A Jon Post

So here I am laying on my back, hoping, waiting for the pain to go away. I went to the hospital last night. I had and still have trouble breathing deeply, my chest and back complaining loudly every time I try. Concerned about a possible pneumonia infection, the safest course seemed to get a doctor to say yes or no. Exams and an X-ray later, the doctor slapped the X-ray up on the wall and explained the good news and bad news. Good news, no infection in my lungs. Bad news, I have a pinched nerve/disk in my spine and every time I breathe deeply it pinches it more. The only thing the doctor could do was prescribe pain-killers… ibuprofen.

It’s been a tough week for the Heller family. On Monday we rushed Anaya to the hospital when SHE had trouble breathing and was throwing up and had a high fever. She had pneumonia in her lungs and was put on an emergency antibiotic and recovered remarkably fast. Layne wrote an excellent blog about that journey over on her African Gypsy blog. If you’d like to read more about what happened there she says it much better than I could.

I did have time to go to the hospital once this week. In the midst of all the hospital visits it was good to see friends there and hear them express how much they are concerned for Anaya and her health and tell me they are praying with us for her.

So here I am…

I think I’ll list the things that I noticed most this week as we pushed though a few difficulties:

1) Layne is an amazing mother and wife. Seriously. I wish all of you could see how selflessly she threw herself into caring for and loving Anaya and I as our health was compromised this week. She is almost 7 months pregnant and she hasn’t stopped to care for herself once in all of this. She has slept very little and has loved very much. I could not be more proud of her.

2) We have an amazing group of people who pray for us, both here in Maputo and around the world. We are overwhelmed by the responses we’ve been getting from people who have been praying for us this week, especially Anaya and her health. What a tremendous testimony to the Glory of God. Being a part of the communion of saints in this way is so powerful in drawing the lonely and forgotten to Him.

3) God is so so so good. I love that I can say that when I can barely breathe, when my chest and back are in pretty intense pain and when I can move very little without pain shooting through my torso. God is very very very good. I don’t deserve a healthy back, I don’t deserve such an amazing wife, neither I, Anaya or Layne deserve healthy lungs. And yet God continues to be so merciful in His gifts. If Anaya lives 1 year or 100, God’s mercy that He would give her to us, that He would minister in and through her, and that He would trust us with her life, is so great.

4) Pinched nerves really hurt. I know there are many who may read this who know better than I how frustrating it can be.

5) It’s really hard to watch your child sick. Getting IV ports, getting shots, getting oxygen masks pushed over faces, and not being able to explain any of it. That’s hard. Like above, I know there are so many who know this pain so much deeper than Layne and I.

6) Layne is an amazing wife and mother

7) God is really really really good.