A Kidney Stone: An Answered Prayer

It's been two weeks since my last blog post (and even longer since my last confession - which was never).  Anyway, you may have wondered what has been causing the silence on the part of this usually verbose woman.  Well, the answer is not just a cuddly, sweet, smiley newborn.  It's things like soccer practices and games...

...an adorable dinner theater put on by our childrens choir...

...other church commitments, a spontaneous trip to the beach...

...and a business-traveling husband. 

Oh yes, and a pesky kidney stone whose appearance just so happened to coincide with most of the previously listed items.

To make a long and boring story short, I ended up having a very spontaneous surgery last night to remove the impacted 6mm stone and have a stent placed.  It happened within hours of visiting my urologist who was concerned because of the fever and chills I'd been experiencing (which meant infection in the kidneys).  I'm home now, and feeling, well, to be honest, worse than this time yesterday.  But the stone isn't in there and I'm sure my kidney is happier now that it's not clogged up and swollen with infection.

It might seem strange to say, but there is a huge silver lining in this.  And that is that this particular kidney stone episode was an answer to prayer.  No, of course I didn't pray for a kidney stone or surgery or anything like that.  But after my last kidney episode (during an even more tumultuous time in my life), I was informed that there were lots (like a dozen) more baby stones inside my kidneys resting on their laurels just waiting for the perfect time to travel down and cause me excruciating pain (that is what they like to do after all).  After that episode, my doctor also said to me, "You don't want to be pregnant with a kidney stone."

Would you believe that after my positive pregnancy test with Leah, immediately after the "Yay!" my second thought was, "Oh no...my kidney stones."  Lame.  Between my own prayers and the intercession of others in whom I confided and trusted to pray for me, God heard.  And He blessed me with a kidney-stone-free pregnancy.  In fact, He was so gracious, He even gave me two months beyond pregnancy to recover from Newborn Mom Syndrome.

It was a gift, and I'm oh-so-thankful.  

Our God is an awesome God.

It feels strange to be so thankful in the midst of a pretty crummy time, but the truth is, I can't help it.  Our friends, neighbors, and family pulled together to take care of this herd of Sheps in such a way that I didn't have to worry a single time about my babies.  Sam was his usual, resourceful & amazing self and took great care of me and our kids.  I'm not so sure how well he fared in the deal, and I know the folks at his work are dying for him to come back, but I'm grateful that he was able to be where his family needed him when we needed him most.

So forgetting what is behind and straining towards what's ahead...

Looking forward to a great week ahead, culminating on Sunday with a trifecta - Leah's dedication at church, Sarah's 3rd birthday, and Mother's Day.  See?  God didn't want me missing all of that, did He?

Blessings to you all!  I'll be back in my usual form in no time.  That's a promise.  (Unless you don't want me to be!)

P.S. - Happy 2 Months to our sweet Leah (on May 6th)!!!  I don't know that I've ever enjoyed a baby as much as this one.  (Is that why people keep having more kids?  You learn to enjoy them more each time?)