God Takes Care of the Faithful

"For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones." -- Psalm 37:28 

So by Wednesday of last week, I was ready to just crawl back into bed. It had started the previous Friday. You can read about it here. But by Thursday, God was blessing our little household.

After the nightmare that was the insurance and the nephrologist's office, I decided I had better call the formula provider just to make sure things were going to be okay. Plus we hadn't gotten our formula yet, so I was a little concerned. Yes, the account was flagged because of the new insurance. But the lady on the phone was SO AWESOME. She said that I would be getting a shipment in the next day or two. It would either be the full shipment or two to three cans to keep us in formula until it cleared. Friday, I had the FULL SHIPMENT of formula! Praise God!

Also on Thursday, my food stamps and cash aid FINALLY came through! I was going to call that day, but opted not to. Instead, I checked the website, and lo and behold there was money on my card! The entire food stamp benefit didn't hit until the next day, but I figured they back-dated everything to the first of November so I got a week's worth of food stamps and then on my actual award day got my full month's award. And the cash aid was back-dated two months! It felt SO GOOD to go to the store and buy Princess diapers without having to rely on my parents! I did have to find an ATM to withdraw money from the card to put into my account, but that wasn't too difficult.

There was one thing on Thursday that I was a little on edge about.

About three weeks ago, a lady came out from our local regional center to assess Princess for services. I heard back from her on Thursday. She had presented Princess's case to the evaluation team and they agreed that Princess would qualify for gross motor and communicative services. It took me by surprise. It took me a couple hours before I posted it to my Facebook. And then I couldn't really grasp why people were saying it was a good thing. I guess it was because my brain went to "Oh God, yet another thing on my plate to schedule around." And then my brain went to "What did I do that caused Princess to need services? Can I really take care of a child this special?" But these feelings didn't last long. I realized that this was a good thing. This was why we had been referred to the regional center in the first place. After having spent two and a half (almost three, if you count the additional admits) months in the hospital AND being born premature, she was at risk for going to have developmental delays. We are already set up with the hospital's high risk clinic in February for that very reason. So this is a good thing. She's going to get the help she needs now and hopefully, down the line, we won't need more help.

Let me explain the differences between what we are doing now and the hospital clinic. What we are doing through the regional center is free of charge. It's done through the county board of education's early intervention program. (School districts would like it if you took advantage of early intervention so that your kid won't need services, or as intense of services, when they got to school. Granted, not everyone's issues will be resolved with ONLY early intervention, but starting early is the best thing!) What we are going to do with the hospital clinic in February is to find out if she is going to need additional therapy that would be covered by the insurance. So, this means we will be on an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). It's like an IEP in school, except it's for kids under 3. I already heard from our developmental specialist, J. He's going to come out next week to meet Princess and myself. I also received the observations from our intake coordinator. I can see why J is going to come out. whereas I agree with most of what was said in on the assessment, it was almost a month ago now. Things change SO FAST with babies. They may not be doing one thing one day and the next, like magic, they get it! For example, when I initially spoke with our intake coordinator on the phone to set up the home visit, I had told her that Princess wasn't rolling over at all. Later THAT SAME DAY, Princess decided to roll over from her tummy to her back. So thankfully, J is going to get to see for himself what Princess can and cannot do. The following week, we'll sit down with our service coordinator, M, and write the IFSP. It'll be valid for a maximum of 6 months, so essentially till Princess's first birthday. Of course, anyone on the team has the right to reconvene the IFSP team and revise it at any time.

So, even though the week started off as a nightmare, it ended with lots of blessings. God has said He will take care of us.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done."  -- Philippians 4:6

 All the Glory goes to God. He is the one that will take care of what we need. I don't need to worry about things. And when things get to hectic, I know that it is just God reminding me that things aren't always going to be easy, but He is always there.