Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

April showers today. So many in fact that I didn't go to work. But that was another kind providence, as it enabled me to go with Sharon to Jacob's appointment with the neurologist today. Our girls stayed with the Gatchell's, some friends from church who have 3 older boys, 2 girls aged right around our girls and a boy 2 months older than Philip.

We appreciated the doctor--evidently the current trend is less formality, as he just goes by "Matt." He ran through lots of exercise-type tests with Jacob as observations. He is convinced there are no neurological problems, which is what we expected. However, there is definitely something chronic going on with his muscles. The enzyme numbers I referred to in the previous post refer to an enzyme found in everyone which serves to break down muscle in the muscle development and replacement process. Elevated levels might be found in someone who has been working out in the gym, but Jacob's level is about 100 times the upper normal level.

What we have learned today is that more tests are needed. We are not yet aware of where God is about to take us, but the horizon looks stormy. We need to take him to the cardiologist to make sure that (since the heart is a muscle) his heart is strong. We also need to go for more bloodwork to see what that can show us. Depending upon those results, a next step would be to go to York Hospital for genetic testing to narrow down the underlying causes. The term "muscular dystrophy" has come up several times in these last days, but the doctor told us today that even if his problem were to be in this category, there are many differnt flavors this disorder can take.

So we are still left waiting. We are so glad that God has known about this since before time began. Though taking him for his 6 year old well checkup has quickly turned into a new phase in our lives, he remains the little boy we have loved for 6 years. We haven't seen any deterioration or regression in him, and so for now everything is the same as it was 2 weeks ago other than our growing awareness of future consequences of this condition.

For years I have wondered that we had both lived so long without going through any really deep waters, and had been thinking that sooner or later something would surely be brought our way. We are receiving this from God's hand, from the same God of whom Job spoke, "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" And we are praying that we would look expectantly to see how God will sanctify this trial to us as parents and to our family. Each of our children need to seek the Lord, and we know this will be used of God for good. Please continue to pray with us for clear thinking and daily grace.