Good Friday

Journal Entry- April 10, 2009

Except for a short walk to the creek with Anna yesterday, this is the first day I've been out of the house during Spring Break. This week has seemed very long.

"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night...Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation, and my God...By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life."
Psalm 42:1-3, 5, 8

Anna and I picked Joey up from a sleepover at a friend's house and began our shopping. We took a break for lunch at Cherrydale then headed to Hamricks to look for an Easter dress for Anna. We had been there only a short time when Joey came up to me looking sick and saying he felt like he would pass out. I told him to sit down on the floor. Within a few minutes, his head starting shaking and his eyes would not focus. Then he had a seizure. I yelled for someone to call EMS then just tried to keep his head from hitting the floor. There was a nurse near me telling me to keep him on his side and some store attendants caring for Anna. I was praying prayers over him and could hear the sweet name of Jesus being uttered in prayer by others all around me. By the time EMS arrived, the seizure had stopped. He was awake and talking to us before they left the store. They transported him to the ER and Joe met us there. The CAT scan and blood work was normal. But since there is no history of seizures and there was no fever, the doctor is having us follow-up with a Pediatric Neurologist early next week. He will have an EEG, or brain wave scan done. She said that sleep deprivation, from the sleepover, is most likely what triggered it, but other factors may be involved that would only show up with further testing. He has rested this weekend, and will be at school Monday. We'll know more after we call the neurologist's office on Monday.
They gave him an anti-seizure medication and we put him to bed at 8:00 Friday night. I checked on him several times before I went to bed and he was sleeping soundly. At 4:30 a.m., I woke up with a bright light in my eyes. It was the soft moonlight from the full moon shining through the blinds of my window. I got up to check on Joey. He was again sleeping peacefully. It reminded me of the "Moon Song" I used to sing with him when he was younger and still do with Anna whenever the moon is shining in on her at bedtime. "I see the moon and the moon sees me; God bless the moon and God bless me; Thank you for the moon and thank you for me; Thank you God for everything." I went back to bed knowing that in a few hours that same moon would be shining in on my sweet boy through his window as he slept. In my devotions on Saturday, the Lord reminded me of a Psalm I have prayed for Joey and Anna from birth. When Joey was younger, I crosstitched part of the verse on a blanket he slept with every night.

Psalm 121
"I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore."