"All That I Am For All That You Are"

The month of may was a tough month for the White family in Pak.  At the beginning of may I was listening to an new album by Rend Collective that had songs with titles like; "All That I Am"  and "Joy" and "My Lighthouse".  Each song spoke to what it means to be completely surrendered to Jesus and CHOOSING Joy.  God gave me those songs for the month of may.  Because if there was ever a month we needed to CHOOSE Joy, that was it.

Gianna had gotten sick.  She was very lethargic and unresponsive.  She was throwing up everywhere, but did not have a fever.  She was pounding at her head like something was bothering her.  After a couple of days of this, one evening she was laying in my arms and she began to seize.  Immediately we rushed her to the hospital building.  Thank God we were living on the Hospital Compound at the time.  As I got up to take her to the Hospital, she stopped breathing.  I don't remember exactly how long it was, but she wasn't breathing and she turned blue.  The Doctor and nurses (her Aunties) worked hard and were able to stabilize her.  Then they began to diagnose the problem.  They found that she had Meningitis. We were in the dark about which kind of Meningitis, but the Doctor chose to treat her for Bacterial Meningitis.  The treatment worked and after over a week in the hospital we were able to get her home and start the recuperating process.

There is so much that goes into this chapter in our lives.  But the main thing that hit us was the reality of our situation.  We live very very far away from quality medical care.  Thoughts like "why did you bring your children here?" and "You are about to lose your daughter, was it worth it?" were going through our minds.  There were a lot of mixed feelings.

But God spoke to our hearts...

Our call to this service overseas was actually confirmed, not retracted.  Those songs and scriptures that I had been thinking about came to mind in those times.  "Its only in surrender that I'm free..."  "We choose Joy..."  "Oh God you are my God, and I will ever praise you.."

We are here.  We live in Shikarpur and stand firm in our call and in what we are here to do.  We know others before us have gone through much worse, but the whole situation hit us hard.  It shook us.  But there is power in prayer and God is sovereign.

She spent most of her time in the hospital in this position.  She grew very weak and had a little trouble walking after we went home.  Eventually she her strength came back to her.

Hudson = best big brother ever.  Never wanting to be out of the loop or separated from his sister, he would "read" her stories, hold her hand while she was getting a shot, and try to sing her to sleep.  When told to stay out of the hospital (in the beginning of it all), he snuck in like a ninja (literally) twice.

Aunty Joanna (the head nurse) helped Gianna escape for a real meal toward the end of her hospital stay.  She was getting very restless

Hudson was very good about staying clean around the baby.  He would often scrub up like a Doctor before entering her room.

Thanks to the power of God, our baby girl is happy and healthy.  She has slight hearing loss (nothing significant.  She still responds to everything we say), but we will continue to get that tested and trust God.