Elijah Update (May 25)

Dear Friends,

Judy headed back home to Ness City this morning. We decided there were just too many floral arrangements to be designed before Memorial Day. Our designer was only able to work Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week, and she just isn't able to keep up. I think it will be a good break for Judy. She won't get much rest, but she will keep busy, have a change in pace and make some beautiful flower arrangements for Memorial Day.

I am here with Elijah, spending a couple of days with my son. This morning he has been sleeping, looking so handsome. Every once in a while he will squirm and his vent will start honking and then he will lay still again. We have been more diligent with our nurses getting him help immediately when he is having trouble breathing or needs his vent tube suctioned out. Our doctor wants to take the vent out as soon as possible, and I told him my fears of taking it out over the weekend. I think the nursing staff is often "second string" on the weekends especially with a holiday on Monday. He was very reassuring and said Elijah would dictate when the vent would come out.

Elijah has been having some problems with throwing up. His doctor believes it is because he was sedated so long and is now coming off of the sedation. Or, as Dr. V says with a chuckle, "He doesn't want or need the medicine so he throws it up."

Judy has written that we have been listening to Focus on the Family's radio theater production of C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia." It is a great production, and I highly recommend it -- or better yet, read the books. I've heard that most people like "The Last Battle" best, but I believe I like "The Horse and His Boy" the best. The portion that caught my heart is typed below. The hero, Shasta, an orphan boy who has had a pretty miserable life, is alone, lost and discouraged, but he is about to meet Aslan, the creator of Narnia.

"I do think," said Shasta, "that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world. Everything goes right for everyone except me. Those Narnian lords and ladies got safe away from Tashbaan; I was left behind. Aravis and Bree and Hwin are as snug as anything with that old Hermit: of course I was the one who was sent on. King Lune and his people must have got safely into the castle and shut the gates long before Rabadash arrived, but I get left out."

And being very tired and having nothing inside him, he felt so sorry for himself that the tears rolled down his cheeks.

--- Then in the complete darkness of the night Shasta hears something breathing and walking beside him.

"I can't see you at all," said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had come into his head) he said, almost in a scream, "You're not - not something dead, are you? Oh please - please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!"

Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. "There," it said, "that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows."

Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat.

"I do not call you unfortunate," said the Large Voice.
"Don't you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?" said Shasta.
"There was only one lion, " said the Voice.
"What on earth do you mean? I've just told you there were at least two the first night, and ...."
"There was only one; but he was swift of foot."
"How do you know?"
"I was the lion." And as Shasta gaped with mouth open and said nothing, the Voice continued. "I was the lion who forced you to join Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the Lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you."

"Then it was you who wounded Aravis?"
"It was I."
"But what for?"
"Child" said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own."

This portion of the story makes me think about little Elijah. How easy it would be for him to say, "I do think that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world. I was born with hemophilia, I had a brain hemorrhage, superior vena cava syndrome, respiratory failure, I've been operated on several times and I've been near death many times."

But like Shasta, someone more powerful and knowledgeable is protecting and directing Elijah's life. Aslan the Lion used all of these events to shape Shasta's life, and God is using all of the events in Elijah's life to shape him. We don't know why God chooses these means nor do we know what the outcome will be, but we know that God has good planned for Elijah. We just have to be patient to see how his story unfolds. And as Aslan says, "I tell no one any story but his own." We may never know God's complete plan and purpose for Elijah. Judy and I have our own story, and God will be revealing that to us in His own good time.

Thank you all for your prayers, notes of encouragements and e-mails.

Joel, Judy, and Elijah