One Year Ago...

A year ago this week, our desperation to feed Janie Grace was rapidly approaching its nadir (Zack Mansfield word...he used another word yesterday I'd never heard before!). Despite round-the-clock efforts to sustain our child, Janie was failing to thrive. We were urging calories into her body but to no avail. Reluctantly, we were preparing for an inevitable hospital stay for the purpose of having Janie adjust to use of a feeding tube. The inability to meet the nutritional needs of a child was a burden we hope to never again bare. We were exhausted, desperate, nervous and frightened. The intense will to orally feed our child by whatever means possible was finally broken. We had no other choice and we knew it.

While having a tube hanging from Janie's nose and the companion pole that served as her shadow was no picnic, we quickly learned that this device was more refreshing than anything we'd known. Janie was gaining weight and the inconvenience of a feeding tube was but a fraction of the prior burden.

I wish each one of you could watch Janie eat a meal today. If a year ago today, you would have told us that Janie Grace would be eating everything in site just 12 short months later, we would have sarcastically laughed in your face. She takes down a 6-ounce (180 ml) bottle of milk in under 15 minutes. A year ago, we danced a jig on the rare occasion she came close to sucking down 6 ml over the course of 30 minutes. Last night, as I often do after Janie finishes a bottle while seated on my lap, I looked at the empty cup as I placed it next to me in preparation to burp her and shook my head in disbelief. Disbelief in form of genuine gratefulness. How times have changed!

Over the course of today, Janie Grace will eat some variety of blueberries, bananas, broccoli, bread, black beans, blackberries, turkey (couldn't keep the b-words going), ham, apples, pizza, pasta, peppers, pears, chicken, cheese, oatmeal, avocado, cucumbers and PLENTY of puffs. Last night, she gobbled down black-bean lasagna like it was candy. I don't use this word flippantly, never have...it's a miracle. Recently, Jennifer's mom was helping to feed Janie Grace one evening while Jennifer and I each had a commitment. She admitted to spontaneously and audibly breaking into a rendition of Great is Thy Faithfulness as she sat in wonder at Janie's ability to feed herself. Not only the ability of her mouth to manipulate the food in preparation to swallow, but the dexterity in her fingers to pick up the small bites herself and shove them in over and over again!

We'll never again take for the granted the ability of an infant to feed him/herself. Each skill we have, that often come naturally, is a blessing from the Lord.