When God Shows Up

Today I was going to write a very solemn column (that totally rhymes) about when to give up the high tales of dreaming and hoping and just start accepting life as it is.  In other words, when do I just look at Emmy and say, "All right, if this is what it's going to be like forever, lets start living without our heads in the clouds, trying to get her to walk countless hours a day, give up the incentives to crawl and every other dauntless task I do daily".  But then God showed up.

We went to the hyperbaric chamber, like we do every day, and I took the boys with me since we were going to pick up my in-laws right after.  The morning started normal, the "dive" was almost like every other dive except I wanted out like crazy 40 minutes in.  We completed dive number 25 and rushed out to make our way all the way to Newport News from Norfolk, when our favorite puppies stopped us.  A veteran brings his dogs every once in a while, and they adore Emmy.  So we played and I instantly felt compelled to just share with the guy about oils that support brain health.  He has been doing dives and acupuncture, but he is still is so foggy brained that I thought a couple oils might help him.  So after spending 5 minutes loving the pups, we headed out to the car.  The boys jumped in and I put Emmy in her seat and walked to the back of the car to put the wheelchair away and I heard the most clear sounding "church" music ever.  It sounded like a loud speaker was playing right over my head.  So I turned and there was a man, I have never seen before, just walking around.  I asked him where the music was coming from and he pointed to his little bluetooth speaker hanging from his jacket.  I told him it was such a great sound and then he proceeded to teach me about this cool thing called bluetooth and how the phone just magically syncs up with the speaker!  He then very boldly asks what is wrong with Emmy, so I tell him the quick and gritty story in 2 minutes and then he tells me that he is there putting his father in the HBOT for early onset of Alzheimer's.  I then, once again, boldly tell him about some oils that support the brain and he jumps in my car next to Everett and tells me to take down his phone number so I can share what information I have found over the past year on the brain.  And then he suddenly looks at me and asks if he can pray for Emmy.  Can I just say that no one asks to pray for Emmy anymore.  People loved praying for her when she was in a coma, just out of rehab or when she relapsed in November, but really not since then.  I truly believe in prayer and Randy and I pray daily for our baby, but when he asked to pray I instantly said yes and bowed my head.  

His Prayer.

Made My Heart Sing.

He prayed that Jesus would heal her and let her dance again.  That's all I needed to hear. Oh, to see Emmy move her graceful moves and swing her little arms in a way that only she 



 ' 'is my heart's desire.  So just as I was giving up hope, God showed up in a bold way. 

Then Emmy said, "I love that man"!  Even she loves to be prayed for!  Even if by a complete stranger.

I also heard back from the mama who said her daughter, who also suffered from ADEM, is now one of the fastest runners in her college running team.  She told me her daughter was paralyzed, lost all memory and went back to "toddler"stage.  The doctors told her to not even try to help her, the therapists lost all hope, but they DIDN'T GIVE UP.  AND Her brain NEVER HEALED.  Every single lesion what right where they started.  But her brain totally rewired itself.  Oh, the feeling of joy when I heard that.  Not because I expect Emmy's brain to not heal, but that case after case I find that brains can rewire and take over for places that doctors think, "If it's a main area (like the basal ganglia) that is damaged, there is no way it can heal" BUT it CAN and it WILL"!!  This, of course, is after the doctor Monday said I should start thinking about Deep Brain Stimulation again since her muscle tone is not completely gone.  I don't even think it is dystonia anymore.  It resembles more of high muscle tone, like cerebral palsy kids.  And I know that there is actually a few things that are really quick and not really invasive that takes care of muscle tone, so I am not even thinking DBS is an option.  

So even when I feel like I have hoped all the hope there was left to hope (tongue twister), God keeps giving me extra doses and gives me the energy to make it another day.  PT is on the calendar to start sometime in September and oxygen therapy will continue to 40 dives, then taking a couple months off and starting again.  This whole thing is still surreal and I pray everyday for Emmy to walk, talk and play again.  I don't really pray for healing as much, since I believe she is healed, the disease is gone, but now I am praying for her body to start doing what God created it to do!  Our bodies are magnificent and I am in awe every day, like today, I see Emmy do something that shows me she is still moving in the right direction.  She was laying on her tummy and pulled her legs up to her chest and pushed up with her arms, putting her in the crawl position.  For both arms and legs to move at the same time, at the same pace is amazing.  Her right and left side are so uncoordinated and I love seeing that both sides of the brain are finally talking with one another!!!  

Thanks for praying and lifting Emmy up!  She starts school in 2 weeks (along with Everett and Eli), so maybe pray for me!!! 

(June '14, right before encephalitis)