Hope for the Spring

There have been times in my life when I truly wonder where is the mercy. Where has God gone? And why has so much painful suffering been allowed to endure? Enough of those times have been for my own plights . . . but tonight . . . tonight I am left bewildered as to why my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces have had a lifetime of burdens weighed upon them in the last several months. They have had more than their share of burdens for years now, but the last several months have been particularly difficult.

My seven-year old niece, BryAnna, whom I have written about before was born with Treacher-Collins Syndrome. From her first moments in this world she has been poked and prodded by countless doctors, had innumerable trips down to Riley Hospital, and stubbornly made it through dozens of surgeries . . . at just seven years old. Where is God's mercy and grace through all of this? Well, to be quite frank, it is often times difficult to tell. We all wonder why any child should have to endure such hardships. If there is anything in this world that epitomizes injustice, it is precisely that.

For about the last six months BryAnna has been in the process of getting ears, which she was born without, save for small "buds." They put balloons under her skin where the ears should be and systematically expanded them in order to stretch the skin. Once that was complete they took some cartilage from her rib and fashioned her first ear, attaching it to her left side. While there were some minor complications, it overall went very well and her new ear healed beautifully. They next did the surgery to create her right ear. Everything seemed to be going fine at first, until her stitches came undone and the cartilage became exposed. So they did a repair surgery to encourage the ear to heal. Shortly after, the stitches came undone, and once again the cartilage was exposed. Tomorrow will be BryAnna's fourth repair surgery on this ear. Three times they have tried to repair it. And three times it has refused to heal. Each time they go, they hesitantly hope that this time it'll take. But it is getting nearly impossible to hold onto the now, seemingly frail strings of hope left.

They are tired. They are weary. They are worn thin, like butter scraped onto too much bread, as Bilbo Baggins once put it. Not only do they have the medical worries about BryAnna, but they also have burden after burden piling up on them from all sides. Mary works a high-stress job, for little compensation and with a frail guarentee of job security. Jeremy works a different high-stress job that keeps him out of his home for long hours all throughout the day and evening, with plenty of overnight stays. His compensation is well below what it should be as well. They have very little time together as a family. And Nikole is feeling the hurt from needing her family and needing normality. They all have more than one person or one family should have to bare.

And through all of this . . . enough to make any sane person crazy, they don't complain. They don't give up. And they even manage to find something to laugh about. I cannot fathom the depths that they have waded through, even though I've talked to them plenty about it all. My life is incredibly easy compared to their's, at least in almost every way. And I honestly don't know how they do it. I believe that they are four of the strongest people I've ever known. And they just so happen to be my family, people that I love very deeply.

Each time they have the other shoe fall, I am left with, what feels like, little to say. I don't have any magic words that will make it all better. I want so desperately to say all the right things. But what do you say to someone that continuously has the ground knocked out from under them? It's even gotten to the point where I don't know what to say to God. I've said it all so many times. I've prayed and pleaded for his help for them time and time again. What is there left to say? I know God already knows what is in each of our hearts -- what we all desire and need. I know that technically, he doesn't need us to explicitly state what it is we are asking for. But I almost feel as though, if I can't even pray for them with specific statements, that I must be the laziest person on earth. And they deserve better than that.

When someone that you love is hurting, you hurt with them. And right now, though I cannot ever understand exactly what they are going through, I ache for the pain they are feeling. I wish so very much that I could take it all away and give them a break from what Mary told Nikole is the winter of their souls. Each time I pray for them I ask God to relieve these burdens -- to free their backs from the sadness, the fatigue, and the stress. But tonight, I pray now to God that whatever good he is going to give to me, give to them instead. I have enough good; I can go without for awhile. But they are the ones who need it. And they are the ones who deserve it. I pray to God that he will transfer my blessings onto them.

I believe that God hears every prayer, spoken or unspoken. And I believe that he cares about them all, no matter how small. Did I mention that BryAnna's middle name is Hope? How very fitting isn't it? No matter how dark and wintery it may seem, we must always hold onto Hope. So I am praying right now, for four people that mean the world to me . . . please, God . . . help. Help to bring the Spring.