Blessed Each Day: Trials that Teach

Today I'm feeling blessed to know that each trial I go through in life ultimately gives me a chance to grow as a person.  I think the Lord plans it that way. =-)

 

One of the greatest trials in my life was when the Lord gave me a sick baby, and I didn't know how to make him better.  The doctors didn't know how to make him better.  And ultimately, we were afraid he would die.  One of the primary jobs of a mother is to feed her child and watch him grow.  But my child wouldn't eat; and he wasn't growing.  It was an utterly helpless feeling.  It was also an opportunity for me to learn that when I have absolutely no control, God has absolute control.

 

Through Samren, Eric and I were given the opportunity to learn that "special needs" doesn't have to be a scary phrase.  We learned that feeding tubes, and medications with side effects, and doctor's appointments in far away places can all be manageable, for the love of your child.  We learned how to be an advocate for our child.  We learned how to talk to insurance companies.  We learned how to go to another doctor when the first (or second, or third) didn't give us answers.

 

The most important thing we learned through the trial of Samren's illness, was that we could CHOOSE to be parents of special needs children in the future.  We didn't choose to be open to special needs with Samren's adoption.  God chose it for us, in order to grow us into the parents He needed us to be for our future children.  Because of the *trial* of Samren's health, we now have Bright and Kendi, who both had known special needs when we adopted them.

 

Today, I am blessed to have gone through the many trials in my life.  And I have faith that our current trial of unemployment will grow our family in new ways that will benefit us in the future.