Encouragement in the midst of the lows

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Life has been a bit overwhelming recently.  It is hard to approach the end of another school term with a child who is still sick.  There have been moments when we've seen improvements, but they're only small. We're at the point where we're getting into a serious run of medical appointments and it is tiring organising them, chasing up people, working out how to fit it all in.  Trying to keep some vague sense of 'normal' for the rest of the family is hard.  Just getting along to the parent teacher interviews for five children over this past week on top of the usual stuff has felt tiring.

Add into the mix a new bout of health problems for myself.   I wrote about this last year (read about it here). I've had nine months pain free but then I've had the pain return more significantly over the past few months. This means a whole set of extra doctor's appointments, ultrasounds, specialist appointments, multiple phone calls and an ongoing uncertainty about treatment etc.


It is easy to dwell on the negative (and there's been a lot of it).  But I've been reminded yet again that we don't travel on this journey alone.  Not just that we know that God has a plan and purpose for this stage of our life, but that people around us are encouraging and supporting us.


In the past few days we had one of our uni students drop in a cake he'd baked.  He and Rowan have been meeting to pray each week all year and they've been praying for J.  We went to a party for a friend from our old church (which we left 9 years ago) and saw many people who have been praying for her.  At church on Sunday, two friends got up and prayed for J.  Yesterday a box of treats and a signed card was dropped off for her - the youth group put it together for her.  Last week Rowan went to a national conference for uni student worker's and many told him they had been praying for her.

Often it is easy to feel that our life is pretty unimpressive.  We don't own our home, our kids go to ordinary schools, we have one car, no impressive careers.  We haven't done a great job of making money but we've gained lots of lovely friends and relationships.  Having so many people, from so many different places caring for us, loving us and providing for us reminds me of the continuing privilege it is to live this crazy looking life.

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