January 5, 2010 10:30 PM

Hello friends,
     I trust that all of you had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year.  As Thomas said before, we had a good time with Micah and family here.  We are doing well in our new residence and I now have my in-loves (Thomas' mother says it shouldn't be in-laws) with me.  For those of you who don't know them, they worked in Nepal as missionaries/teachers for years.  So I now am blessed with help in the school department. 
     Thomas family has a tradition of every New Year drawing a verse for the year.   His parents will pray and choose more than enough verses for the family and then take turns drawing out the verses for each person and reading them.  This year since they were with us we did all the drawing and sent copies to the rest of the family.  I wanted to share Micah's with you.
     
     Micah:  Ps.66:8-12

Praise our God, O peoples,
       let the sound of his praise be heard;
 he has preserved our lives
       and kept our feet from slipping.
 For you, O God, tested us;
       you refined us like silver.
 You brought us into prison
       and laid burdens on our backs.
 You let men ride over our heads;
       we went through fire and water,
       but you brought us to a place of abundance.
     
     Thomas & I both drew the verses that dealt with comforting others, loving others unconditionally and giving to them out of what God has given to us.  It is a good tradition and 
God always gets the right verse to the right person.  
     Micah has been doing well this last week, sleeping good every night and having a very minimal amount of vomiting.  His Dr. said that he feels that it is due to muscle tone being affected by the meds and it will get better.  He has been much happier and has been smiling a great deal.  Today I went for his therapy sessions and when I got there I had to laugh because Micah looked like a mummy all tied down to the incline/standing table!  He had straps all over him!  When the therapists saw me coming they started laughing too and told me that they hoped I would show up for this.  Oddly enough, his body was almost completely straight and he was sound asleep.  They said that this was the most relaxed they had ever seen him.  When the took the strap off that was holding his head up, his head stayed up!  It stayed up for 3 1/2 hours straight, hands down in his lap and him sound asleep!  He missed speech therapy because we could not wake him up.  It was so nice just to see his head up.  Unfortunately he slept most of the day and it was due to his pump meds, but the Dr. wanted to let it go for the day and he believes that his body will adjust to the dose.  The good news about this part is that he will most likely get to come completely off of another of the old meds that was being given for blood pressure.  The less meds we're on the better I feel.  
     I took both sets of grandparents up to see him this afternoon and once they had him up in his chair we were able to keep him awake for a little while.  When the kids aren't with me the adults have to act like idiots or lower our standards to the level of 11 yr old boy humor (need I say more?) to get the kid to smile, but once he starts then they come easier.   We have had a lot of fun with him lately.  
     A couple of days ago I was praying and God gave me a verse out of Ps. 63.

"Because You have been my help, Therefore in 

the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice."  vs. 7

This was in my mind the rest of the day and what God spoke to me was this:
He is always there protecting us, watching over us.  We go through nothing without Him.  During those "seemingly" dark times we need to understand that we are not in darkness, but His shadow.   What safer place could there be than this?  Does it still seem dark?  Yes.  Is it still scary at times?  Yes.  But we must learn to recognize His presence and choose to not live in fear, but to rejoice in His protection over us.   There are days when I feel like I am walking through a dark tunnel that never ends, and each day God strengthens me to keep taking another step and another and another...  Every day we ask like a child and keep reminding God of the promises given long ago, we keep believing and we keep loving our Father who knew we were going to be here before the foundation of the world.  If we can't trust our Father then we can trust no one.
Blessings to you all,
Tina