My grace is sufficient for you...

It's what Christ said to Paul, and I believe that the promise of 2 Corinthians 12:9 is for me (and our family) too!  Paul was writing to the church at Corinth and he was telling them of a problem that he was having, likely a physical problem, and well, this is what he said: "7 and lest I should be exalted above measure by teh abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.  8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."  WOW. So the Apostle Paul, called out of sin by Christ Himself to spread the word of God to ALL people dealt with infirmities of all kinds, including those which God would not take away from him, telling him instead that "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness".  I've heard it all my life, that God is a gentleman who would never force Himself on any of us, but that He stands at the door and knocks and WAITS for US to open the door to Him.  But what happens if we don't open the door, well, the simple answer is that we will die in our sins and be eternally with the devil in Hell.  But if, no when, we open that door, all kinds of amazingness is opened to us.  God promised that in Him we would have life, and not just life, that we would have it ABUNDANTLY.(John 10:10).  So, when we put everything in Him, all the stress, the worries, the medical issues, just life... He promised that He would be our strength (My strength is made perfect in weakness), and that we would be blessed with an ABUNDANT life.  How awesome is that.  Just the reminder that I needed this week.

So, yesterday's Dr appointments.  Our perinatologist is amazing.  I remember at this point during pregnancy with John, every Dr appointment was all doom and gloom and there was simply no encouragement towards hope.  Now, for SuperTonka, all that is spoken of has hope!  The measurements on the ultrasound say that the Cerebral Spinal Fluid is building within his ventricles.  BUT it also shows that his head is continuing to expand with the ventricles, meaning that there should be less intracranial pressure, therefore less pressure on teh brain matter that is developing which should mean that it is less likely to be damaged.  I know, there are a lot of conditional statements in all of that, but really, we're still in wait and see because we can't test more or know more until he's born!  So our job int eh meantime is to get him here safely.  What we (and the doctors) are currently thinking is that we let him grow for as long as possible before delivery so that he will have the possibility of fewer complications of being early to add to the stresses of the hydrocephalus.  Sometime in the next week or so, the perinatologist, neonatologist and neurosurgeon will have their big monthly sit down and discuss all their current cases that they are working together on, including Alexander!  After this meeting, we will meet with the Neonatologist and get their recommendations, and likely schedule Alexander's arrival!

Please continue to pray for us as we walk this road.  It's definitely not a particularly easy road to walk, even knowing that God is in control and that His grace is sufficient and that we can claim His strength.  We do have to still live this summer, though Hubby doesn't work through the summer since he works for the school board.  And well, while we think we have the right amounts of monies saved for the summer's bills and life, we could be very very wrong about that.  We know that God will provide everything that we need, but please pray that we will take the opportunities that He gives us to earn the funds that we need for continued trips to the specialists, the expected longer than usual stay in the hospital far away from our home, and that we will be fully prepared for whatever comes our way with Alexander's arrival.