Father Knows Best

As I mentioned a week ago Rod and I have been on a fruit and vegetable fast for the past 7 days. Overall the fast was not as physically hard as I thought it would be. Yesterday was really the first day I craved coffee and pretty much any food item in eye sight. I always tell my husband who is a serious meat lover that had I not married him I could have been a vegetarian. I'm not so sure about that anymore but I do love vegetables and this fast helped increase my appreciation for them. I'm not a big fruit person but I did consume more than my share of banana chips this past week. The eating highlights of the week would be:

1. Spaghetti squash- Made this with fresh tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms, spinach and onions. It did not taste like pasta but it was super yummy.
2. Vegetable soup from Soup Plantation- We took the kids there yesterday for lunch. The soup has black beans, corn, red beans, carrots, tomatoes, peas, potatoes( I think) and some other vegies I can't remember. Anyways after my mongo vegie salad this soup hit the spot. Even without the muffins I left quite satisfied.
3. Spinach- We had this practically every night. Rod saw Bobby Flay grill spinach on his show once so we tried it this way. We usually steam it but we tried just grilling it with other vegetables. It was so much faster and yummier, I don't think I'll ever go back to the old way.

I also wanted to fast about an issue that I thought I needed some direction and clarity on. As the week went on I was not noticing any significant breakthroughs other than my pants fitting me better. I have noticed Rhett lately acting kind of strange. When he gets upset about something he stops talking. He'll cry, whine and make gestures but no words. Lately these episodes have taken up almost 50% of his day. Part of me thinks it's his age and just a control issue. Part of me thinks he doesn't feel good from his nasty cold that we all STILL have. Normally I would not think anything of it but I think maybe because of this fast I'm more aware and in tune with things. His pre-school teacher has been telling us that he is the only child in the class who cannot cut and he also seems to be behind for his age in gross motor skills. I started looking on line and found a few things like Selective Mutism. Kids that are diagnosed with this talk regularly at home but not neccessarily in social situations. I'm not sure if this is Rhett or not but I think it's worth looking into. If I can do something about this now that will help him later than it's my responsibility to get him the help he needs.

I've also mentioned before about Rhett's heart condition, Tetralogy of Fallot. One thing that I may have or have not shared is that I've never searched his condition on line or read about other children who have this condition. The reason for this is because when Rhett was first diagnosed as a baby I started to research it and found the info. to be too depressing. I was a new mama facing open heart surgery for my child and I didn't need to be reading about other children who have died from this disease. My husband and I agreed not to read about it because Rhett is an individual gift from God and not a statistic. The disadvantage to this is I don't know anyone who can understand completely. The people I do know that have children with heart issues complicate the matter because they think they understand but their situation, although understandably serious to them is not as serious as Rhett's so I still feel somewhat jipped. When our friends son Riley recently had to endure surgery on his brain his parents confidence and faith spoke volumes to me. Though I have to admit I was jealous that Lauren was able to communicate with other moms that had gone through the same thing.

And now the breakthrough. This morning I woke up with an urge to search Rhett's condition on line. I didn't want to read all the medical jargon. I'm not a doctor so I'm ok not knowing all of that. I wanted to find a story of another child who has this disease. I couldn't find anything in Google so I searched good ol blogger. I found a few stories. The one that stands out is a little boy the same age as Rhett. He looks a lot like him but with blonde hair. He had surgery when he was a few weeks old and than a similar surgery to Rhett's when he was 10 months old. Right now he is doing great but may need a valve replacement later on. Their hoping it won't have to be via open heart. I was struck by all the similarities. To see another face that has the same thing as my child was so healing for me. I feel like I have conquered my biggest fear.

Looking back I think about how faithful God is. I started this fast thinking I needed a breakthrough regarding another situation but God being the daddy that loves me and knows my true heart knew what I really needed. Up to this point Rhett's heart condition over shadowed anything else about him. If anything seemed out of sort I would just dismiss it as not being life or death so no big deal. If in fact Rhett needs help with some other delays I feel like I have the strength to face it now. God gave me the first step to take in calling his pediatrician. We have an appt. in a few weeks to hopefully be referred if necessary to a behavior specialist.

I guess there was a breakthrough regarding the "other thing". According to the one who knows best and knows me best I'm really not as anxious about it after all.