Baby Christopher has gone home at last !

If you have been following the long and arduous saga of Baby Christopher, you will be thrilled to know that he has at last been discharged from the hospital and has gone home.

He was, as you recall, born with severe heart defects so after birth he was not able to go home to his family as a normal child would do.

Instead, he remained in the birth hospital in Oregon until it was determined that he needed a heart transplant.

Since that surgery was not done in the Oregon hospital, he was transferred to a hospital in Arkansas for the transplant.

After the transplant (which was and still is successful), he developed several complications including total renal failure!

So, he remained in the hospital in Arkansas while on renal dialysis, and, while there, also had several other surgeries and set backs.

Finally, in August he was transferred back to the original hospital in Oregon, still on dialysis and still on several various other treatments so he was still unable to go home.

But now, after a total of almost 10 1/2 months (all of his life) in a hospital, he has been discharged home.

BUT, he is still not 'out of the woods'. He is still on renal dialysis, which his family will have to do for 12- 16 HOURS daily until he is 2 or 3 years old when a renal transplant can be considered.

In addition to the renal dialysis, he is also still on tube feedings and there are more problems.

So, even though he has gone home, he and his family still need your prayers.

But, lest you think that the family is discouraged about all of this, you will be blessed to read this update that was posted on the Caring Bridge website by Baby Christopher's mother just a few days before his discharge home.

This is what his mother wrote as she reflected on this entire experience:

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Sunday, October 17, 2010 10:47 PM, CDT

Hello Everyone! Shannon here.

The doctors continue to talk about discharge this coming Tuesday or Wednesday. We will find out tomorrow which day exactly. Thinking through this journey, my faith has constantly been placed in the Lord and His declaration of Himself. In Exodus 34, He declares about Himself, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.”

When faced with any trial I do believe faith becomes a choice. A decision must be made. Will you set your mind upon the truth of who God is or will you allow your emotions to dictate your response and, therefore, set your mind on a lie.

There have been so many nights where I wrestled with the Lord and His will. Christopher was so sick the first part of August. He was still recovering from mal-rotation surgery in July. His dialysis seemed effective--it was pulling off a lot of fluid. But he was getting more and more swollen with each day. Something was wrong and I could only stand by and watch. His lungs were working harder to breathe with all the edema and the doctors felt he needed help. Christopher had to wear this horrible mask that pressed down so hard on his face that the foam ended up becoming embedded in his skin. His eyes were beginning to swell shut and I hadn’t seem him smile for days. It was a Sunday and the nephrologist had been by earlier in the morning before I arrived at the hospital. The nurse paged him for me and on the phone I asked him, “What is wrong with Christopher? Why is he getting so swollen.“ And I remember his answer. “Christopher is sick. He is very sick and we don’t know if he has the reserves to fight this time.”

I turned to my baby, yet again, and rubbed my noise against one open little spot on his forehead. I choked down tears. The children were with me and George was home in Oregon. We stayed until nurse shift and then I kissed Christopher good night and took the children home.

Later that night, after Elizabeth and George were tucked in, I went to my room and closed the door and wept. I cried in agony to the Lord. “Why, Lord? Why does Christopher have to be so swollen. If he is going to suffer, why didn’t you take him home sooner? Why can’t his kidneys work?“ I hit my pillow. I hit the bed. In a loud whisper, so that I wouldn’t wake the children, I spoke my frustration to God. “I hate this! I hate this! Why can’t Christopher be happy? He is your baby, Lord! Why can’t you heal him? Why does he have to be so sick? He’s your baby--yours! Why are letting this happen?“

I must have continued for an hour. I was exhausted. And in that final moment of quietness, God’s word came to mind--His name came to mind. “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” And I knew I had a choice to make. Do I accept in faith, Lord, that you are who you say You are? Or do I look at my circumstances and say, “There is nothing kind, compassionate or loving happening with Christopher.“ I knew faith could not depend on my emotions. My emotions were a wreck. Faith came down to my will, to my mind--to make a decision regardless of my feelings. I either throw the whole of my faith on truth or I believe a lie.

