Sunday sermon reflection

We are so blessed to have our sweet little boy and that God has continued to keep him growing strong and healthy. Pastor Chuck talked this morning about prayers - how sometimes they are answered in our timing and the way we want and other times, God chooses not to answer our prayers or at least not the way we think would be best. He specifically addressed the issue of sickness and death. He said that God can and does heal people from sickness, sometimes the healing is on this side of heaven, and other times it's after we are in heaven. He encouraged everyone that is facing a sickness or a terminal illness to pray and continue praying for complete healing and to even call upon the elders to pray over us as we are battling illnesses.

We did call upon the elders of our church to pray over little Ethan back in March, the week we first learned of his diagnosis and then again the first week of August, our last week at church before Ethan's due date. Obviously, God chose not to completely heal Ethan's heart prior to birth and we still don't know what God's reason is for that. Sometimes God works supernaturally to heal, and sometimes he uses medical teams and medicines to do that work of "healing" or management of the illness. We praise God that Ethan's had such a great medical team to treat his condition and that the treatment has gone as well as can be expected and that there were no additional complications to Ethan's diagnosis.

For those of you reading this that are also battling sickness or know of those who are facing sickness or terminal diseases, please continue to pray for those families and individuals. We'd even like to join you in your prayers. You can post them as a comment on our blog, or send us an email (http://www.ethanmiles.com/ and follow the link to email us). We met several families while living at the Ronald McDonald House that we continue to follow their blogs and pray daily for them and we would feel so honored to be able to add your family to our daily prayer list.

In the 7 months since we firt learned about Ethan's heart defect HLHS (Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome), we've been truly blessed to know several other families who have children with the same heart defect. Not blessed in the sense that we're happy that they have sick kids also, but blessed in the fact that we're not alone and we can talk with other families who know JUST what we're going through. We can lean on each other for support - to laugh, cry, vent and more. Don't get me wrong, we also need and appreciate the support of all our friends and family that have "healthy" kids and who care about us. Some have even been in similar situations with family illness or other birth defects, but there's a special bond when it's the exact same congenital heart defect (CHD). Living with a CHD is not a road I wish upon anyone but it sure is great to have the support of others who have "been there, done that". Two Bible verses that have really ministered to us through our journey to date are these: John 16:33 (this is Jesus speaking) "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." and another verse (whose reference and exact wording escape me at the moment), which basically talks about how the Lord promises to not give us more than we can handle. Every time I start to get overwhelmed, I claim both of these verses and remind myself that we're not alone in this world - God is with us and will help us get through! What a comforting thought!

Well thanks for "listening" to my (Julie) reflection of the day. It was great getting to see so many of our readers at church today and to hear that you're still praying for us. We greatly appreciate the prayers and moral support - keep it up please! It's hard to believe that in just a matter of a few months, we'll be surrendering our sweet son back to the skillful hands of the medical team at UNC for Ethan's 2nd stage of surgery!