Wow….Sunday is (generally acknowledged as) “the day of rest”. Well, ain’t that the truth for Beckett?! He slept soooo much today. My parents and I arrived this morning to the news that our nurse was literally sweating after the workout Beckett just gave him. He said that Beckett was sooo out-of-control, he did everything he could think of to get him to calm down. Unfortunately (for the sake of his heart) / Fortunately (for the sake of his much needed rest), he wore himself out and eventually fell asleep. So the rest of the morning consisted of our “inside voices” while Beckett slept. Thankfully he maintained that “state of rest” until around 1:30pm or so. He woke up for a bit, we played with him, then rocked him back to sleep. He then slept in my mother’s arms for hours this afternoon. She was a champ. Beckett woke up a few times absolutely furious, yet my mother maintained her composure, and just rocked/bounced him back to sleep each time.
We think he could also be teething. We’ve been talking about this for months now, but aren’t seeing any teeth poking through yet. There are soooo many factors right now potentially contributing to his irritability, it’s truly hard to say what the actual culprit is (probably a combination of it all). Beckett had a crazy bad meltdown again this evening in which I didn’t really successfully calm him down from, he just kind of wore himself out and stopped. By that point, he coincidently summoned (by the screech of his scream) a few nurses to his room. As we were talking about what to do, or what all could be wrong, I looked down at Beckett (who was in my arms) and noticed that he was just “sitting there” staring at me while I was talking to the nurses. What a funny lil guy. Now with him just being as calm as he could be, the nurses decided to give him some of his meds a few minutes early….in which he follow up with a lil spit up. Thankfully we do not think he threw up his meds this time (as I think he did last night before we left). Another 20 minutes later, however, he threw up again; it was very little, but he still did it. Poor little guy… Please continue to pray for us as we are trying to figure out what may be best for him during this irritable time. He’s such a little trooper, but throwing up everything has gotta be “the worst”.
Before I conclude with a lil story, I want to ask for some prayer for some friends of mine. I just received word that a family from my school (Taylor University) is in need of prayer. A husband and wife named Chip and Debby are expecting there first child. However, they are only 20 weeks in right now and Debby has begun to dilate. The baby’s name is Sophie. There is obviously more to the story, but they just really need prayer right now. Sophie needs to “hang on” in the womb until at least 24 weeks to even give her a 50/50 chance of surviving, and if she came now she would only survive a maximum of 20 minutes. Please pray for this family.
I want to wrap this update up with a little story I was reminded of today by my mother from Mark 4:35-41 and Matthew 8:23-27 where Jesus calms the storm. As we were discussing the age old story (and “Sunday School” classic), I couldn’t help but think of Jesus simply saying to his disciples “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”, he then calmed the waves and amazed them. Yes, the same disciples who have already seen countless miracles by Jesus, however, this time he displayed his power over the wind and the waves. I guess I’m feeling obliged to share this because I completely resonate with the disciples. Not in a way where I feel like we are “on the same page”, or something….but more-so in that I feel embarrassingly faithless at times. I’m actually not addressing the issue as to whether or not God will heal Beckett, but rather how foolish I can be in all the amazing miracles I’ve genuinely seen before my very eyes with my son (just like the disciples with Jesus), yet surprisingly lack “faith”. Just like Peter (in Matthew 14)…I can get caught up in the waves and lose sight of my Lord. Guess what, it’s amazing (in a non-awesome way) how I completely (metaphorically) begin to sink! My God is in the business of miracles. My God is in the business of healing. And often times I feel as if the only thing that holds back his miracles is our lack of faith. HOWEVER, take note that this story of Jesus calming the storm ends with Jesus “reprimanding” his disciples, yet used it as another opportunity to teach them by revealing his power over the waves and the wind.
May God unleash his power, that even the wind and the waves obey, on my son. May we have the faith to trust he can heal, and that no matter what may happen….we never lose sight of our Lord.
— with Leah ‘Whiteley’ Rupp at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health.
Heart of Beckett 