SQJ Taipei

Poor Bethanie… she was pretty sick when Mollie was born. In the earliest pictures of her holding Mollie, she is wearing a 口罩 (I can’t think of the English word… it is a mask thingy that just goes over your mouth… isn’t there an English word for this besides “mask”?)

ANYWAY…
Bethanie’s illness was especially hard because she has been waiting SO long for a little sister. She has had to deal with the chance of having a sister 2 times and getting “koogy brothers”, as Gramma GG would call them. Finally, the sister she has prayed for finally arrives and she is too sick to snuggle like she wanted to.

SO… Bethanie gets better… but then Zach takes a turn… but his symptoms are different… not as many days as Bethanie (hers was about a week and Zach was about 3 days)… but still very serious. He was a very good patient.

Then… Joshua gets it… and he had symptoms of whatever both of the others had. We thought he was getting better after about the 3rd day (like Zach) so we took him over to Christine and John’s house for Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner. This is a yearly tradition for us and Chinese New Year was last week.

He was doing pretty good… he ate some food… but then started watching a movie… later he crawls up on my lap just as John finishes making tea and says to me:

Daddy, I don’t feel so good.

OK… now I know that when Josh says those words we need to GET MOVING RIGHT NOW AND GET A BAG OR A BUCKET OR SOMETHING OTHER THAN MY 2 HANDS CUPPED TOGETHER BECAUSE — MAN OH MAN — THAT BOY IS GONNA BLOW AND MY HANDS ARE ABOUT 50 TIMES TOO SMALL.

I clean him up and we head home (5 minute walk) and I think of all that little fella is going through… how could he not be jealous that Mollie gets very nearly 100% of mommy’s time? And sick on top of that!

He then proceeded to have 4 nights in a row where he didn’t sleep for more than 15-20 minutes at a time and would then wake up SCREAMING. I would watch him for several minutes (over an hour on a couple occasions) and pray over him as it was clear that even when he wasn’t SCREAMING he was still not really resting. Of course… this caused him to be tired during the daytime as well and he was crying ALL THE TIME. I could go on… there are many more details… and our minds raced through all the reasons this might be happening to our Joshie.

I still don’t know… WHY? Was is just sickness? Was it satanic oppression? Was it a parasite? Was it jealousy? We don’t know… and really… I don’t care. Sure I would like to “know”… but compared to something I ALREADY KNOW… I can live without knowing why we suffered through those days of illness and Joshua’s tormented days…

WHAT DO I KNOW THAT IS SO CRITICAL????

On Sunday night at our English Worship Service… we asked people to come and pray for Joshua and for us. They did. Our Christian brothers and sisters surrounded us… laid hands on us… and prayed for us… in English, German, and Chinese!

About 20 minutes later… Joshua smiled for the first time in about 4 days… then he walked across the room (his first time letting go of his parents for about 4 days)… then we went home and he slept better than he had in about 4 days… and the next day he cried less than he had in about 4 days…

Our Joshua is still a little jealous of Mollie… and he treasures his time with mommy and daddy more than ever… but his illness is gone… and his joy and grateful spirit have returned and are once again bringing laughter and energy to each of us.

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER… That’s what I know.