A Heart for Homemaking: God's Mercy towards our Birthday Boy

I'm 3!

It's hard to believe 3 years ago I suddenly went into labor and Josiah was born...we had no idea if he would live or die. He wasn't breathing, but praise be to God, he finally started breathing and they rushed him to the NICU. God has saw fit to allow us to raise this precious little boy for 3 years now!! I'm still in awe.

As the 3 years have gone by I am more and more in awe of God's mercy towards us with Josiah!

The First thing I learned was h0w merciful God has been in regards to Josiah's health.
We were told due to his premature lungs he would have all kinds of breathing issues, including severe asthma. As of this day there is NO SIGN of asthma!! Thank you Jesus! Thank the Lord I found out after the matter, but was later told they had prepped the ICU for after his all day surgery. They did not expect him to handle it well particularly his lungs... to everyone's surprise he was able to go to a typical room/floor. Even when he had the flu he did not need to be hospitalized.

The second thing I have learned is how merciful God has been in regards to his cleft lip/palate.
Josiah had his big clinic last Friday at Children's Hospital and at one point I was so humbled I wanted to weep. Most of the kids there were there for cleft lip/palate follow ups. You could TELL they had surgery for cleft lips...Josiah on the other hand...not so much!! Sure if you look you can see it's different looking, his nose is some what crooked, etc. I can't tell you enough how humbled I was to see such a HUGE difference!! No it doesn't matter if you can tell or not...but the fact that God allowed Josiah to be barely noticeable...I was speechless...I just assumed the other kids looked like him. Also his tooth that is behind the front row, to everyone's surprise is an extra! That's a good thing! :) Better to have extra , then less I was told. Thank you Jesus!

Rocking Dakota's sunglasses. :)

Last but not least, I learned how merciful God has been with Josiah's therapy.
While in NH we had Early Intervention for him. They started with O.T. then we had a long struggle with literally teaching him to eat (so many factors I never thought about), swallow tests and more feeding therapy, then finally some physical therapy to try and get him to walk. Praise the Lord, he was walking by about 2 and learned how to walk on the uneven ground outside this past spring. :) But then there was a gap after we moved . After Savannah was born with Down Syndrome we finally got on Early Intervention in this area...Praise God! After evaluations we finally started working on speech therapy, but still have a long way to go, though he is saying a few words! With turning 3 means big changes, he "ages out of E.I." So we started the process of seeing about possibly getting him therapy through the school system and after talking to Savannah's therapist, we decided to try and get an evaluation at a private place and started with North East Rehab.

Since we still hadn't heard from the school system for further evaluations, where we go for E.I. agreed to allow him to stay in his little 2X2 group through the fall, so he could continue to work on sign language and communicating with kids his age. He LOVES it! We have to pay out of pocket, but I am still thankful there won't be another gap and delay for him! Then Thursday when I took him to his evaluation at North East, to my (and his E.I. therapists) surprise (and delight) was told he qualified and would start right away on therapy. We expected months of waiting and go from place to place for evaluations. God took it one step further and they are also approving him for some much needed O.T and Physical Therapy! Praise God!! I FINALLY feel like we are getting help for Josiah and Lord willing, can get him caught up and strengthened physically.

Some helpful things I learned (which I'm so excited to have answers):
The specialist in Boston pointed out he makes A LOT of sounds in the back of his throat. This is bad and will eventually damage his vocal chords, which is a big concern. We don't want to discourage ANY sounds he makes, but instead get really excited and encourage sounds in the front of the mouth. She doesn't think his palate or extra tooth are causing the issues in speech, yet if he hasn't made huge improvements within 6 months she wants to reexamine that sooner then a year.

showing you what the dental team did. :)

During his evaluation at North East ( I can't tell you how excited I was after meeting his new therapist) she was talking about kids the have weak muscles (make an o face...those muscles) when drinking from a straw stick it far back in their mouths and bite down. Josiah does this!! We had no clue it was due to his weak muscles! Because of that his swallowing becomes uncoordinated and it again comes out his nose. She has a device to work on that. His soft palate needs to be strengthened and he is very nasally. I found out when he is blowing on his food, he's actually blowing out his nose, not his mouth (it's hard to tell his face is all scrunched up)...so she has a device that will gently pinch the nose closed so he can't use it and will learn to use his soft palate and be aware of sounds from his mouth. SOOO freaking excited about all of this!! :)

Whoops, missed his mouth. ;)

I just want to say that even if God saw fit to not show mercy in any or all of those areas, HE is still a merciful, loving, God. I am a sinful wretch and do not deserve any of it and am so thankful for His sweet blessings and mercy!