The good news is that Scott is going to come down tonight so I can go home. I need to see the other kids and sleep in our own bed without alarms, doctors, and nurses coming in and out. Elli is keeping food down. And she is enjoying talking with her Dynavox.
The bad news is that Elli isn't improving yet. We determined this morning that she has pneumonia -- we couldn't see it until today because she was too dehydrated Monday night for it to show up on the x-ray. She won't go home until the fevers stop and she can tolerate her normal feeds.
I got a book called "The Valley of Vision" a couple weeks ago, and this afternoon I started thumbing through, looking for something to pray when at the end of myself. I found this prayer: "Grace in Trials."Father of mercies,
Hear me for Jesus' sake.
I am sinful even in my closest walk with you;
it is of your mercy I died not long ago;
Your grace has given me faith in the cross
by which you have reconciled yourself to me and me to you,
drawing me by your great love,
reckoning me as innocent in Christ though guilty in myself.
Giver of all graces,
I look to you for strength to maintain them in me,
for it is hard to practice what I believe.
Strengthen me against temptations.
My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin,
a river of corruption since childhood days,
flowing on in every pattern of behaviour;
You have disarmed me of the means in which I trusted,
and I have no strength but in you.
You alone can hold back my evil ways,
but without your grace to sustain me I fall.
Satan's darts quickly inflame me,
and the shield that should quench them easily drops from my hand:
Empower me against his wiles and assaults.
Keep me sensible of my weakness,
and of my dependence upon your strength.
Let every trial teach me more of your peace,
more of your love.
Your Holy Spirit is given to increase your graces,
and I cannot preserve or improve them unless he works continually in me.
May he confirm my trust in your promised help,
and let me walk humbly in dependence upon you,
for Jesus' sake.
