God's Sovereign Hand!

Just in case you have been wondering where we have been I will give you a recap from the last week. Rob felt yucky; not horrible just not great Saturday and Sunday. Monday his sinuses were bleeding terribly! He had sores in his mouth and was very pale, he called to get into the doctor's who recommended he should go directly to the ER. From there I found out he was in quarantine for TB. Then he was out but being run through a bunch of tests. By around 1:30 pm the doctor called to tell me Rob was bleeding from his ears and nose and covered in ulcers! I knew his sinuses where bleeding but also found out he was bleeding from his ears and developing ulcers; things had taken a serious turn for the worse. He was being admitted and just so I knew it was very serious; he was being run through a CAT scan to make sure his brain wasn't bleeding. By the way he has ITP and just in case I hadn't figured it out it could be life threatening.

I decided not to tell anyone but the oldest kids as my information had left me with a lovely picture in my head of my husband sitting in a bed with open wounds, tubes, and blood pouring from his body. And yes I kind of had a feeling things weren't great even before the doctor was so wonderfully supportive. Normally I would have been at the hospital but we have two new children who have personally experienced the loss of at least one parent. It is not highly recommend for healthy bonding to bring a child home and two weeks later go into the hospital nor is it to bring them to see their Dad who looks like a monster from the description. Needless to say I was very concerned for Rob and the kids as well.

At the hospital I (Rob) was not being given all the information they were telling Elissa. The bleeding was all internal and the external ulcers were tiny red spots. I felt OK and did not look like the monster that Elissa had been told. I was told that my immune system had identified my Platelets in my blood as the enemy. When they figured this out my Platelets were down to 2000 and they should have been around 50,000. They gave me a CAT scan to find out if I had bleeding in my brain, that was the life threatening part. Luckily there was no bleeding in my brain and they admitted me to the hospital to start treatment. I was told that if all went well I would be out by the end of the week.

After the first treatment it was not looking good. (This was Tuesday when they told Elissa that Rob was not responding to treatment and they would try the steroid drip once more before they went with more invasive treatment. As a wife and mother this is when I became truly afraid. What was going through the heads of our precious new ones? They must have so many questions that we cant answer, or even understand! Our biological children were all told and each responded in their own way fear and again questions I could not answer. I knew that God was in control but it is very hard at times to trust the driver when you are blindfolded! God's ways are often not our ways, His plans not ours. Through trials we are to drawn closer to God, through suffering we are to be made more like Christ. They are not pleasant experiences ever but "God never wastes a heartache".) Rob's platelets had only come up to 3,000 and they were expecting 20,000 before they would even consider letting him go home. He was being pumped full of steroids to shut down his immune system and allow the other treatments to work. We found out that this disease was most likely caused by the live Malaria vaccine with Quinine we were given for our trip to Ethiopia. Rob very specifically told the nurse who was giving the vaccinations that we didn't want that one because of the possible side effects, but she assured us that that it was not the live version with Quinine. So it goes, this is why we researched all the shots and side effects before we got them!

Praise be to God, Rob was released on Wednesday evening! Much earlier than expected and to our great relief! We are truly thankful to God, our church family, and our friends as I don't know how we could have managed with out the prayers and support that went up for our family. We are thankful that Rob did respond to treatment and are praying that it will not be a chronic problem. God's hand formed this family one by one and His will be done for each of us.

It is amazing how many people have tapped into this blog and we don't know many of you, so we want to leave this with you today "Though the fig tree may not blossom. Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls- Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation" Habakkuk 3:17 & 18

The sovereign part of the story is not only that God knows what he is doing but by trusting that His timing was perfect we were not in Ethiopia when all of this happened. It would have been horrible to have to put Rob on an airplane and have him taken to most likely Egypt or Italy to find a decent hospital! By trusting that God's timing to get the kids was right we were at least able to be home with family and friends to love and support us through this trial. Rest asured more trials will come and for some trials there is no happy ending on this Earth. There are no Earthly answers and no words to comfort in those times; personally today we also remember a precious life taken from us all to soon. May we all know that God has plans that we do not see and that heartaches don't have to be wasted! Grace and peace to all of you!