Prayer works.  I know this may be like “no duh” to you, but it is so fun when you see that firsthand.  What am I talking about?  Well, we had two answered prayers this past week.

1 – Our dear friends, Rich and Becky Duffield, who also happened to be our team leaders back in Kentucky are pregnant (well she is)!!  This is a huge deal.  After walking with them through years and years of trying, then seeing them adopt a crazy little boy named Sawyer in record time (really neat story that was totally the Lord), the Lord has blessed them with another child.  If you know her story in depth and why they were told they probably wouldn’t be able to have children, you would know that it was a one in a million chance for this to happen – good thing we serve a mighty God!

2 – I started getting sick around Christmas time and when we got to Encounter, I knew I had a cold but I pushed on because I knew that I had to do my job there – besides, mommies don’t get breaks.  Then, Kinsley started having a runny nose and complaining of her throat hurting, but no fever.  I thought she had gotten my little cold and it was no big deal.  I wasn’t concerned about Emerson because, as I had heard time and time again, babies hardly ever get sick when they are nursing. In the meantime, my throat kept hurting, and I started coughing like crazy.

Then, a few days after being home from Encounter, Kinsley started coughing.  Then, Emerson started coughing.  Except Emerson’s cough was really, really nasty sounding.  On top of that, we started noticing congestion and that she was overly fussy.  Still no fever for either of them.  We took Emerson to the doctor (she had to get 2 month shots on top of all of this!) and the doctors and nurses noticed right away that her cough sounded like RSV, that she was congested, and that she was pulling in around her ribs/stomach struggling to breathe some.  They also diagnosed her with a double ear infection (who knew they could get them that young??).  We ended up going back to the doctor the next day because she was running a fever and not wanting to eat much at all.  They tested her, confirmed it was RSV, that she was struggling, and that it would probably get worse in the coming days because it usually peaks on day 4-5 (this was day 3).  Since there is not treatment, they told us what to watch out for and sent us home with strict instructions to call them immediately if we noticed any breathing problems.

Talk about a concerned mama.  I watched her like a hawk (literally stared her down all the time) and didn’t leave her side for a long time.  When your child is struggling to breathe, and you hear the doctors say it will probably get worse and because she officially has RSV, it kicks everything up a notch and makes it way more serious, therefore, they are concerned, anxiousness can kick into high gear.  Ed and I knew the only thing we could do was pray for her and watch her.  We sent out emails to our ministry partners, family, friends, and posted it on Facebook so everyone would pray in hopes that she would get better and we would not have to be admitted to the hospital.

Fast-forward to Monday – although she still wasn’t eating better and was still coughing and congested, her breathing was better and her ear infection was clearing up (only in time for Kinsley to get sicker and them to confirm that she too has RSV).  I seriously cannot begin to tell you what a miracle this is.  We know two other babies – one is 6 months old and one is 1 month old – who got RSV, and both ended up in the hospital.  The fact that Emerson didn’t, nor did she get sicker when they said she would, is a miracle and an answered prayer.  RSV congestion and cough lasts forever (really only like 3 weeks but being cooped up inside that long makes it feel way that way!!), but they say to keep them away from people like a week or so.

This semester, my prayer has been that God would show up in big ways and do things that we can look at and say “Only God could do that”.  Though having 2 really sick kids (and a sick mama) isn’t the way we wanted to start 2013, the Lord has already answered that prayer!  Thank you for praying, caring, and encouraging us through this!!

“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” – Matthew 18:19