We had 48 hours of victories for Flower-girl and are so relieved. The story of this past week is long and I am not sure when or if I will write it down. Right now we are a bit too tired to try, but perhaps in the future we will document the grace, faith and support this past week held.
There were three times the past week if I asked the doctors if I should be scared and three times they answered yes with varying degrees of severity. We would like to thank each of you that prayed so faithfully for us. We are overwhelmed by the number of people who prayed, in the scariest moments we know it was the Grace of God that upheld us for each moment. Thank you.
We are “officially” naming what Flower-girl has struggled with. We have been so silent about what is wrong because we haven’t been sure. Just this past week Flower-girl had 8 IV’s put in, 5 blood draws, two sputum test, a TB blood test, a high contrast CT, two ultrasounds, four stool/urine samples and a chest x-ray. She is a real trooper. She was battling so many things her symptoms were hard to pinpoint. Our infectious disease doctor though is pretty confident that Flower-girl had, amebias, giardia, and possible shigella (we may never know). The bigger issues were she had antibiotic resistant typhoid (which responded finally to a brand new antibiotic that is quite strong and must be administered via iv) in addition to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Flower-girl was vaccinated for typhoid and was on malarial prophylaxis. A simple google search will tell you that we believe God was merciful in the timing of her illnesses as well as the swiftness to our doctor in responding with appropriate treatment. What all this means is that we are so grateful that Flower-girl is feeling better, overwhelmed by His mercies and praying that all of this will be used for His glory in her life, our lives, the lives of those we have come in contact with.
There are layers of processing that need to take place as we process through this past week (well past three really), cultural, emotional, spiritual, and physical. Some I may do here most will probably be in private. A few thoughts I wanted to share in gratitude for you, our team who has faithfully served with us and prayed for us this past week.
The goodness of God is never changing had this blog been to share sad news or even had God chosen to call our Flower-girl home his goodness would remain. The very character of God doesn’t change in sickness or in health His goodness is the one thing we know to be true when circumstances quickly change.
Our children belong to the Lord. We trust him to write their life stories and guide them along it. Sometimes we cry out in anguish at the turns in the path but we cry to a God that is good and loves them more then we do.
Our choice to follow God where He led us we knew involved “risk”. We have never regretted saying yes in obedience to Him and moving to South Sudan. He knows the future and holds our family in His hands. The story He is writing for us and our children has always been His and we rejoice that we can be a part of what He is doing. This doesn’t mean we didn’t cry out in frustration or wrestle with feelings of guilt just that we were able to identify these as spiritual attacks and claim scriptural truths over Flower-girl.
The final detail is that we are in the hospital until the course of antibiotics is completed. The antibiotic she needs is only available in IV form and must be given three times a day. She is still struggling a bit with body temperature regulation so it is good to be there to finish the course of treatment. Practically this means another 5 “ish” days. This also means that I, Abuk, will miss all or most of our spiritual renewal conference with our team. I will not pretend this doesn’t make me sad. I really “needed” this time of refreshment but our God is so faithful He knows what we need and none of this is a surprise to Him. I am sure He will sustain and refresh in ways that are just what I need this even though different then I had hoped.
Your faithful prayers have upheld and sustained us. Thanks for praying to the healer of our body and souls we give God the glory for the healing he is doing in our little Flower-girl. We are deeply grateful.
PS updates through the week can be found on our facebook page (no hospital internet so posting to facebook via our phone is the simplest way to keep folks informed)
Thanks for standing alongside us we are so grateful for you (if you are reading this will you leave a comment letting us know who you are and that you prayed? We’d love to thank God for you and see the army God used to surround us at this time. Please share how you knew to pray for us if we don’t know you too. THANK YOU!)