Our Two Year Old Boy!

To borrow Al Michael's call of the 1980 miracle on ice (and since we are likely all going through a bit of Winter Olympic withdrawals at present) ...

"Do You Believe in Miracles?"

"A Miracle" is the only explanation Samuel's Urologist had today for what has happened with his kidneys. For the past two years we have been watching his kidneys because of cysts that were present and because of renal reflux (urine from the bladder heading back up into the kidneys). Samuel has been on an antibiotic for two years solid now to keep urinary tract infections at bay. We have been expecting that Samuel will have to have this problem fixed surgically at some point in the not-too-distant-future.

Last week, Samuel had an ultrasound and an X-ray procedure called a VCUG, in which they insert a catheter, fill up his bladder with a fluid that shows up on X-ray, and take pictures of the bladder and where the fluid goes.

Samuel's Urologist told Sara today that only 10% of patients with renal reflux grade 5 self-correct (that is, without surgery). Grade 5 is the highest and worst and is the degree to which Samuel had it. Now, add to that the fact that Samuel had bladder diverticulita (unnecessary pouches in his bladder) and the chances of his renal reflux correcting on its own were basically nil.

Here's the miracle part ... the results of last week's procedures - there was no reflux and no sign of cysts. It has corrected on its own. We are taking him off his antibiotic. He doesn't need surgery.

You may not believe in miracles. But I believe in a God who rules over all things, even the ureter function of a two year old boy with CHARGE.

This news has nothing to do with us - such blessings can not be earned. God has been gracious to us in innumerable ways. But, so that I do not forget and that you might consider God's faithfulness to our little family, here are a few of the ways God has been gracious to us ...

• Samuel is 2 years old! We celebrated this past weekend with a surprise party for Samuel and Sara - whose birthday is the 28th. It was much easier to keep the surprise from Samuel than Sara, but it seems that Samuel had a surprise for us, as well.
• God has sustained our family through a journey we would never have chosen and he has gently taught us much about our own brokenness and desperate need for him.
  
• He has never left us or forsaken us though questions and fears and doubts and angry shaken fists have frequented our experience in the last 2 years.
• He has provided for all of Samuel's medical and developmental needs to date. Some he has done so through other people (doctors, therapists, in-home caregivers) and others he has taken care of himself.
• The people of God have surrounded us with their prayers, their physical support, their encouragement and have endured our fickle ups and downs.
• God has deepened our affection for Samuel and his quirks in ways we would not have expected. He makes these faces that only CHARGE kids make that at first we were sort of turned off by - hoping our CHARGEr wouldn't make those faces. But now, we love it and bust up laughing every time he squints his eyes funny and scrunches up his nose.
• We have watched our older children embrace Samuel and we have learned much about how to love him by watching them.
  

God is good. He has been good to us. And I am convinced that any goodness from God we experience comes to us not because of us, but in spite of us and only because of and for the sake of Jesus our faithful savior. I believe in miracles. I believe in miracles because Jesus rose from the dead. If my heart can hope and be at rest - then, to quote Jesus from Matthew 19 -

"With man this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible."

May Jesus be praised.