One Week later--answered prayers (1)

The last week has kind of been a whirlwind and it's hard to believe that tomorrow is that one week mark since Emma's surgery.

We prayed for so many things and God answered.

Day 1 we prayed:

Whatever happens, God's Name would be glorified and all GLORY AND HONOR AND PRAISE would go to HIM!  When amazing things happen--which they will--we must not ever forget, He had this in His plan from the beginning of Time!  None of this is surprising Him--

We saw Emma touch the lives of nurses and caretakers simply with her beautiful peaceful spirit.  And everytime someone said how amazing she was, we gave glory to God for what He was doing.  I guess I didn't expect to tell our entire family story as many times as I did.  But, everytime someone responds in awe, I am surprised.  It's just the path God has called us to, just like He calls other people to other things.  

And even though the results of the surgery were COMPLETELY different than anyone expected....none of it surprised God.  We rest assured He has a greater plan than we could ever ask or imagine.

Day 2 we prayed:

That every nerve, every cell, every tissue would be getting ready so that the doctors can see clearly how to help her, and healing can come in ways we do not expect.  

This is no exaggeration.  She had almost ZERO pain.  It was managed with meds the 1st 24 hours or so, but after that, she asked for Ibuprophen One time.  Her body recieved this invasion and healing came quickly.  After the initial 3 days laying flat--she was on her feet, and has been ever since.

Day 3 we prayed:

DR. TROUP SEES all he can possibly see to help Emma. That his hands are guided to places he may not expect. That he is given an extra measure of wisdom and perhaps tries something he has never tried before and it is wildly successful in an unexpected way. And mostly pray he sees it all as the POWER of GOD at work.  

I have to say, when he came out after surgery his face was surprised to say the least.  I'm not sure he really knew how to tell us she didn't have a tethered cord or that she may never have had a spina bifida closure.  There were no signs of it.  This leaves room for many unanswered questions and a future for Emma that could be riddled with other surprises.  We have a follow up with him next Thursday so we will see what he says then too.

Day 4 we prayed:

Emma's body would be getting prepared in every way possible for this surgery and be in the best shape possible to combat any threats to her immune system or healing process.  

She had no issues with pain.  She had no infections.  Her immune system and healing systems seemed to fire just fine.  For that we are so very thankful.

Day 5 we prayed:

1.  Pray OFF any spiritual baggage that came with Emma (and Joshua if you'd like to pray for him tonight too)--generational curses, spiritual baggage, ties that bind her to something that is not Truth.
2.  Pray the BLOOD OF JESUS to cover her inside and out.  
3.  Pray for her to come to Know Jesus personally and truly understand His LOVE for her
4.  Pray the Frankincense Oil will also aid her in being open to recieving what Jesus has for her. There is something about it that I cannot fully explain that takes me deeper spiritually--and in particular feelings about "Father".  May she know the LOVE of her earthly Father as well as her heavenly Father.

We saw Emma's faith visibly grow in this past week.  NOTHING can compare to that.  She found out right before surgery that people were praying for her and so she thought that meant everyone in the world apparently...=)  She asked an OR nurse to pray over her right as she went in to surgery--and she did.

We heard her ask us for prayers because she KNEW Jesus was with her.

I personally witnessed one of my most tender mommy moments with her on discharge day as she sat on a chair and just closed her eyes and raised her hands up to the air rattling off a prayer in CHINESE that included the NAME OF JESUS!.  I got the shivers.  She knows He is real and she is covered by Him.

She got to spend a few days with daddy alone and they connected in such sweet ways as well.  And she was open to it and loved it.  She asked her earthly daddy to pray to her heavenly Father several times. So precious.

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I'm going to do the next several days in another post for length sake

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Suffice it to say, a parent obviously would never wish their child would have to go through such a scary and hard/painful process.  But, we saw transformation almost daily in her.  Please hear my heart when I say we are so grateful that God is using this situation to bring Glory to Himself and to draw her and others closer to HIm.  We are thankful for this storm because He is Glorified.  (not because we desire pain for our child of course).  But, we see His purposes are not our purposes and sometimes we need to weather something challenging to get to the next level of growth.  She is definitely growing in her faith.

Thank you Jesus.

stay tuned for more answered prayers...