This Friday is Nick’s golf tourney! Tomorrow (Monday) is the deadline for last minute sponsors and gifts for the raffle/auction and there’s still room for more golfers. Get all the info here...
A message from Lisa, Nick’s mom:
Do you remember the pictures of my son lying in the PICU with a machine breathing for him and 19 different tubes going in and out of him? (see that photo) Do you remember what your thoughts were?
Did you have the faith of a mustard seed or did you feel like the disciples who were told by Jesus to seat the crowd of 5000 men, women and children and then feed them from the 5 loaves and 2 fish (Matt. 14:13-21)?
No way, God! Are You going to pull this one off?!
Then immediately after he performed that miracle he tests their faith again. He takes them out on this boat and Jesus goes to pray by himself. When he gets back, the boat has drifted out and the wind and waves are crashing all around. So instead of waiting for them to come to him, he takes off walking on the water toward them! They freak and say it is a ghost.
He says "Take courage! It is
Wow, he really socked it to them that day! So, when they couldn't - or didn't believe - he still came through for them. At least that is how I view it.
But what if they would have run out of food or if the waves would have knocked Jesus over? Would I still see it that way? Would their faith still have grown from those experiences?
God has been the Great Physician these past 8 months for Nick - I can't see it any other way. Yet I have this one area of my life that I am just out on that boat with the waves and wind feeling like they are going to swallow me. And even though I know firsthand the works of my God, I struggle and question with what I sometimes see as the hypocrisy of my faith. Can I step out and grab hold of His Mighty Hand once again even if the ending doesn't turn out the way I want it to? If you feel so inclined, please pray for His strength and discernment in my life.
I pray that strength for my children also, as they continue to come out of the shell-shock of this experience with their brother and find a place in their lives to continue building a solid faith.
I pray for Nicholas, too. We had been dealing with this for a couple months when he woke up from his coma. I will never forget him asking me how long he was "gone for." When I told him 2 months, he said, "That's weird." It seems like he keeps trying to catch up with where he has been and is now.
So where is Nick in his recovery?
Well, Oct. 30th he could stand for 3 minutes unassisted. It took a lot of concentration to stay balanced.
On Nov. 20th he started the hyperbaric oxygen treatments - he has had 30 treatments and when I tested him the other day (it was 8 weeks since his last test), he stood for 16 minutes! He was rock steady, with little thought to the task. The only reason he fell over was because his little brother tackled him!
He uses his walker for half to 3/4 of a day and can do several pushups. The tremors in his hands are pretty obsolete too. In spite of all this progress, he is not as confident as he was before that he will walk. (The tortoise is taking longer than he would like to cross the finish line.) Pray his doubts will be wiped away.
This week is the golf tournament for Nick. Thank you to all of our angels that are working so hard to make this happen.
Thank you for walking this journey with us in 2007 and may we all keep our eyes on Him and not our circumstances in 2008.
Love you all,
Lisa
