My eyes welled up as she bravely held a very articulate little boy, probably wishing she could make it all go away even more than he did, trying to find the words to explain, the courage to lend him, and the strength to keep herself going.

The next morning it was my turn. In the early hours of the morning, after a particularly challenging night when Max spiked a post-surgery fever and was up with blood tests, medication and cranky roommates for more than half of the night, I sent Jared home for a nap and let my little boy take his turn melting down.

He wailed in my arms and every trick I knew didn’t work. He just wanted to go home.

And as sad as that moment made me, my heart welled up with joy. We desire to cultivate a home that is a place of security, of peace, and of the presence of God. And in that moment, as heartbroken as I was, my heart soared because to Max, that’s what our home has become. It felt good to hear it and to know it. A parenting high in the midst of a heartbreaking challenge.

There may have been some tough moments during our time in the hospital, but for every challenge, there were a hundred blessings… at least.

Not the least of which is that our boy is healed.

I prayed God would do a miracle and I remember one moment in the wee hours of the morning, weeks ago when I couldn’t sleep, I heard Him whisper back, “What if I want to use surgery to heal him, Rebekah?”

And it appears that that is what He’s done.

The infection is gone. It was a nasty one, embedded deep and strong and resistant. The team involved were confident that this was the very best course of action.

In addition to this miracle, we saw so many moves of God’s grace along the way… the fact that Max was a near perfect patient. At each shift change the nurse would ask why he hasn’t had more pain medication and the other would say, “He’s been content so we’ve held off.” The wound care team said, “I kept expecting him to jump but he just laid there. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

No, he wasn’t perfect. He got emotional. He couldn’t sleep to the tune of emergency buzzers going off every half hour and children screaming in pain and discomfort. The bandage hurt coming off. And sometimes he just reallyreallyreally wanted apple juice.

But that’s when the grace turned up too. A nurse just who popped over with the apple juice just in time… and some tylenol. The cleaning lady who kept bubbles in her cleaning box. Surprise visits from our favourite nurses who have been seeing Max throughout this ordeal, even though it wasn’t their job to pop by. Friends arriving with treats at just the right moment.

They may seem minor. But in a Children’s Ward full of aching families, every bit of joy and hope we experienced was acknowledged with deep gratitude. There were challenges… but we were so blessed in the midst of them.

When we got a visit from the lead surgeon who has been seeing Max, we saw the wound for the first time. It was bigger than I expected… but we learned that one of the larger abscesses had popped during the procedure and the fact that he didn’t have an infection already was a surprising result. (Lord, is that You?)

We also learned that there was indeed some minor nerve damage. That would explain the slacking we had noticed on the left side of his lower lip… the one I had been hoping was the bandaid pulling his skin… I saw the look of relief on the surgical assistant’s face when she said, “I wasn’t sure the extent of the damage. I was so relieved when I heard he could eat and talk completely normally.”

Just one more moment I counted our blessings.

We were there longer than anticipated. And though we were very well taken care of, we are ALL glad to be home – in our place of refuge and peace.

Max spends most of his time asking to run outside or sing and dance inside. He is visibly relieved to be back. He melts down every now and then – we give him some pain medication and he seems to morph back into himself within around 20 minutes. I think he is still hurting more than we realise … or even more than he is willing to admit.

Playing football with daddy is just too much fun. Its a good thing the paediatric outreach nurses are doing a house visit tomorrow. Seems he popped open part of the wound during a tackle. Oops.

We’re all catching up on sleep, enjoying a relatively lazy weekend, bursting into spontaneous prayers of gratitude to God because it truly could’ve been a different result in many ways.

Thanks for so many who prayed. We are grateful for you all.

Our boy is healed.

Yep, that’s Jared, our good friend Anna, and sweet baby Michael all dressed up as Mary, Joseph and Jesus way back before Jared & I ever even met. It was such a sweet memory and made us extra excited for Stable on the Strand, Townsville’s Christmas Festival, which we love to help with every year.

It also made this just a bit more sweet… if you follow our Facebook page, you’d know I was a typical mom… smitten by our little shepherd boy as he and I dressed up in Bethlehem garb to play with other kids and the animals and tell them about Baby Jesus (who happened to be in a Stable just a few market stalls away from us in our re-created Bethlehem village).

Apparently, our local newspaper was also smitten:

BLESSED: Little Shepherd Max Hoover, 1, Gets Into the Christmas Spirit

We are blessed indeed.

We haven’t always known how big, though.

The last few months alone, since the ship has come back into port here in Townsville have been incredibly full. With tight deadlines, Jared & the team bit off a lot – stripping the ship back to steel, repairing rusted areas, and repainting with a top quality product, removing some of the bulky storage areas to create a better waiting room and deck for socialising after hours… and creating new, more efficient storage areas for all of the medical supplies we’ve been donated.

It was early mornings… late nights… and long weekends. Max kissed a picture of daddy goodnight most days.

But we’re finished. (For now.) And she looks BEAUTIFUL!

We’re really happy to say that we have been able to host lectures on board with one of our training schools as well, making this truly a vessel for mercy and for training, exactly what we’ve been planning for. Don’t you love when the dreams God puts on your heart come true?

There’s more where those came from… but for now we wait!

But this isn’t just about being busy. Its about resting.

And let’s face it… rest is what we’ve been needing.

We had a wonderful week with Jared’s sister Amy and dad visiting. There’s just something special about having family… but even more so when you see your child interacting with his auntie and grandpa. Somehow he just knows that its someone special… and he adores them… and I love that.

We skipped naps and walked around waterfalls instead. Jared played adventure guide on the island and up north. It was delightful.

We even got a few more days off just to recoup at home. I wish I could list off all of the amazing things we got done around the house but I can’t. Having a holiday at your house, which is part of a ministry centre, means that many people stop and ring by with “just one question” making for some surprisingly busy days! So instead of enjoying lots of rest, we mostly just enjoyed each others company and Max enjoyed having his daddy put him to bed most nights for a change!

But then we were invited to head down to the Whitsundays for a couple of days and let me tell you – you couldn’t revive us out of relaxation mode if you tried! I kept catching myself silently staring into the ocean. It was divine. Max loved it too.

So even though there are a few more opportunities to maximise before the end of the year, and of course a little girl to prepare for, and CHRISTMAS to celebrate, we are well on our way to feeling rested and refreshed.

Now… if someone could do something about this humidity!?