Ring the bell!

I liked the gold ones best, but they came in silver too, as well as, just about any color you could imagine.  As a young girl I loved to spend time at the store just looking at all the shiny earrings.  They came in just about every shape and size that you could ever dream of.  They had earrings in the shape of hearts, flowers, stars, and even ones that looked like cute little animals.  My parents had a strict rule about getting your ears pierced though.  The rule was you had to be twelve years old, and earrings that "dangled" were definitely prohibited.




LeAnne, at 12 yrs. old :)

I could hardly wait for my twelfth birthday.  I had my eye on a cute pair of heart shaped earrings.  They were gold and definitely didn't dangle. As the day drew closer to my birthday, the idea of letting someone put a needle through my earlobe overwhelmed my desire to have golden hearts on my ears.  Simply put, I was a BIG CHICKEN, so much so, that I waited until my younger sister turned twelve to see how bad the pain really was.  I figured that if she survived "the operation" relatively unscathed, then I might give it a try. 
Fortunately for both of us, my sister survived the dreaded needle.  She braved the "surgery" and came out the other side sporting a beautiful set of golden post earrings that she had to wear non-stop for six weeks until the holes healed well enough that they wouldn't close up when she removed the earrings.  To the say the least, I was sold!  I couldn't wait to get mine done.  I begged my mom day after day to take me, but she seemed in no particular hurry to get the job done.

It wasn't until I was thirteen that I finally was able to look in the mirror and see my own pair of newly pierced ears with the gold post earrings shining back at me.  I cared for them diligently just like the lady at the store had cautioned me.  I turned them around in circles in my ears several times a day, and I cleaned them with rubbing alcohol twice a day just as the store lady had advised me.  Six weeks later I finally had my "hearts desire," golden hearts adorned each ear.

Think of the holes in Christopher's stomach where the feeding tubes once lived kind of like a pierced ear.  When the holes were new, they were very vulnerable.  If the feeding tubes unexpectedly came out, there was the great fear that the holes would close quickly.  As time passed, that fear faded because the holes became a part of him.  His body became accustomed to them just like our bodies eventually get used to having  holes in pierced ears.

When his body got to the point where an errant feeding tube was no longer an emergency, it was a relief.  It meant no more rushed trips to the emergency room, and no more feeding tube disaster drills. However, after God blessed Christopher with an instant healing miracle, an interesting and unexpected problem developed.
Christopher removed his own feeding tubes (under the care of a physician) on April 26, 2012, but NOW we WANTED the holes to close up.  Unfortunately, after 17 years the chances of that happening were slim to none with the favorable odds on none.  Those holes had been a part of Christopher for years and years.  We were hoping that they would just heal up quickly and not put up much of a fight, but odds being what they were we were skeptical at best.

At first it looked like we might win the fight.  After the feeding tubes were first removed, the holes initially leaked, but after a good nights rest they seemed to be holding firm.  Round 1 went to Christopher.  He got up that next morning, ate breakfast, and no leaks.  I dropped him off at school thinking all was well, but it was a different story when I picked him up from school later that afternoon.  Round 2 went to "the holes".  Apparently, just a little normal day to day movement was enough to break open what had healed over night.  A very irritated, cranky, and leaky Christopher got in my car.

It pretty much went downhill from there.  "The holes" won rounds 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, ...and on and on.  Please, could somebody just ring the bell?  It was beginning to look as if this might be a "knock out," and Christopher might need to have that surgery after all.  To add insult to injury, the skin around the holes started to get very irritated ( Christopher and I were getting very irritated too!) and began to break down.   Vulnerable and compromised skin is the perfect breeding grounds for infection.  The last thing we needed was for an infection to set up house in the empty space where the feeding tubes once lived.

Christopher with feeding tubes

Apparently things weren't going to go as easily as we had planned, but we had no intentions of giving up.  God had blessed Christopher with an instant healing miracle.  Christopher was eating normally and adding new foods to his menu everyday.  This was just a small bump in the road, and we knew God had a plan for this too.

Christopher without feeding tubes



If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can pray like this:

 More tomorrow...