I read a few "mom-blogs" because I enjoy the wit and humor of these women. One of the blogs I read regularly announced today that they are pregnant with their 5th child. Congratulations!! Having a child is a wonderful and amazing thing (the jury is still out on using my womb - I like the idea of being an awesome/super cool Aunt!)
They have been married for ~5 years and have 4 children (the oldest just turned 5 and the youngest is a year old.) What frustrates/angers/annoys me about the announcement is that their youngest child just recovered from a serious heart condition that threaten his life, that she whole-heartedly believes was caused and solved by their unending faith in God.
Not once in any of her posts (and she is very forth coming) is the acknowledgement that maybe it wasn't God who was testing their strength but her body saying "Hello, stop having so many children. Give me a few months of vacation to recover/renew/rebuild/refresh, before trying for baby #4." The mom-blog relates every daily thing back to God. I think that is crap!
From the mom-blog -
"MckMuffin is our 1 year old miracle son Stellan. When I was 22 weeks pregnant with him, he was in heart failure. He had SVT, Hydrops fetalis and heart block. At 24 weeks we were told there was no hope for our son, whose heart would not respond to medication. Stellan would be stillborn. We embarked on a journey of faith like nothing we could have ever imagined.
God blew us away with Stellan's miraculous recovery. He was born alive, healthy and with no sign of SVT! His doctors were sure he had outgrown it and we took him home.
When Stellan was 4 months old, he began to suffer from SVT again. Our faith walk deepened as we clung to God. Stellan was hospitalized for 6 weeks and had a risky, unsuccessful ablation performed in Boston. Between then and when he turned one, Stellan had a hospitalization in the ICU every single month.
When Stellan's SVT got so bad that we nearly lost him a few times, once when he coded on the table mere days after he turned 1, he had another emergency ablation. Although the outlook was grim and the hope for complete success was slim, we put our son in God's hands again.
Why God chose to heal our son on earth is something we cannot fathom. But He did. Stellan's second ablation was a rip roaring success and he has been free from SVT since November 9, 2009 with no permanent damage to his heart.
Stellan is the light of our lives. A dimpled darling, he loves to cuddle, giggle and be doted on by his three older siblings. We have vowed to never stop praising God for the miracle that Stellan is."
I was baptised and raised ELCA Lutheran (Catholic-lite is what GAH calls it). I believe in God and that there is an after life, but I have a difficult time believing that God impacts my daily life.
I abruptly woke up this morning before my alarm, thinking I had forgotten/lost something very important (in fact it was in a safe place - where I always keep it!), did God wake me up or was it just me being neurotic? Mostly likely neurotic!
In the news you read/hear about so many bad things that are happening, I just can't believe that an almighty Lord would allow so many mean, evil, daily things (ex. the pre-teen in Florida who was set on fire by boys his age that were mad about $40. The boys now face murder charges. Fortunately, the burnt boy is doing well and from the reports is make great progress with his recovery.) Would a daily, helping you make decisions God allow those boys to set someone on fire??
On the grand scale of things, yes I believe that God is there and has an impact. I don't believe that God caused the heart defect in the mom-blog's unborn child. I believe it was her body rejecting the forth pregnancy in five years. I do believe that the mom-blog's family found strength in God and allowed her family the ability to deal with and over come the illness. I believe that the mom-blog has listened to her body for her current pregnancy (probably because she was too busy worrying and providing for her ill son,) I just wonder if she listened long enough and what will happen with this newest addition.....I guess I'll have to keep reading:)
-ELT
Would you like my comment on this? When you post on religion you know you are going to get everyone's opinion especially if they disagree with you. I totally believe that Jesus has a purpose for our EVERYDAY life, in the huge things, like the birth of a sick child, and in the small things and He even works through alarm clocks. I only say it because He does it in my life continually. I do believe we have free will and make our own decisions, and I pray every day to stay in His will, but I don't always succeed, evil is alive and among us. I am by NO means perfect and that is why I need a Savior. But it is Jesus who conquered evil. We can't see the end or always understand it in human terms, but I totally believe He is there to clean up the mess we create when we don't follow His will, if we ask Him for help. It will not always be a pretty ending. He is loving but just. He doesn't promise a happy ending, just support through it. We can continue this conversation over lunch if you like. Know that I love you and would love to tackle this even deeper if you would like :)
ReplyDeletethat was Laura by the way, not Shells
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