clear vision

One of the unwanted souvenirs we brought home from our recent adventure in Honduras was an eye infection on our daughter's cornea. Yikes!

Its been about 3 weeks of eye drops and worry -- drops for her, worry for me -- and still there are blurry spots in her vision. I feel sad about this blurry vision, as a Mom I just want to fix it.

The doctor said this type of infection is caused by a virus that is dormant in the body until triggered by stress. In this case the virus was triggered by sun and stress. Sun, because we live in Portland and it can be strange and a shock to the eyes to find oneself suddenly in its bright shiny presence. (Honduras was very hot and VERY sunny!) And adding to the stress was the high fever she had five days in a row during our trip. Yep, that'll do it.

For now we pray and continue to follow medical advice. And because I'm a Mom, I get to worry...its part of the Mommy-package. I've been thinking of this vision thing in terms of how it relates to life, with the life being full of stress and sometimes resulting in scare tissue and blurry spots. And just like with McKenzie's eye, prayer is a big part of restoring that clear vision.

"...in Jesus' name, amen." Is how I usually end our prayer at dinner, but tonight T.Michael interrupted me with, "No, not amen. Jesus, thank you that Jackson is with you in heaven, and that now he can praise You there...in Jesus' name, Amen."

You see, earlier today I had to let T.Michael know his little buddy Jackson from T-ball last year passed away because of cancer. I was so nervous to tell him, because he's been having some of his own anxiety about death and loss. Jackson's Dad had explained how to share the news, he encouraged me to present the facts and see how T.Michael wants to process it.

So, today was the day. I showed him Jackson's photo, and told him about the cancer, and that Jackson's body died. And he said, "Okay." And walked back to play his video game. I wasn't sure if he understood, but after hearing him pray with such confidence and peace, I know he gets it. I didn't mention anything about Jackson praising Jesus in heaven...he just knows.

Jr Hi Girls

Today I had so much fun with our small group of Jr Hi Girls. They can be so fun and giggly, yet they wrestle with really big issues. They show me unconditional love, its very refreshing. Its an amazing whirlwind watching (mostly listening) to them process serious things like a friend with cancer, Grandma dying this week, a brother going back to Iraq and in the same breath bursting into giggles about a movie and of course their favorite subject boys! Dorine is really my hero, she is the leader of our zany group and has an amazing way of keeping us on track and pointing us back to God's word. Somehow through constant interruptions and distractions she keeps us focused on Jesus!

Shawn

I dedicate this post to my good friend Shawn.
She inspired me to blog again, so here I am! Until Shawn talked to me I was suffering from a wierd kind of writer's block -- really it was "writer's fear." I had read another friends blog last summer and, well, I read something that hurt my feelings. Then I thought, wow, what if I offend someone in my blog?...and all this resulted in writer's block. Until Shawn reminded me to pray before I post. Hmmm. Sounds basic enough. Why didn't I think of that?! Thanks Shawn!