Rainbows . . .

"Rainbow" by Grinner

A few weeks ago I did a post called, "Of Storms, Umbrellas, and Rainbows . . ." , the Lord has continued to point out rainbows to me since then. The past week has been a little bit on the stormy side with Teddi's surgery and recovery, rough nights, my hurting girl, a weary Grinner, traveling daddy, tired me . . . yet over the past week or so there have been many rainbow blessings.


First I want to share a little God story from last Monday that took place during Teddi's pre-op appointment. We were meeting with the plastic surgeon who would be closing Teddi's palate the next morning. She was a pretty blond, sweet and . . . younger than myself , by at least ten years. My mama's heart was thinking, "She's very kind . . . but couldn't I have a silver haired, older, experienced surgeon?" Not fair, I know. Or right. But, I'm being honest here. My confidence level was not real high at this point, maybe it was her soft-spokeness, or her slowness in answering some of my questions . . . or that she was too young, or that I knew she didn't have much experience with this sort of thing. Okay, the experience part is an assumption, but lets face it, this was a military hospital--how many three year olds do you think wander in with open palates? At one point, after I'd asked about Teddi's ear tubes, she had to leave the room to make a call to the ENT docs, to make sure they were on the schedule. At that point my confidence level dropped a few more points.


As Teddi's surgeon left the room my mamas heart was pounding and my head was thinking, "Grab your baby and run"! I turned to Bry and let him know in as few words as possible that I was not feeling good about the next day's events. I couldn't even tell you his reply, or if there was one . . .


The surgeon came back a few minutes later and reassured us that the ENT clinic knew about Teddi, and that they would have a surgeon present to do her tubes. I guess you could call that a rainbow . . . I'll admit I wasn't looking for any at that point.


To make a long story longer, I need to back up for a moment to remind you about Teddi's name. God gave me the name Theadora (Teddi) nine years ago when He first planted the seed of adoption in my heart. There was many a day through those years that I doubted God's promise that we would adopt a daughter. Yet each time I doubted, I would ask the Lord to confirm it and always He was faithful to show me her name. "Theadora" or "Teddi" (or various spellings) would show up on clothing labels, in movie credits, newspaper articles, emails, and once even on the side of a truck, yes, a truck!


Back to Monday . . . We leave the Plastic Surgery floor and head down to speak with someone in Anesthesiology. My confidence level is again dealt a blow as the anesthetist cannot answer most of my questions . . . yet reassures me that the pediatric anesthetist will answer them all tomorrow . . . "Yea buddy, if I show up with my baby"!


One last elevator ride down to Admissions to get all of our sweet girl's paperwork squared away before the next morning. This is the part where God jumps in wearing his, "I'm In Control" cape. We wait our turn in Admissions and then are called over to a desk where we hand our paperwork over to a smiling, grey haired woman. She glances at the papers we have handed her and says, "Theadora! My daughter's name is 'Teadora' (Tay-adora) without the "h". We call her Teddi, she's 29!"

I promise you I heard the, "Weeeeee calllllllll herrrrrrrrrr Teddddddddiiiiiiiii" part in slow motion.


Some people don't believe that God speaks. It was the grey haired woman who said, "We call her Teddi", yet God orchestrated the event (there was another woman who could have called us to her desk). A human spoke the words, yet God spoke to my heart. "We call her TEDDI".


Tears welled up in my eyes, my mamas heart returned to its normal beat. I let go of my worry as God soothed my heart with the words, "We call her Teddi."


I heard Him say,


"I'm in this."
"It's all okay."
"It's all going to be okay."


The storm in my heart subsided. It was replaced by a rainbow of calm, of hope, of trust.


Tuesday morning came, it was all okay. Thank you Lord!


My story had gotten long so I will stop for now. My sleeping girl has joined me. . . up for more medicine. She is now eating ice cream and watching Hello Kitty . . . it's 1:30 a.m. and we need sleep.


I'll share the rest of the rainbows soon.


Thanks to all of you who have left comments and are praying for Teddi. Thank you to Teddi's new friend Lily for her prayers for Teddi's sleep last night, it was much better than the night before. Lily, we hope your cold is better.


Okay, one more rainbow story . . . Lily is eight, and she and her three siblings will be traveling soon (along with their sweet mama, Sarah, and daddy, David) to bring home their sister Grace from China! Grace is getting her very own family as a belated fourth birthday present. A family for Grace . . . that is one of the best kind of rainbows!


Blessings from my nest ~


Tina

Updated Wednesday morning to add ~ Teddi had a better night last night. For those of you who shared about pain meds, I should have pointed out that we are down to managing her pain with regular Tylenol. A couple of times I have given her Motrin (when she has seemed to need it) in between the Tylenol doses. On her roughest night (three nights ago) I did go back to the Tylenol w/codeine, but I gave it to her at 5:oo a.m. and she finally slept a sound chunk of sleep ---probably due to the sheer exhaustion of the night. I think we are on the upward swing as far as sleep goes. Hallelujah!