Post by SuziF on Apr 16, 2002 10:27:39 GMT -5
OK....I'm Suzi aka: Merideth's mom
Meri will be the Big 1 this Friday, April 19th
She's the much waited for girl child after 3 brothers.(Matthew 8/11/93 Nicholas 2/12/96 Samuel 12/22/99)~yes, Sam is only 16mths older than her 7 they're turning into quite the twosome
We found out she has DS in the delivery room just minutes after her birth.
She has an ASD which is being monitored every 6mths till it's time for open heart surgery to repair it.At this time she's experiencing some hearing loss, more in the RT ear than the L.Hopefully just due to fluid but she'll be retested in a few months.Also, at this time her neck is still unstable so she's on restricted activity.
I'm not sure how long a post can be...but I'm gonna try & add the letter Meri's dad wrote to friends & family the night she was born.
Suzi bore 7lb-6oz, 18.5" tall Merideth Renee at 3:53PM 4/19/2001.
Mommy and baby are fine. Dr. Spino says Merideth has Down's Syndrome. By this our purpose in life will undoubtedly be adjusted as God uses this little girl to teach Suzi and I especially, and to a degree that diminishes with distance from us, all of our family and friends around us about what is really important to Him for our existence.
You know, to fix Merideth I'd retroactively give up all my old car and truck parts and life - the rare-as-hens-teeth 455 Pontiac V8 block and crank I'm using to build a new motor for the ol' 73 to-boot! On top of it I'd give up all of the rest of my life's strengths but for what I need to provide for and protect my family with. There is simply not enough that is "of me" to give to Him though. I don't think that exchange is what God is after anyway. Those strengths in me are ultimately His and are to be used in His way.
He is after our repentance and reconciliation to Him. All else is temporal. He is after that same from our families and friends around us. I expect that through Merideth He will bring some around us to question Him and even doubt Him more. I think that if He could talk to me directly that He would say "Mike, you show me a person who doubts me for this, and I will show you a person who is opened up enough to ask the really tough questions about Me, the origin of the universe, and the meaning of life, and one who is eventually repentant to Me for it! You go forth Mike and spend the rest of your days taking care of your family! That is what I expect of you."
By this, I believe our "bad" is God's good. If I believe that God is omnipotent and righteous then I must conclude that all in His universe is as He willed it to be and is good in His eyes. I am then merely hung up on my own comfort and discomfort as my own criteria for definition of "good" and "bad" from my own perspective. He is not bound by this. If I have ever prayed that God would use me then Merideth's condition is probably part of His answer.
Dear God, shame on all of us for needing the lesson of someone else's hardship to bring us to You! I am grateful to You for the relationship You have allowed me to have with You. I believe it came with an extra burden of responsibility for me though. I am now charged with seeking You that much more. I will need to in order to hold myself together with this and the rest of my charges in life all combined upon my shoulders. I am likely to be required to expend most of the rest of my life's strength to my dying day on this latest charge You have given to me. Make it worth it to You! Make it Your good!
Mike (now allowed to raise daughters and sons!)
