Pray for Meredith

Papa and Mere sharing a root beer

I’m Meredith.  I’m nine years old.  I’m doing great!  Have a very good Thanksgiving.   Thank you for praying for me.   — Meredith

Lots of dates have passed by that I fully intended to update Meredith’s blog — first day of school, report card, etc., but here we are at last.   Probably the biggest change since the last post is that Meredith started school this year full time in the 2nd grade.  We had hoped that she could start over with the 3rd grade full time, but lots of factors caused us to reconsider that plan.   The primary consideration was the level of assistance she would require to hold her own in the 3rd grade.  Had she started there this fall she would have been behind from the beginning.  Academically she hadn’t fully caught up to that level, so now that she’s in 2nd, she’s very much on an even playing field with her classmates.   She can work more independently here than she would have been able to do in the 3rd grade.

It was hard on her at first being put in a new class with younger children.  Although, honestly, she fits right in not only academically, but socially as well.   But she’s gotten much more comfortable with her class as the year has progressed.    And she understands why she’s there and that she will continue on moving up with this group of children into future grades, and she’s happy about that. 

Therapies are continuing.  She has speech and OT once a week at school (provided by the public school system) and at On the Move Pediatrics once a week.  And she’s made a lot of gains in the last year with them.  It’s just like it’s been from the very start of this long recovery process over a year ago — she will struggle in areas for a time and then surprise us all with a burst of progress, then stay steady for a time and improve again.   Her latest accomplishments are learning to tie her shoes and doing jumping jacks.  Previously her coordination had kept her from doing those well. 

Next weekend I will attend a short training session at the UK Children’s Hospital to become a volunteer in the Ronald McDonald family room across from the PICU/NICU.  I’m glad to be able to start helping out there once a month, but I’m ready to get this first visit back into the hospital over with.  I’ve had lots of opportunities to revisit the Cinci hospital, but haven’t been back to the UK hospital since we left there on May 12, 2009, headed for Cincinnati.    The very idea of walking by that loud, giant ball machine on the 4th floor makes me feel ill — we spent so many miserable hours waiting in those chairs when the family room was closed only to get one bad report after another.  

I know it will be hard initially, but because of God’s continued prayers for healing I get to go back up to the PICU area knowing that Meredith not only survived this disease, but she’s still improving — praise God!   Not everyone has their prayers of mercy answered like we did.  Not everyone in the family room will be surrounded by a group of praying believers, our family in Christ, waiting and hurting with us.   I am looking foward to being able to pray for the families there  and maybe even sharing some hope with them.

There are no words deep enough to convey my thanks to God for His blessings– His healing of Meredith, His strength in the dark places, and His people who loved us and waited with us.   And even if we were never given those blessings, we would still have everything we need in Him.  Because everything is complete in His gift of salvation.  There will be times times when we don’t get the answers we long for,  times when the storm leaves brokeness and pain rather than joy.  As we were reminded in church today before receiving the Lord’s supper, nothing on this earth matters more than our spiritual blessings in Christ.      

From my favorite hymn of late by John Stockers:

Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue;
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Hath won my affections, and bound my soul fast.

Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here;
Sin would reduce me to utter despair;
But, through Thy free goodness, my spirits revive,
And He that first made me still keeps me alive.

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart;
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found.

Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.