Sunday, November 18, 2012

CJ~ A Mighty Sycamore

This has been a rough time for CJ, but if you would ask him, he would sound much more hopeful.

In the past 8 months, he has been diagnosed with OCD, Tourrette's, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Failure to Thrive and now gastroperisis.  This is on top of the asthma and migraines that he has been struggling with for a long time.

This would probably do in most kids, but CJ is not most kids.  Under his quite exterior, is a strength and faith of a giant.  He has an anointing on him that I believe will make him a stronger person even still.

I explained strength to him using the following metaphor, and I believe this best explains him:
Do you see the big tree there?  Is it strong?  Did is survive the big winds?  Why is it strong?  Why did it survive? 
It survived and is strong now, because during storms in its life it learned to bend and sway with the wind.  When it would bend, little micro fractures occurred in the trunk.  After the storm, these fractures would heal, making the trunk even stronger because the healed part was stronger than the actual trunk.  Each time the little tree would face another storm the same thing would happen until the truck was so strong that it did not need to bend and sway with the wind.  It could stand up to the wind and survive even the most powerful of storms.

This is like what happens to people.  We all go through storms in life, no matter who you are.  You can either learn to endure the winds then heal between them or decide to fall over thinking the wind unfair.  If you embrace the wind as an opportunity to get strong then you look at troubles in life in a different way.  Instead of despair, you can hope in your troubles, because this is the time you will get stronger.
 
I see my son becoming a young man.  Even while going through all of this, he stood up to a bully at school and lived to tell about it.  He was released from treatment for his OCD, because of the progress he has made in managing his symptoms.  He even liked the Intensive Physical Therapy EDS program that he just finished, because he said it gave him ways to get out of pain.  He has also embraced the dietary rules to help him with his gatroperisis and failure to gain weight.

For so long we were not able or willing to understand the struggles that CJ had to endure.  Now that we can and are willing, CJ is actually thriving.  It is very painful as a parent to realize that your child has been suffering for a long time and nothing was done.  However, looking back over the last few years, I don't know how I would have had a chance to dig into his issues along with everything else that went on in this house.  Maybe it is just and excuse so I can live with myself.  Maybe it is the truth, I don't know.  But what I have realized is that nothing can be done about the past, but lots can be done about the future.  So I am going to focus on the future.  And the future of CJ is looking like a mighty sycamore!

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