make a way

I thought I'd share a few things while I was online today....

First, just some recent random pics of Ethan. The first one is of me and him last week at his doctor's appointment in Boston. Pay no mind to my cheesy expression... I was trying to distract him from the long wait we had before the doctor came in, by taking funny pictures of us with the camera in my cell phone. The next is just him chowing down on some goodies at the high chair... he's getting much better at it! And finally, our little cutie, in motion!

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The second thing I thought I'd share is just a prayer request regarding Ethan's central line in his chest. With his new ability to crawl around, it's getting much harder for the adhesive on the bandage to stay put. So as he moves and wiggles, the bandage becomes loose and starts to come off. This isn't a good thing, because it puts him at risk for bacteria and infection in the insertion point of the tube going into his skin. We are only supposed to change the bandage and clean the area once a week to minimize exposure, however, lately we've had to change it more frequently. The skin around the bandage has become very irritated and Ethan scratches it, thus tugging at the bandage area, and even pulls it off this way as well. It's become a bit problematic and we're praying that no serious problems arise as a result of these situations we're dealing with in trying to keep the central line "safe". He needs this for a few more months, so please pray no bacteria/infections creep in and that he will stop "playing" with it. The tubing itself is also showing some wear since he's had it in him for so long. Pray everything remains good with his lines until it is time for them to come out. You can see the central line I'm refering to in the picture over on the top right hand side of this website. See the two white tubes that come out of his chest, and the bandage at the top? That whole package is his "central line". Imagine trying to keep all of that out of his reach (we pin the tubes to his clothes so we or he can't inadvertenly pull them), keeping the bandage in place (the bandage is protecting the area at which those tubes go into a chest and into a vein), and not damaging any of it in the process :-)

And finally, I thought I'd post the devotional I read the other day from "Streams in the Desert".... titled, Make a Way.

"I will make all my mountains a way" Isaiah 49:11

God will make obstacles serve His purpose. We all have mountains in our lives. There are people and things that threaten to bar our progress in the Divine life. Those heavy claims, that uncongenial occupation, that thorn in the flesh, that daily cross -- we think that if only these were removed we might live purer, tenderer, holier lives; and often we pray for their removal.
"Oh, fools, and slow of heart!" These are the very conditions of achievement; they have been put into our lives as the means to the very graces and virtues for which we have been praying so long. Thou hast prayed for patience through long years, but there is something that tries thee beyond endurance; thou hast fled from it, evaded it, accounted it an unsurmountable obstacle to the desired attainment, and supposed that its removal would secure thy immediate deliverance and victory.

Not so! Thou wouldest gain only the cessation of temptations to impatience. But this would not be patience. Patience can be acquired only through just such trials as now seem unbearable. Go back; submit thyself. Claim to be a partaker in the patience of Jesus. Meet thy trials in Him. There is nothing in life which harasses and annoys that may not become subservient to the highest ends. They are His mountains. He puts them there. We know that God will not fail to keep His promise. "God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven"; and when we come to the foot of the mountains, we shall find the way.

"The meaning of trial is not only to test worthiness, but to increase it; as the oak is not only tested by the storm, but toughened by them."