My mind chose truth. I did not understand why all this was happening to Christopher. But it was not my place to understand. It was my place to trust. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” I was so tired that night and still very sad, but I knew who my Lord was. He could be trusted. “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.”

I was resolute as I fell to sleep. My emotions could be a shipwreck. My will would not be altered. The Holy Spirit enabled me to stay fixed in my mind…fixed on truth. And the Holy Spirit gave peace, a peace that passes all understanding. “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety.”

We live in a fallen world and sin’s effect is everywhere. It is in the physical body of my beautiful baby boy. It is in sickness, old age, deformity. Its fruit is seen in man--in unrighteousness, greed, wickedness, envy, perversion. Sin saturates our world.

But this is not our home. Our home and our hope are heaven.

I look at Paul’s life. He was beaten, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked. He had dangers from rivers, from robbers, from countrymen, from Gentiles. He had dangers in the city, in the wilderness, on the sea, dangers among false brethren. He had been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And he had the daily pressure from his concern for all the churches.

I see his life and in 2 Corinthians 4, he writes:

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

I find it interesting that Paul considers his trials--his beatings, his imprisonments, the slander of his character--momentary, light affliction. His life was a continual trial, yet he considered it momentary. And in view of eternity, yes, it was momentary--fleeting. Paul understood the brevity of life. He understood His Lord had suffered and he, too, would share in that suffering. But he also knew, “Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

Through all of these months with Christopher my first prayer has been, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come! May your goodness and righteousness abound forevermore!” I do not want to go through any more sadness with Christopher. I do not want to go through any more grief with anyone in my family. But God might choose to demonstrate His power through my weakness, through Christopher‘s weakness. And as Paul wrote, and with the Holy Spirit’s enabling, may I come to that time and say, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.“

I am not trying to minimize the toll trials have in a life. This has been extremely hard. Just yesterday I was looking at Christopher’s baby pictures when he was just a few days old. Tears were welling up in my eyes. This is not an easy course for Christopher. And I wish it could be different. My choice to trust the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness is daily, sometimes hour to hour. And I believe with Christopher’s tenuous health I will find myself constantly looking to the Lord, constantly reading His word, constantly pushing sinful thoughts aside for truth.

But underlying every event that happens in my life is the truth of who God is.

Part of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets says:

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken

I love that sonnet because it makes me think of God’s constancy. He never changes. My love alters, my feelings fluctuate. Not so the Lord.

As a twenty-three year old, many years ago, I made a decision to trust that God’s word was absolute truth. I knelt before Him in all my ugly sinfulness and I prayed.

“Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

I did not take a step toward religion--I was not trying to find a way to make myself acceptable to God. There was nothing I could do to be acceptable to God. Nothing.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Because of God’s great love, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take my punishment for sin. I deserved death. I deserved to die in my sin. I deserved to be separated forever from God. But because of God’s great love, Christ died on a cross for my sin. God offered to save me--it was His gift to me.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

I admitted before the Lord that my life was self-centered and sinful. I asked for His forgiveness and committed my life in its entirety to the Lord. And I became a new creation! Same outwardly. New inwardly.

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

My life has been impacted forever by God’s love and gift of salvation to me. I love Him and seek to know Him more.

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Through this long journey with Christopher, I testify to the Lord’s abundant grace. I testify to His compassion, patience and perfect love. His Word is true and praise to His name that “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever“!

I will fail but my confidence is not in myself--it is in the Lord who upholds me. It is the Lord who works within me.

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Thank you for bearing with this long post. I have wanted to write this for some time. My heart is full as I thank the Lord for His salvation and for eternal life. At Arkansas Children’s Hospital we had a sign on Christopher’s door that read:

We thank the Lord for baby Christopher

And for the blessing of life

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”