Our Rock Pile: Miracles and an Allergy Update

My boys love to pile stones…  I can’t help but go in my mind to remembering.  In the Bible, they served as memorials – reminders of God’s faithfulness.

I hinted a while ago about the miracle that we’ve been experiencing over here when I showed pictures of Greta eating her first Smore.

That picture of her first smore was a pile of rocks that we’ve erected to remind ourselves of the miracle that He’s done and is doing in her life.

Let me rewind and give you all an update for those that haven’t been following my {infrequent} allergy updates.  Greta’s birth 2 years ago was a joyous occasion. I may not have felt that way at the time, but childbirth memories have a way of fading fast as we wax nostalgic. It was beautiful, albeit painful.

It didn’t take long however after our little Greta Girl joined the family to discover that something was different. She cried, inconsolably, all the time.  Did I mention, ALL.THE.TIME… I was also dealing with the move of my sister’s family across the country {sniff, sniff} and my dad’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent relocation to California for 9 weeks of treatment just days after Greta was born.

But this crying was starting to wear on all of us. Just days before my sister moved, she mentioned the possibility of a dairy allergy as an explanation for her colic. This ice-cream lover couldn’t even begin to fathom that. I kept telling her, “But what if it isn’t dairy and I end up giving up ice-cream and cheese for no reason???”  I’m the picture of selfless love, aren’t I?

Thankfully, God in his kindness broke through to me not soon after that through two friends who’ve navigated serious food allergies with their own children. As I began to whine again, my friend looked me in the eye and appealed to Greta’s obvious pain. This jolted me out of my selfish thinking and I proceeded to start an elimination diet.

Sure enough, dairy was a culprit – along with a whole slew of other foods. And this was the start of our journey into the realm of food intolerances and allergies.

My life was turned upside down as I learned how to cook in a completely different way. At Christmas that year, I made the mistake of eating a few bites of mashed potatoes that had dairy in it. Sure enough the screaming commenced again and the poor girl had bloody stools that week.

This served as a wake-up call.

The next year and a half had us pursuing some alternative treatment with our chiropractor which proved helpful. But she still struggled with horrible cradle cap and I constantly had to be evaluating and re-evaluating what I was eating and what was triggering her body to react at that particular time.

Throughout all of this, our family prayed. We prayed for God to heal our baby girl. The gravity of the situation didn’t really start to sink in until she reached her 1st birthday {the pic above was taken shortly before her 1st birthday}. People were making concerned comments about her scalp and I was facing the fact that I couldn’t simply control my diet and breastfeed her forever.   She would have to face this specialized diet herself.  Finally at a year, she was developing quite an interest in solid food.

We began praying in earnest for her cradle cap. I was on a downward spiral with this roller coaster ride and needed God’s sustaining strength. He’s always so faithful, isn’t He? He gave me strength and quite suddenly her cradle cap subsided. In excitement, I blogged about it.  Her hair started to grow and I continued to limit my diet, nurse her and start adding in some solid food.

While her scalp didn’t flare up, her list of foods that she needed to avoid continued to grow.  We reached a point where she was off: DAIRY, GLUTEN, RICE, OATMEAL, SOY, CORN, POTATOES, EGGS, PEANUTS, CHOCOLATE, and STRAWBERRIES.  Friends would offer to cook around her allergies when we would visit.  I would simply shake my head and not have them even bother.  It was easier to just bring food with me.  Most of the time, I was thankful that she wasn’t reacting as bad as before as long as we kept the delicate balance of keeping her away from offending foods.  But every once in a while, I’d crash emotionally.

Last summer arrived and one day in mid-June my mom came to me and announced that she was praying for Greta.  I thanked her.  We’ve all been praying for a while and I appreciated the support.  When I saw her the next week, she reminded me that she was praying for Greta.  She told me that she had faith that God was going to heal her.  She had faith for complete healing of all the allergies, except dairy.  Having just tested her the month before and hearing confirmation that she was indeed still reacting to all those foods I must admit that I wasn’t very hopeful.

Two or three weeks later, mom came to me yet again to let me know that she was praying for Greta.  I gave a polite nod.  But I wasn’t prepared for what came next.  She looked me in the eye and said, “How am I going to know when He heals her?  Will you go get her tested again?”   How could I say no…

So I took the feeble step of faith and had her re-tested.  After running the tests, the doctor gave me a confused look as he told me that she was free from all of her food intolerance/allergies except for dairy.  My mouth dropped.  I left his office that day, praising God and marveling at his goodness.

We started with adding all of those foods back in and sure enough, she was fine.   And we are full of gratitude, knowing the incredible work that God did in her body.  I’m reminded anew to keep piling up those stones and recounting God’s faithfulness in our lives – both in the big things and in the little things.  Little things, after all, add up to big things.