Finding humor in life is like an Easter egg hunt. Some eggs are sitting right out in plain sight, easy to snatch up. Others require a bit of effort to find – they’re tucked under a leaf, nestled down in high grass, or hiding in the branches of a shrub.
But sometimes we’re stuck in that small part of the yard where there simply aren’t any eggs to be found. Life just isn’t funny there.
Watching your child suffer with a devastating illness must be like that. I have friends who are currently living in that nightmare. Their baby, Noah, has spent much of his first year of life in hospitals and in overwhelming, desperate, heartwrenching pain.
A few sleepless nights watching my healthy sons suffer with ear infections sometimes pushed me to the brink of physical and emotional exhaustion. Watching them get stitches in their chins, tubes in their ears, and sprains in their ankles sent me into maternal “fix it!” frenzies.
I cannot even comprehend the suffering that little Noah, his parents, Jeff and Kate, their six other children, and Noah’s grandparents are experiencing as doctors try to sort out the life-threatening, complex, baffling health issues this baby is struggling with.
Kate’s pregnancy was difficult; Noah’s delivery almost cost Kate her life. When mother and baby survived, we knew God must have a very special plan for this child’s life…we just didn’t think the plan would look like this.
Gifted with a quick, infectious smile, Noah can’t muster up many smiles now. There are no “Easter eggs” of humor to be found here, but there is much redemption and grace. Jeff, Kate and their kids purposed from the start to count the blessings in their lives and to remain thankful, no matter what.
“No matter what” has turned into something far more difficult than they ever imagined, but they are continuing to choose to be grateful for all that is right in their lives, even when much has seemed to go wrong. Their thankfulness has inspired me when I most needed to be inspired; it has taught me when I most needed to be taught; and it has convicted me when I most needed to see beyond my own small struggles and focus again on my bountiful “thankful list.”
You can let Noah inspire you, too. People all over the country are being touched by this baby’s life through the journal entries Kate and Jeff regularly post on their internet website. It’s not Pollyanna stuff. It’s honest, and if you have a heart, reading these entries will likely break it. But please read them anyway, all the way to the “thankful list” at the end of nearly every entry.
Jeff and Kate give glory to a God who gives His children grace to walk through the valley of the shadow of death; who helps them take one more step when all their strength is gone; who intimately understands the wrenching torment of watching a child suffer, because He watched His own Son suffer on a cross.
If you have access to a computer, I encourage you to get on the internet and allow Noah’s story to forever change you, as it has me. You’ll find it at www.homeschoolblogger.com/ourquiverfull.
Little Noah, I want to tell you something: Your life has already impacted more people for good than most of us ever will. It isn’t for nothing. When we belong to God, our lives… and our suffering… never are.