. thankful {and grateful. and prayerful.} thursday .

today {well, everyday, but you know what i mean} my heartbeat is my children.  so many days i find myself saying "i can't wait until they can ..." or "i can't wait until naptime today."  or "i can't wait until my favorite man comes home."  it's all simple, more-common-than-not mommy thoughts and words.  everyone feels this way at times. 

while getting caught up on blogs this morning, i found myself stopping to pray at each.  each one i looked at was a blog updating family and friends on the health of a child.  i became completely overwhelmed with gratitude because my children are healthy.  neither one of them had to go to the nicu.  both of them got to come home after only two days of being in the hospital.  neither one of them had to have tubes.  neither one of them is on medication of any kind.  neither one of them have a broken, literally, heart.  neither one of them have known suffering, disease, or of being sedated and paralyzed so all the tubes will stay in place.

i cry tears of happiness for my own children, but tears of sadness for these families.  please pray with me for them ...

sweet stellan.  if you scroll down and look in the left column, you can find his story.  poor little guy has fought hard for his life, in and out of SVT and in and out of the hospital.  his fight and his smile are bigger than texas though.

sweet owen.  this little guy is so happy, but his little heart isn't.  he needs a new heart and how cute, yet so sad that he will be the tin man for halloween because he needs a new heart? 

sweet moriah.  this precious baby has been in the hospital for 10 months and her parents cling to the Lord with all they have.  moriah is very sick and is sedated and paralyzed.  she was supposed to be discharged this week, but due to yet another infection, she must stay.  pray for this family.  it is one struggle after another. 

sweet luke.  this sweet boy was born a few short months ago with a heart defect and has already had one surgery.  he is due to be discharged from the hospital next tuesday.  pray for his little body that it stays strong enough for him to do so. 

there are so many more.  so many that don't have blogs.  today i cling to my own healthy children and thank my Lord that my blog is about normal-for-the-most-part things, and healthy children.  i thank Him that i'm not asking for people's prayers to save my child's life.  but i pray for these.  i pray for the children who are suffering.  the one's who can't live without pain.  because i don't know what it's like to deal with that and i would hope if ever i do that my faith in the Lord is so strong and rooted deep enough for me to cope like these parents have. 

"trust in the LORD and do good;  dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart."  psalm 37:3-4