe I am posting this!

Praise be to God the Great Physician!

Katie is healed! The extra electrical pathways in her heart have atrophied.

No more dangerous meds.
No more stethoscope in the diaper bag.
No more driving 3 hours back to retrieve forgotten meds.
No more dangerous tests.
No more risk of sudden death!

Psalm 8
To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath.[a] A Psalm of David.
1 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,[b]
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

God is so good! Please join us in praising Him for His gracious gift to this family!

Hal & Melanie

In the Procedure Room

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 8:09 AM

Katie wasn't real happy about all the doctors and nurses and decided she wouldn't look at them or speak to them. Dr. Kanter was able to make her smile, though. He said, "I could make a rock smile!" :-)

They pre-medicated her and we read her "Ten Minutes to Bedtime," a perfect book for when you are feeling dopey, until she got wobbly enough to take her back.

Melanie carried her back and talked to her and stroked her hair until they had the IV started and had her sedated. She never cried once! They are so wonderful about caring for children right here at Duke!

Now's the time to pray, she's back there and they are shocking her heart to see if they can provoke the dangerous rhythm she's been prone to. Please pray for healing and for safety for her and wisdom for Dr. Kanter and the others.

We love you all!
Hal & Melanie
http://raisingrealmen.com
http://carepages.com/carepages/katiesheart
http://carepages.com/carepages/halyoung

'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/i/tissweet.htm (to hear the tune)

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Refrain

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

Refrain

Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.

Refrain

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

Refrain



Tomorrow is the Day!

Monday, November 7, 2011 6:44 PM

Tomorrow is the day we've been waiting for -- now for two and a half years. We'll find out if Katie has, by God's mercy, grown out of the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome or if it's not going to happen.

We report at 7am at Duke and they will do an electrophysiology procedure with Katie's heart. During the test, they will put her to sleep and attempt to shock her heart into the dangerous SVT rhythm, with increasing challenges (adding drugs that mimic adrenalin, raise her heart rate, etc). If she has grown out of it, they will be unable to. If her heart does go into SVT, they will have to stop her heart to get her back in the right rhythm. Sometimes she has been very hard to convert to the right rhythm, with them having to stop her heart repeatedly.


So, you are probably wondering, why do such a dicey test? The medicine she is on is not really safe. It is not approved for use in children and is only approved for use in adults in life-threatening conditions (which hers is). She does not need to continue on it if she doesn't need it. However, it is the *only* medication that we've been able to find that will control her heart condition. Don't know if you remember, but trying different meds to find one to control it resulted in being in and out of ICU for weeks. A not really safe drug is much safer than the alternative -- the likelihood of SVT with risk of death.

If she has not grown out of it by this test, then almost certainly she won't (bar a miracle). That means we will keep her on meds until she is old enough for surgery (probably five years old). Her heart has to be large enough not to damage the good electrical pathways in her heart when they burn out the bad.

But, if she has grown out of it, we will drop all meds and rejoice greatly!

Although the possibility of coming home and throwing the medicine away is very exciting, it is very difficult to hand our precious child over, even to the best WPW doctor in the world, like hers, for a procedure like this. Trying hard to trust our Savior.

Please cover her in prayer. Please pray that regardless, she would not go into SVT before the procedure. Please pray the EP test would be safe and accurate and that if it is the Lord's will, that she will be completely healed.

Thank you so much for covering us in prayer,
Hal & Melanie

Sweet Hour of Prayer
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/h/shop.htm (plays the tune)

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
The joys I feel, the bliss I share,
Of those whose anxious spirits burn
With strong desires for thy return!
With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows His face,
And gladly take my station there,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
Thy wings shall my petition bear
To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless.
And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His Word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
May I thy consolation share,
Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
I view my home and take my flight:
This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise
To seize the everlasting prize;
And shout, while passing through the air,
“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”

 

Praying for the Weekend

Friday, November 4, 2011 7:49 PM

Welcome, new friends and old!

This is our first post on ColesPages. To read all the rest of the story read About Me above or head over to Katie's CarePage at http://carepages.com/carepages/katiesheart.

Today Katie will receive her last dose of heart medicine until at least after an electrophysiology procedure Tuesday, and perhaps forever, if the Lord has healed her heart.

In order for the test Tuesday to be valid, all traces of her heart medicine must be out of her body by then. So, she will be without medicine until then.

She's having the procedure Tuesday in order to see if she's grown out of the Wolff-Parkinson-White sydrome. They will try to induce the life-threatening rhythm her heart has a tendency toward by shocking her heart. If they can't, then they will know she's grown out of it.

It's a pretty slim chance she has, but we know that God is able. It would be so wonderful to be done with meds every eight hours around the clock!

If she still has WPW, then she's at great risk this weekend while she's without meds and will have to be on medication until she is old enough to have ablation surgery.

Please pray for her safety this weekend.

Much love,
Melanie
http://raisingrealmen.com CSPA 2011 Book of the Year!
http://carepages.com/carepages/halyoung

The Solid Rock
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/y/myhopeis.htm (the tune will play)

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain

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