A very kind and thoughtful friend sent me this lovely "story" via email. I decided to post it, because I find it so extremely fitting for this time in mine and Adam's life... and maybe you would find it fitting in your life as well.
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Malachi 3:3 says: 'He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.'
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This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: 'He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.' She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?' He smiled at her and answered, 'Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it.'
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p.s. - Happy Birthday to my hubby today!
9 comments:
Thank you for posting that story, Kasey. Your willingness to share your experience is allowing us to witness the shining image of our Lord developing in you as your "silver" is being refined. We continue to pray for you, Adam and Ethan.
wow, that's a really neat story. thanks for posting it. and tell adam happy birthday. i hope the two of you are able to celebrate in some small way!
Wow. That's all I can say to that post...
You don't know me, but I am friends with Amanda, which is how I heard about Ethan. I just want you to know that I am praying for you, Ethan, and your husband. Grace Baptist Church of Plymouth, Indiana is praying, too. I understand how encouraging it is to know that people all around are interceding on your behalf during a difficult time in your life. I hope we can be an encouragement to you through our prayers. But I also have to say that reading your posts on this blog has been an encouragement and a challenge to me. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings as well as the updates on Ethan.
Thank you for sharing the story...it was wonderful. What a great reminder about the blessing of God working us in the fiery trials so that He might see Himself in us...wow!
Happy Birthday, Adam! Hope you all had a wonderful day and were able to celebrate with family!
Carrie Knott
Happy Birthday, Adam. You're never forgotten and you are prayed for along with your dear family. We look forward to a great year of God's best for you. Lovingly, the Hunts
thank you for posting that. we all can learn from it. i hope you had a wonderful day with your family.
michelle
Heelo Kasey, i am a friend of Erica's and just wanted you to know i have been praying for you all and Ethan a lot and will continue to be. You are so strong, The Lord is so faithful.
Hi,
I've been following your page for some time now and kept little Ethan in my daily prayers. I read this post and I was taken back to the day we had our BMT conference at our hospital.
A little about our story. My son was diagnosed with infant leukemia a couple days before he turned 4 months old. He underwent 3 rounds of chemo and was considered to be in remission by day +7 per BMA. He continued to do well, never once spiking a fever, even at nadir. We were told he would and we were inpatient from diagnosis (Aug 2007) until discharge Feb 2008. It was not easy!
You mentioned that they have not found a match for little Ethan. Because my son is half mexican/half taiwanese, they felt finding a match for him would definitely be challenging. We ended up finding a 5/6 cord blood match. Is that something your hospital is willing to look at or because of the severity of the disease, it has to be bone marrow?
I also wanted to let you know that my son had his transplant December 3, 2007 and did wonderful. He engrafted a lot sooner than they the regular CBT's but they seem to beleive it had alot to do with the cell dose amount he received, a whole 25cc's, which was alot. It was after his transplant that he had his first fever spike with negative cultures. They say with foreign cells injected into your body, your body reacts to it by spiking a fever. We did encounter a very bad infection about 20 something days after transplant and had to get his double lumen broviac pulled. As for mucositis, my son didn't have any visible mouth sores, although he had a couple on his bum, now we can only imagine the insides because he stopped eating very early into transplant. Since he was strictly on breastmilk I didn't want that taken away from him so before his transplant, although he was still eating, I requested them put a NG tube down because once mucositis was present, it wouldn't of been done. One of the things that helped was we kept his gut working, we fed him continuously at one point 5cc's a hour just so when he was starting to heal it wouldn't of been such a shock to his body.
My son also has no GVHD to date. They say with CBT's the chances of GVHD are a little slimmer, being that the cells in cord blood are new, immature, unexposed, etc. They don't know where they truly belong hence a longer engraftment period also.
My son did have TBI (total body irradiation). He had 3 days 2 sessions each day. Although the side effects of radiation is long term but we were willing to face that challenge when it came because we were willing to do anything to get him in remission and keep him in remission.
One thing I was told was although infants battling leukemia had a poor survival rate, I never gave up and never lost my faith. Baby's are very resilient, very. Believe and your faith is amazing! I'm so proud you have never wavered.
I know what your daily life is like, I know your fears, your concerns, your happiness, your thankfulness, I know what you are going through. I just hope that with what I have shared with you today, I have helped in some way. Even though I know nothing about JMML, we share a lot in common, our baby's battling leukemia. Please email me if you'd just like to talk, vent....I understand!
Sharon Ramirez
chinagerl61@hotmail.com
Hey Kasey,
You, Adam and Ethan are in our thoughts and prayers daily. Lucas still prays for Ethan every time that he prays and reminds us to pray for him if we forget. He loves to look at Ethan's pictures on your blog. We have grown to love Ethan even though we have never met him. You and your family are loved and prayed for.
Mendie
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