Minus one

Weeeeellll, this post is long overdue! I'm catching up on several things. Blogging with a four-month-old has become quite a challenge!

Every day sweet Chunka Munka grows more and more. Every day I am more and more thankful to the Lord for sending her my way. This week we will celebrate her true 4-month birthday. 1/3 of her first year gone? Goodness, but time truly flies.

I need to update on a big event in Chunka's life. On December 30, Chunka was born with what our pediatrician called an "extra digit" on her hand. Now, if you go and google the term "extra digit" you will probably see a bunch of pictures of hands with tons of extra fingers on them.

Chunka's was a very small flesh-only digit on her right hand. It looked more like a skin tag than anything else. The doctor said that usually they can just be taken off, but in Chunka's case she needed to see an orthopaedic surgeon. After seeing one of the best in Birmingham, we were told that she had a vein in her digit, and she would need to be put under anesthesia at Children's Hospital to have it removed. We had to wait until she was over 3 months, however, so that she would weigh enough.

So, on Monday, April 4 we headed over to the hospital at 4:30 a.m. to check our little sweetie in for out-patient surgery. It was a tough little morning, but SP did great! The hardest part of the whole morning was handing her off to the nurse and saying goodbye to her at the surgery door. When she came back, she had a little cast on her arm and an IV in her other arm, and she was so pitiful! Thankfully a few hours later we headed back home so that we could get her settled in.

When we arrived, I laid SP down for a nap. So when I went in a few minutes later to check on her and saw that she had worked her cast off of her arm, I was a little hysterical {to say the least!} We went to our pediatrician and he patched the sweet girl up. Here we are three weeks later, and she is doing great!

Words really fail me when I try to express how I feel when my sweet little one is in pain. It makes me realize how great the Heavenly Father's love for me ~ and each of us ~ must be! How He longs to take us under the shelter of His wings and comfort us if we will only call on His name! Praise be to the Lord for his amazing grace. That He desires to have a relationship with us is so indescribable {and so undeserved!} That He sent His Son to pay the price is miraculous and incredibly humbling. I pray that the joy of Easter remains in my heart each and every day! That Christ is risen and reigns forever should resonate daily through every saved soul. So, having SP reminds me daily that I am a child of God. She is a constant reminder of my need for the Lord and his grace. . . and I am so so so thankful!!

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow 

of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge 

and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." 

~ Psalm 91:1-2 ~