Today our second son, born on July 6, is 10 days old. We are at home and we are all healthy. I am SO grateful!

I have been reminded again that God directs and gives blessing one day, one step at a time. He knew, that for me, reaching day 10 at home is met with lots of thanksgiving! But also met with the reminders that God brings good out of the difficulties of life.

When, our now two year old, was only 10 days old, we found ourselves awakening in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. We could not hold our son and could only go near him with rubber gloves and a sterile hospital gown. All we knew was that he had a form of meningitis and we were awaiting more conclusive test results. That morning the Daily Bread devotional (http://odb.org/?tz=-06) was on heaven. My husband looked at me and asked if I could handle hearing the devotional. We were reminded that God gives each of us only one day at a time and this short, temporary life is just that… temporary. Heaven is home. To this day, those few moments of that June 10th morning, vividly remind me of how fragile and precious life is. It is a gift given one day at a time.

Within hours of that same morning, we had test results showing that despite the high fever our first born had no sign of seizures, the meningitis was late-onset Group B (so it was not a viral meningitis) – we could hold our son again, and the outlook for recovery greatly improved. We had one of the shortest stays in the PICU ever seen in similar cases – we left after just four days. The remaining days in the Pediatric ward were generally boring. (In a hospital, boring is good!) A couple fever spikes and extra fluid around the brain and spinal cord extended our stay, but God had given life and time together that would not have been quite the same if He had not allowed illness. Although we would never wish for it, that three weeks together was a blessing that would have been missed if not for the struggle.

So, in this day over two years later I look at my little second son and praise God that I am at home… swamped with work because I planned for him to come next week! (Silly mom, I know better than to think I can plan a baby’s arrival!) But thankful anew for just this day. I cannot control tomorrow for it is not a guarantee – it is a gift. But how precious is today.

I’m thankful, my husband is home loving on his boys, supporting me in the work to be finished, my parents are here and loving on grandkids and helping with the endless list of house chores. I’m thankful again that the only day that I have to handle is today. God has tomorrow and the steps to take between. God holds the journey and the map. I just get to rest and trust one step at a time.

I am thankful for today.

Matthew 6: 25-34 (NIV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.