Joseph’s Journey

A lot has happened since I last wrote you. As you know, I was very sick with Rota Virus for about 4 days. Last Tuesday (Feb. 21) Joseph began complaining that his tummy was hurting him. Unfortunately he became very sick on Wednesday. We tried to keep him hydated (he had vomited about 5 times) but he didn’t want to drink because his stomach was hurting him. Because he was getting so dehydrated, he also started suffering an extremely painful headache. (A shunt overdrains when someone is dehydrated which causes a terrible “shunt headache.”) By Thursday morning, Joseph was not doing well at all, and after speaking with his pediatrician, we decided to hospitalize him for IV fluids.

One of the most difficult parts of this hospitalization was holding Joseph down while the nurses attempted to start an IV on this very dehydrated little boy. As you can imagine, Joseph is VERY reactive now after all that he has been through. The first IV infiltrated, so the nurse had to do it again…

We ended up staying for two nights at Children’s Hospital, because it took that long for Joseph to start eating and drinking on his own. Needless to say, we all rejoiced BIG TIME when Joseph was released from the hospital and we could all be under one roof again! Thank you Lord!

One of the most infamous questions Chris and I get asked all of the time is, “So is everything okay now?” or “So is Joseph all better now?” Our answer is, “Well, for the time being.” It’s a lot like I imagine the hurricane victims must feel as they return to the land where their home once was. Yes, it’s good to be back, but there’s a lot of “clean up” work that needs to be done, and there is no way to tell when another hurricane will hit.

Joseph has a lot of processing to do, as do Chris and I and our families. This is very different than how we envisioned our life as a family and our dreams for Joseph, but GOD IS FAITHFUL! And we choose to trust Him even when He allows difficult circumstances to come our way. We don’t know why He has allowed this, and it does anger us at times, but both Chris and I want so desperately to point Joseph to Jesus and for all of us to keep our eyes on Him.

We are so thankful to all of you for your prayers, cards, gifts and yummy meals! (J) This journey is very intense to say the least, but God’s grace and your support carry us. Please continue to pray for our family. Pray for Joseph as he processes his feelings of fear, anger, hurt and sadness. He has definitely been acting out a lot since leaving the hospital. Pray for Chris and I as we parent Joseph to have wisdom, discernment, grace and firmness when appropriate. Pray that Grace continues to live up to her name and that she is protected emotionally too as our family lives with a “heightened state of alert.” Lastly, please continue to pray for our wisdom as we make the decisions about Joseph’s upcoming medical procedures. We will keep you posted. We love you all! Angela (Chris, Joseph and Grace too)