A Miracle Working God!

I was emailing our children’s director today about Joshua, and I couldn’t help but be amazed at what God has done in his life. To look at Joshua today, you wouldn’t be able to really tell that he had anything wrong or that he struggled in any way.

I don’t know if most of you know but Joshua was diagnosed with SIDDS when he was three and a half years old. SIDDS stands for Sensory Integration Dysfunction Disorder. It’s where the brain has problems knowing what to do when multiple senses would come at him at one time. For example, it took Joshua a long time before he could eat multiple textured foods because his brain would get confused with the multiple textures, and it wouldn’t be able to tell his tongue what to do in order to swallow. I had to pull my car over to the side of the road several times while driving in order to do a finger sweep on him to help him because he was choking. He wasn't able to drink water until he was 5 because he would choke due to the water not having any taste or texture. I can remember those potty training days and how I would have to train him in complete darkness because the sensation of having to go potty and the cold toilet on his little bottom and the bright lights of the bathroom where too much for him to handle at one time. He would sit there and say, “I’m occupied, I’m occupied!” Haha! We never really figured out what he meant by that! :) I can remember Pete carrying him in the back yard and having to put him down on the grass to walk without his shoes on and him screaming like he was on fire because the coldness of the grass and the texture of it completely overwhelmed him. I remember his obsession with licking new things. I never really figured out why he would do that, but when he would have a new thing he would lick it. :) Or, the extremely traumatic time we had to get his blood drawn when he was 5, and he kept screaming,” NO! NO! Don’t take my peanuts!!" I thought that the lab tech was going to fall over from laughing! She said that in all her years of drawing blood, she never heard that one! Haha! We did finally figure out, a few years later, what he meant by that. He told me that the little viles that they put your blood in looks like the shape of peanuts. :) Haha! Oh, and I almost forgot. When we did get him diagnosed at three and a half years old, we couldn't understand 90 percent of anything he said. He talked, what we called, Chinese. It was a mix of the sound of a deaf person and the Chinese language. My sweet Joseph memorized what some of the sounds meant and would “interpret” for us. God knew what he was doing when he gave Joshua such an AWESOME big brother. Joseph looks out for and adores his little brother.

Anyway, there are MANY other stories I can share with you, but I say all of these things to say that God works miracles. I remember crying when we found out about him having SIDS and asking myself how in the world will he have a “normal” life with this.

Well, God has been so faithful! Joshua will always have SIDDS, but God is good and has helped him to learn coping skills in order to deal with the multi-sensory problems. Do we serve a miracle working God? YES! My little Joshua is a BRIGHT picture of what an ALL-POWERFUL God can do with the life of one of His precious children! Thank you Jesus that you are and always will be in the business of working miracles and making your glory known among your people, and thank you for helping little Joshua to become all that you have planned for him to be!

I love you Joshua, and mommy is so proud of you for working so hard to be all that you can be!