Monday, December 28, 2020

Casting My Corona Cares on Him

 


Dear Praying Warrior,


Merry Christmas, thank you for your gift to us in the form of praying for Anna and us. I know there are some people who pray everyday for us, others who do so when they get this, and still others that pray when God places us on their mind. All of it is a tremendous encouragement in love for us. I can think of no better way of exercising our hope in God than to pray. I want to apologize for not updating sooner. I have found myself more tired than usual with the demands of working at Target and loving my family well. Recently, there has been dryness in my walk with the Lord. This entry is a good deal about my walk with God as Anna’s father amid the Coronavirus. Feel free to skip down to the prayer requests that are more squarely about Anna, asking for prayers for Anna is of first importance. 

 

We have been blessed during this Coronavirus. Some of the noteworthy blessings include health, employment, lower APR on our mortgage, greater accessibility for Anna in our home, a great start to homeschooling, my bride and I have lost a combined 70 pounds, and the icing on the cake came in the form of a church that we didn’t know of reaching out to us at Christmas wanting to be the hands and feet of Jesus. They eagerly came alongside us in prayer, Christmas cards, and gifts to the fame of God.

 

Once the Coronavirus came to my neighborhood, all I could think about was Anna lung history, aspiration, airway clearing issues, Trachiamalacia and her Chronic Atelectasis. For me, this year has been a time to “check yo’ self” on a faith level and I have found Jesus to be both Sovereign and Protector. When I say “I have found Jesus to be” that means that I went looking this year. Do I really believe those 2 things about who God is, or is that just my Christian lip service?

 

 Surrendering all things Coronavirus to Jesus’ care has been a test in trusting His sovereignty.  Somewhere along the way of becoming a husband, a father, home owner, financial provider, a nice car driver, the stakes got higher. There is more to trust God with now. I struggled to hand things over to God, my bride frequently reminded me that God is in control whenever I would bring a news headline to her attention. "Even if the Coronavirus comes to us, He will be with us." It's almost as if within my marriage we were battling the virus differently with me as the personification of “works” and Lindsey was the personification of “faith”. I adhered to all the best practices and due diligence for minimizing the likeliness of contracting the virus and Lindsey kept on praising God. Lindsey helped me see that I stuck my head in the news a bit too often. If Jesus is the Rock I’m standing on, why was I distressed over what the Coronavirus might/could/maybe do to a little girl with a history of lung problems? I wondered if my stance of “works” was really a lack of “faith”.

 

Working 40 hour a week with the general public during the pandemic created a nervousness within that wasn’t quenched by a mask and sanitizer. Some of my coworkers’ chatter at work contributed to this growing fear within. In my self-righteousness I felt justified to worry because of Anna. I had gotten so desperate one day that I just stopped everything and asked myself: Can God really protect me from microbes? Looking back, I see Satan trying to use Anna’s disability as a foothold, actively tempting me to take control of my life rather than to offer it up to the Lord. I relented and asked Jesus to protect me.  By God’s grace this test came to a head with a sincere appetite for God’s protection rather than running away from Him.

 

In my quiet times, it became apparent that my view of Omnipotent God had gotten small. It is out of God’s love for me that he protects me!  As Anna's father I want power to control all the variables, however there are too many variables for me to control. I can’t control everything, so I pray to the One who is Sovereign and commit what I can control over to Him. Many times, on my way to work my repeated prayer has been “Jesus you have always been my protector from unseen things, that includes Coronavirus today.” The Bible pretty clearly states that the cure for anxiety and worry is prayer, I think I was slow in my prayer closet about presenting these things in faith to God. There was a time where my “works” preceded my “faith” in dealing with the pandemic. Now I got faith first with a can of Lysol not far behind.

 

I want to leave you with a sweet prayer. Simon is growing a heart for prayer in his 4-year-old body and soul. His passion to pray ebbs and flows, but when its on, phew, he shares the sweetest words of faith to a listening Lord. “There’s so much to praise You for, the thankfuls never end. You are in control. Amen.” I don't want to forget this prayer.


“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear (reverence) and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his purpose.” Phil 2:12-13

 

Please Pray for:

 

- Anna’s wrists. Her persistent chewing and biting breaks her skin in several spots. Grandma Sandy has made dozens of custom finger braces that work great however Anna still finds ways to get to the skin. It’s a self-soothing comfort issue mixed with saliva management; she has been biting her wrists daily since she was less than 2. May the Lord redirect her hand chewing tendency, and improve her secretion management.

 

- Anna’s hips. For God to supernaturally reverse the subluxation occurring with the femur and hip socket joint. That her hip joint would grow in correctly. Her Cerebral Palsy muscle tone, Dystonia, and being non-weight bearing are the primary cause for this hardship.

 

- Anna’s eyes. May she continue to progress in ability with the eye-gaze devices so that one day she could effectively communicate. This would open up so many more way to teach school to Anna. Recently we were told that Colorado Springs has a great school for the blind. Pray that this coming year we would see if it is a fit for Anna.  Anna has cortical visual impairment and optic nerve atrophy as visual challenges. 

 

-Anna’s lungs. This year’s sleep study showed that she still needs the help keeping her lungs open at night. We are still on 2 kinds of meds to help her breath effectively. Praise God that Anna has not been sick to the point of needing oxygen in many months. Anna has chronic atelectasis and tracheomalacia.  

 

-Anna’s brain. Something I forget to pray for often is her periventricular leukomalacia, hydrocephalus, and polymicrogyria. The first diagnosis happened the first year of her birth and she is living with the results from it today. Anna has holes in the white matter of her brain where once there was brain cells now there are holes. Pray for Anna’s shunt tube, valve that they would not get infected or shift in their placement in her brain and body. That her hydrocephalus would be managed well by the provision of such medical advances. There are no surgeries or medicinal treatments for the holes and for her polymicrogyria. They are there impacting her disability until the Maker of the brain can restore her brain back to the original design and intent for which He designed it.

 

-Anna’s sleep. Nurse Emily continues to be terrific in providing 3 nights of refreshing rest a week for us. During the night we manage Anna’s feeding, medication, diapering, repositioning, and airway clearing. I attend to Anna on the nights we don’t have a nurse and it has gotten a little more challenging. The medication needs to be given 3 different time during the night. On a good night that is mostly all I do. Recently Anna has been staying up, continuously trying to manage her secretions, or sometimes just chewing her hands. When she does this for 2-3 hours during the night, I need to monitor her more closely than just having the camera on her. 

 

-Anna’s therapies. Anna is a hard worker, she always feels up for working out. She seldom complains about putting in effort. May the Lord give vision to therapists Chelsea, Cassidy, Bruna, Dave, and Emma. That Anna would not just maintain her gains but that milestone to the glory of God would be achieved. We are praying about another intensive therapy session if we can arrange the timing and funding in the coming year.


-For God to be our help. A very real help in our days and hours of caring for our children and meeting their needs. The body of Christ, the church has always been so gracious to us in our needs.


With Love,


The Currats