We Will Praise the Lord

I will praise the Lord at all times.
    I will constantly speak his praises.
I will boast only in the Lord;
    let all who are helpless take heart. 
 Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
    let us exalt his name together. (Psalm 34:1-3, NLT)

On Monday, March 20, 2017, we almost lost our sweet Evan. Just typing those words makes me start shaking. The trauma of that night and the ensuing days when Evan was in pediatric ICU are still too real and too fresh for me to write about. One day, maybe I will do it. But today is not that day.

Today, I just want to praise the Lord for His goodness and mercy upon us. Stewart and I both feel so grateful to God because only He could have healed Evan. Only He could have brought the right people at the right time that saved Evan's life. Only He could have made Evan get stronger every single day since the ventilator was taken off. Only God. So here is our psalm of praise to Him. Because He alone is worthy of it.

We praise the Lord for hero doctors and nurses who gave outstanding and loving care to our boy. They were simply amazing.




We praise the Lord for our church family who prayed, brought food, texted, and called. We praise Him for my Sunday school class who brought bath products to help me relax and detox once we got home. (They have already been used, believe me!) We thank Him for those who visited and offered to help in any way they could.

We praise the Lord for friends who are like family who went above and beyond the call of duty to take care of us and Zach. We are grateful to them for forcing me to leave several times and buying numerous Polar Pops and Sonic drinks. 

We praise the Lord for friends outside the church who sent gifts to Evan and blessed us beyond measure.

We praise the Lord for the thousands of people who saw our posts on the "Prayers for Evan" page and prayed for us. Thank you for all the shares and messages. They meant the world to us.

We praise the Lord for a friend who sent Reese's eggs just at the time when we both needed chocolate because hope was very dim. Reese's eggs make all things better! That same friend stamped scripture verses inside of t-shirts for Evan, which was the right thing at the right time. We were able to put those shirts on him once we got to a regular room.

We praise the Lord for our amazing big boy, Zachary, who handled this whole thing like a trooper. Yes, he worried a lot, but he managed to keep up his school work and be a good kid for Gram.

I praise the Lord for my husband, who is my rock. I thank God that every morning Stewart got up and bought me a large McDonald's coffee and then fixed it for me. I am thankful that he let me cry and put up with me when I was grumpy and tired. I am grateful for when he let me sleep in our "courtesy room" so I could actually sleep. I actually loved the times when we would snuggle up on the highly uncomfortable couch in Evan's ICU room and watch movies on his iPad. I could not make it without you, Stewart.

I praise the Lord that when I couldn't pray, all I had to do is say the name "Jesus" and He heard me. I am thankful for His word that sustained me during the 8 days in the hospital. I read my Bible as much as I could, but many sent me scripture just when I needed it. My best friend Diana reminded me of the spiral of note cards she made when Evan was born and spent 5 weeks in the NICU. Those cards wound up coming to the hospital, and I prayed through them several times. 




We praise the Lord that He healed Evan. He is weak and not doing everything he normally does, but he is home and with us. And we are beyond grateful that we still have him.


I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.
    He freed me from all my fears.
Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;
    no shadow of shame will darken their faces.
In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened;
    he saved me from all my troubles. 
 For the angel of the Lord is a guard;
    he surrounds and defends all who fear him. (Psalm 34:4-7, NLT)

Comments