In the first month of her life, Addilyn had two ultrasounds. Angela and I didn’t tell many people about it because there was a chance that we would find out that everything was as it should be and there was nothing to worry about. The first ultrasound was because at her three-day appointment the doctor noticed she had a sacral dimple and because of how it looked thought there was a chance she had spina bifida occulta. This wouldn’t have been major, but something she would have to deal with for her whole life. The second one was a few weeks later when her belly button wasn’t healing as quickly as they would have liked and there was a chance her bladder was still connected to the umbilical cord. Again this wasn’t super serious, but would need surgery to fix. In both cases, the doctor told us that those would be the worst case scenarios and they just wanted to be absolutely sure.
Both times the news was not great to hear. You love your child so much that you never want anything to be wrong. Your baby girl having to get two ultrasounds in her first month of life is not easy to handle. When we heard the news at the day three appointment, my mind was racing about all that could be going on, but also about how I would have to stay strong to help support Angela. Surprisingly, the news didn’t hit her like I thought it would. As we rode home, we both talked about how there was no need to worry and that we just needed to place it in God’s hands. That sounds great, but it is not an easy task when you are talking about something your daughter could be dealing with for her whole life.
In both cases that is what we did (to the best of our ability). We spent a lot of time in prayer about it and didn’t allow ourselves to worry about it. That is a big part of why we didn’t tell many people. Sometimes other people feed the worry. We didn’t need that.
Addie went through both ultrasounds like a champ, and both times they showed that everything looked like it should and there was nothing going on. It was a huge relief for us to hear. Since then everything else has gone smoothly and at her two-month appointment she finally hit the 10 pound mark (which is funny to us because she hasn’t even got to the birth weight of Zeke yet, that dude was huge).
Psalm 55:22 says, ““Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.” Philippians 4:6-7 says, ” “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Like I said earlier, it was no easy task to give those burdens to God. One thing that helps is knowing that my worry couldn’t change anything, but I knew God could. There was nothing that I could do, but God had the power to do anything.
I’ve found giving my burdens to God isn’t a one-and-done thing either. There have been many times where I have taken things back that I handed to God. There are things I find myself repeatedly handing over to God. God is true to his word though. When we hand Him our burdens, He will take care of us. Some things are easier to hand over than others, but in all cases we will experience His peace when we do.
until next time…