What Never Changes

I came across this song which sums up for me something I've thought a lot about lately.  That is how we live in a world that is constantly changing with bad things happening but God is always the same good God, he never changes and his mercies endure forever.

What Never Changes

I've seen things along the way,

I've seen some trouble in my short days.

Through it all, I have no fear.

See, I had a friend who was always near.

And if the sun were to fall,

if the oceans were to dry.

If the mountains were to crumble,

I wouldn't bat an eye.

For I stand upon the Rock,

the Rock of Ages.

No matter what may come,

What storm around me rages,

I stand upon what never changes.

Sometimes the way looks bleak,

Cause we're just human, and we are weak.

Take it from me,

If the road gets rough

He'll be there to pick you up.

And if the sun were to fall

If the oceans were to dry.

If the mountains were to crumble

I wouldn't bat an eye.

I stand upon the Rock

He's the Rock of all the Ages.

No matter what may come

What storm around me rages,

I stand upon what never changes.

Thank you to the tax payer

As we sat in the waiting room of the University MRI awaiting our fate.  Nerves fluttered but only briefly.  Accross the room a Fijian couple sat with their young boy who aparently had hydrocephalus, they were first for the day and late at that.  "Couldn't find a place to park,"  he said.  Strange, I thought, being their apointment was 7:15 am, so early in the day.  But we're used to waiting and we soon made friends with them quickly confirming my belief that Fijian's are by far the friendliest people in the world.  They openly shared their gratitude at getting a last minute appointment due to a cancelation and were handed a bill on their way out.  I asked if I could have a look.  $2 750 I was speechless.  I wanted to ask if they had enough money to pay for it, how could they pay for it?  But I just grimaced and shook my head as she smiled and walked out.  I have lost count of Elijah's MRI's, CT scans, you know, not to mention the 38hours of brain sergery and everything else and not one cent we've had to pay for.  It's just not right.  I feel a humbling sense of gratitude when I think about where we'd be if people didn't pay their taxes.  I often think about people who feel like they aren't contributing to our situation or they ask us if there's anything they can do, just pay your taxes I should say to them.  That is more than you could imagine.   

Next in line after us was a 6 year old boy with his mum.  We briefly share stories of why we're here and then wonder why we had to satisfy our curiosity only to find out another sad story.  Two children with Autism, the second with possible other brain problems,  like one wasn't enough.  

Anyway, once the MRI (45 minutes under anaesthetic) was done, Elijah slept while we took him up to level 7 in Starship, the Oncology (cancer) ward.  We were given a bed in 'day stay' where he slept and woke up with a smile for dad.  We fed him without any vomits or anything, a great recovery for Elijah, we were stoked and relieved and then the waiting begun....

To cut a long story short the waiting still continues as a series of unfortunate events unfolded from Wednesday onwards.  First the report from the radiologists took days rather than hours and then after having to go back to Starship on Thursday to get Elijah's shunt dial adjusted (after it got moved with the MRI) I decided to stay on in Auckland at Mum's while Steve drove to Whakatane to spend some time with his dad.  By this time my phone had gone flat and they were unable to reach Steve on his phone and since the Oncologist doesn't work on the weekends we are holding out for Monday for the formal report.

When I was in Starship on Thursday I spoke to Simon the surgeon who had had a look at the scans and I'm pretty sure he said "It looks like the tumour hasn't grown back like it did the other times but you'll have to wait for the radiology report."  This could be interpreted different ways but either way it's in the good news category!  I guess I'm still in a bit of disbelief untill I get that confirmation.

Well, that's all from me for now.  Since I'm at mum's I don't have any photos to pass on, sorry about that.  I know he is the cutest baby in the world and lights up your life when you see that smile but you'll just have to wait till I get home.  Elijah has had a great day, just by the way, a great great day.  Pretty grumpy before that with his yo-yo sodiums but I think he has come right for the moment.    

Thank the Lord.

This is not an invite.

I feel exhausted.  It's hard to know on the scale of difficulty where Elijah would be had he been a normal 1 year old but I would place him somewhere around the 8 mark in general.  I know looking after children is supposed to be hard work but boy, this is hard.  It's hard to tell if it's because Elijah really is such hard work or if it's because we both haven't yet recovered from an emotional battering.

This is definitely not and invitation to a pity party mind you, so don't get any such ideas. We had a pretty good weekend actually with a constant flow of friends and family to enjoy the sunshine with.  Elijah was in a particularly sunny mood on Saturday but back to his usual self all the other days in between.  His usual self being a mixture of happy/sad, smiles/screams, ups/downs and waking countless times during the night.  One minute he's happy and the next minute we're measuring out 7mls of Paracare because we've tried everything else.   

His sodium's were very low when we went to our Clinic appointment on Wednesday so we've been concentrating on getting his sodium's up but we've nothing at home that can magically tell us his sodium levels so we're left guessing and hoping we haven't let them get too high.  We are starting to think his bad moods are correlating with the fluctuating sodium levels in his body... if only he could speak. 

On a positive note he has become more regular over the last week which is a relief... quite literally.  He is also still eating/drinking really well and starting to eat chunkier foods (not quite up to where he should be for his age... but look out you other one year olds, Elijah's an eating machine!)  I'm happy to report Elijah ate (and actually chewed rather than gulped) pancakes (my favorite!) potato salad and some orange, that's my boy:)

"Here's my little cheeky monkey having a swing in the sun:)"

It's now 9 O'clock and I'm feeling tired all of a sudden.  I'll go before my brain slows down too much and I'm left blinking into the screen (ah, too late actually.)  My next blog will be up-dating you on how the Wednesday's MRI goes but don't be expecting it Wednesday night or anything... lets hope I'll have some good news.

Well good night to all and to all a good night.