Do we need to keep him on a charger..

There is this silly rendition of the Beatles song that the girls love to sing in the car on our way home. They like to sing it when we round the corner towards our house and will fuss at me till I start them on the tune. It is called Two of Us..and starts out: Two of us sunday driving..(then a bunch of lines we only halfway know) and then there is the chorus:

On our way home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going hooooome....

This tune has been running through my head all day long. Samuel is in great shape today! Peak performance..back up to baseline.. fully recharged! I sometimes wonder if we could hook him to a recharger of some kind would be be able to keep those batteries running! Seriously.. is the IV fluids with dextrose the key to keeping his charged?

Sam is definitely ready to get back to his sisters. Once home, we just need to keep him healthy and hope we get lucky and make it a little longer this time. 9 hospitalizations in 9 months make me leary of setting any specific goals but I have hope as at least we now have a way to feed him when the tummy shuts down, but I know the intestinal tract itself could be part of our issue and I don't think he is up to baseline due to our new way of tube feeding. I think that the TPN and the fluids and the oxygen and the rest all helped to get him over the hump. But for now I am praising the Lord for this turn of health and am praying for more time to enjoy this state. I now know we will not take ANY down-turn for granted. We WILL head off any and all medical downturns with vigilant care about illness exposure and or germies and or fevers or anything that will stress his little system.. vaccines are still on the table but I am scaredy cat of them right now.

I had another kind visitor today. She was a good friend from High School and I literally have not seen her in like 15 years..did I say that..wow sounds strange as it felt like we fell right back into normal like it was 9th grad chem class. whew 15 years or more. Not even family and she treked over here while in town for a meeting. How can I say how much the love of friends and their prayers has meant to our family? She stayed so long with us..I should not have let her stay so long but it was so nice to see her again. Her daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 3 and had a brain surgery to remove it and then 20 months of chemo..so scarey for their family. What a strong fighter she is and an example to other children of her perseverance and strangth. She is doing well now but I will keep her in our thoughts and prayers too. God sends angels among us I tell you..to show us how strong we really can be if we trust him to give us the tools. Hearing from her experience inspires me. I know Jesus has walked with her family and they seem to have really grown from their experience.

I will leave this post with the story of Hannah and her son, Samuel. This is the story for which we named the son we long anticipated and prayed for. Today I talked with my friend about this and we talked about the two aspects of the story from the Book of 1 Samuel explaining the meaning of Samuel's name. It means "asked of God" or "heard by God" or in some versions "I am God". I chose this name because like Hannah, I had asked God to bless us with a son. I was not like Hannah in that my womb was not closed to having children and had already been twice blessed. I guess I also was not promising to give up this son to the service of the Lord as a priest as she did, although in a way.. we all hope our son's will be God's servants.

Jason and I had long felt our family would be "complete" with a third child..a son, if the Lord felt it was right. It seems selfish to ask for more when we have been blessed with two beautiful and most beloved daughters but like Hannah I felt there was something still missing and i had more love to give. I am sure other moms could relate to that feeling. Hannah's husband said to her, "Don't I mean more to you than 10 sons?" Wow, what a guy thing to say, right?..he just did not understand. She kept her promise to God when he answered her prayer of a baby boy. She called her son Samuel, because I asked the Lord for him. She sent her son to be a priest Under Eli after she had weaned him. He was still very young when he was taken to serve the Lord. I can't imagine the level of this mother's sacrifice but I can imagine the love she had and how grateful she was for the pleasure of being his mother. She went on to have other children.

The other part of this story is that Samuel was considered a prophet because he was directly called by the Lord to serve him and the Lord shined on him for his loyal service. Samuel said, "Here I am, Lord".. and when I read that line I can't help thinking of the lyrics and music to "Here I am, Lord..It is I, Lord... I can hear you calling in the night.. I will go Lord if you need me. I will hold your people in my heart." Samuel not only was an answer to Hannah's prayers but was chosen by the Lord. Samuel served the Lord as his loyal servant. I think our Samuel was chosen too. He was an answer to our prayers and yes, a blessing to our family but his worth and purpose are far greater and will serve the Lord in a much greater way through his life. His sacrifices are not in vain.





1 Samuel 1 (New International Version, ©2010)

1 Samuel 1
The Birth of Samuel
1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite[a] from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. 6 Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s house. 10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

12 As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”

17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”

18 She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. 20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,[b] saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”

Hannah Dedicates Samuel
21 When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow, 22 Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always.”[c]
23 “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his[d] word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

24 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,[e] an ephah[f] of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. 25 When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, 26 and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. 27 I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.