Just a year ago

A year ago, our little boy was so sick.  He was literally starving himself to death. 

We found a wonderful pediatrician who had him admitted to the hospital.  My mom was in town and able to stay with Ella.  Before we left for the hospital we took these pictures because we weren't sure what the future held and we wanted to make sure we had up to the minute pics.

Handsome Hero was out of town when we were admitted, and had to fly in to stay at the hospital. 

Jack weighed between ten and twelve pounds at seven and a half months old.  He had weighed nearly nine at birth.  His face made him look much older because he had no fat pockets.  I always said he looked like my granddad, but....

He had a feeding tube put in.  That was not fun for anybody.  You know the saying "it hurts me more than it hurts you?"  Yeah.

With the extra nutrition, he started to feel better.  Here he has the energy to sit upright, supported by Handsome Hero. For awhile, a day consisted of nursing, feeding him through the tube, pumping for the next feeding, nursing, feeding him through the tube, pumping for the next feeding, nursing, feeding him....  You get the idea.

This little guy had no energy before.  He would just lay like this.  In the early months, we just thought he was cuddly, but by this time we realized he didn't have the energy to lift his head.

But once he started getting needed nutrition, he began to blossom.  His eyes got brighter.

He became happy.

I still cry when I see the picture above, because we hadn't seen him smile in such a long time, and suddenly it became normal to see him smile.  It became normal for him to hold his head up.

We didn't know why God allowed Jack to go through this.  We don't know why it all came to a head when we were living out of boxes, so new to this place we hadn't met anyone.  We had just left our church, where we had an unprecedented support system.  Here, we had no local support system.  But because of that, we relied totally on the Lord.  We learned to find joy in this trial, because the testing of our faith produced a little more endurance.

A year later, this is my Jack.  Handsome Hero says that while Ella is training to be a soccer star, Jack is training to be the soccer ball.

I'm very proud of this belly!

I can't get enough of those adorable, fat legs!

And these cheeks!

Our Wonderkid loves to eat.  We are so thankful.

We know the Lord did not have to heal Jack.  But He did, and we are so grateful.  We still do not know why he was starving, but we have peace that the One who created Jack knows.

The End