My middle daughter was born without ears. We adopted Joy at almost four, and when the genius Vanderbilt doctors said they could build ears for her, she lit up like a Christmas tree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original plan was for three surgeries within one year to give her a set of printed custom ears, covered in her own skin, that would last for her lifetime. But just a few months ago, she had her sixth ear surgery. One year turned to four, and three surgeries turned to six as Joy\u2019s unique anatomy introduced complications and revisions. What we hoped might be over relatively quickly became complex and painful. At one point, earlier this year, we thought Joy would have to permanently lose one of her ears. We are praying surgery number six saves the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes there are things we suffer\u2014or things we have to watch our children suffer\u2014that don’t have solutions. You can’t always tie a pretty holiday bow around the sad thing. Sometimes, children get sick, lose body parts, lose people they love. And what is there to say in those moments, those seasons, those years? What is there to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the weeks that we thought Joy would lose her ear, I remember sitting at the foot of her bed one night and crying with her because she was understandably crestfallen and I couldn’t fix it. I couldn’t save her ear or protect her from the pain of the surgery or the embarrassment of the loss. But what I did have for her was the living hope I carry. Hope that the groans of this life can’t compare. What I can share is the hope of healing and wholeness that Joy will experience in glory when her painful pre-adoption past is washed away and her mind and body are made completely new. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joy\u2019s journey of health and home has frequently forced our family to cling to the hope of Jesus\u2019s second advent\u2014the hope of Revelation 21 and 22\u2014in a way we might not if all our plans panned out and if all our ideas of wholeness were found here on earth. I hate seeing my daughter suffer, but the beautiful depth of faith that it’s produced in her at such a young age is striking. I’m grateful that I can point my girls and my own forgetful heart to the One seated on the throne. The powerful Maker of new. The One who keeps His promises. The One whose sacrifice ended our hopelessness. The only One who can take broken things and make them over again. The only One who can make dead things alive forever. No matter what you or your family face today, look at the manger. Look at the cross. Look a little longer at the empty tomb. Look at the eternal Savior who promises, \u201cI am coming soon.\u201d He is. He is coming soon, and pain and death are trembling at the thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My middle daughter was born without ears. We adopted Joy at almost four, and when the genius Vanderbilt doctors said they could build ears for her, she lit up like a Christmas tree. The original plan was for three surgeries within one year to give her a set of printed custom ears, covered in her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":71564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent2024"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71574],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"She Reads Truth","devotional_text":"WE REJOICE IN NEW CREATION<\/b>
\r\nby Scarlet Hiltibidal<\/i>
\r\n
My middle daughter was born without ears. We adopted Joy at almost four, and when the genius Vanderbilt doctors said they could build ears for her, she lit up like a Christmas tree.<\/p>
\r\n
The original plan was for three surgeries within one year to give her a set of printed custom ears, covered in her own skin, that would last for her lifetime. But just a few months ago, she had her sixth ear surgery. One year turned to four, and three surgeries turned to six as Joy\u2019s unique anatomy introduced complications and revisions. What we hoped might be over relatively quickly became complex and painful. At one point, earlier this year, we thought Joy would have to permanently lose one of her ears. We are praying surgery number six saves the day.<\/p>
\r\n
Sometimes there are things we suffer\u2014or things we have to watch our children suffer\u2014that don't have solutions. You can't always tie a pretty holiday bow around the sad thing. Sometimes, children get sick, lose body parts, lose people they love. And what is there to say in those moments, those seasons, those years? What is there to do?<\/p>
\r\n
During the weeks that we thought Joy would lose her ear, I remember sitting at the foot of her bed one night and crying with her because she was understandably crestfallen and I couldn't fix it. I couldn't save her ear or protect her from the pain of the surgery or the embarrassment of the loss. But what I did have for her was the living hope I carry. Hope that the groans of this life can't compare. What I can share is the hope of healing and wholeness that Joy will experience in glory when her painful pre-adoption past is washed away and her mind and body are made completely new.<\/p>
\r\n
Joy\u2019s journey of health and home has frequently forced our family to cling to the hope of Jesus\u2019s second advent\u2014the hope of Revelation 21 and 22\u2014in a way we might not if all our plans panned out and if all our ideas of wholeness were found here on earth. I hate seeing my daughter suffer, but the beautiful depth of faith that it's produced in her at such a young age is striking. I'm grateful that I can point my girls and my own forgetful heart to the One seated on the throne. The powerful Maker of new. The One who keeps His promises. The One whose sacrifice ended our hopelessness. The only One who can take broken things and make them over again. The only One who can make dead things alive forever. No matter what you or your family face today, look at the manger. Look at the cross. Look a little longer at the empty tomb. Look at the eternal Savior who promises, \u201cI am coming soon.\u201d He is. He is coming soon, and pain and death are trembling at the thought.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"34","scripture":"Romans 8:18-30, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, Revelation 21:1-2, Revelation 21:5-7, Revelation 22:1-5","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}