What a difference a week makes!

Last Wednesday night as our family was enjoying a meal with a friend we did not know that the rest of our evening would not be as calm. After we had had an enjoyable meal, we decided to put our boys down so that we could continue talking with our friend. As I was putting medicine in Daniel's eyes, because he had pink eye, I heard Grace begin to scream. I immediately thought that she would calm down as soon as I held her and that she was just mad because I had not been holding her from the beginning. After trying to comfort her for a few minutes and her screams continuing to intensify I called the doctor and explained that her shoulder was red. He immediately told us to go to the ER. Our friend stayed with the boys as we prepared to get to the hospital. Chris did tell me on our way to the hospital that Daniel and Joshua were praying for Grace as he entered their bedroom. We are very blessed that the hospital is only a ten-minute walk from our apartment. I held Grace very tightly against me as she seemed to be more comfortable and we walked in the cold air with the beautiful Christmas lights sparkling all above us. When we arrived in the hospital we saw a tiny waiting room crowded with many children and adults. We gave our information and then waited for our turn. The room was crowded with so many different stories. There were many concerned faces in this tiny room. I tried to interact with a few and find out what their stories were. There were so many sick children. As we waited there in that tiny room for two hours, I was so thankful that Grace was sleeping and that the Lord had placed us there so that we could pray for these people. I felt so privileged to be able to pray for these people, who did not know me and did not even know that I was praying for them, but the Lord had placed us there so that we might glorify His name through prayer. When it was finally our turn, we were directed to a room at the end of the emergency area. After discussing Grace's accident, she was given some pain medicine and we were told to wait and see if that helped her to calm down. We became a little frustrated because we knew that she was in pain and we wanted to stop her pain immediately, so we prayed for wisdom and the doctor finally agreed to an x-ray. Moments later we found out that she had broken her collar bone and that the nursing staff was looking for a small enough splint to keep her arm and shoulder stable. The nurses were wonderful and bandaged her up nicely. As we were leaving we were blessed to find out that our doctor is a believer. What a blessing from our Lord! He is so good! Christians are hard to find in Belgium and the Lord blessed us with a Christian doctor on a night when we needed encouragement. As we walked home from our first ER visit, it was now past midnight, but we were stregnthened and encouraged by our great God! The Lord blessed us with unimaginable strength. I look back and think what a week, but the Lord is so good and so faithful. Throughout this incident Grace has had so many people praying for her and we have been able to give God the glory even in this accident. Grace is doing great with the harness that she has to wear for another two weeks, but each day she seems to be feeling more and more like herself. I am so thankful for the past week and the strength that the Lord has given us. Tomorrow my parents arrive and we cannot wait to see them and have some extra help! What a mighty and sovereign God we serve!