No Prayer Falls on Deaf Ears

This is something I posted on Facebook some time ago. I thought I would repost it on here now.

Three of my four children were born with a congenital condition called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (not sure I spelled it right), more commonly called simply CAH. Basically this means their adrenal glands do not function properly. Their bodies do not produce certain hormones needed to survive, one dealing with how your body responds to stress and the other that helps your body retain salt (which contrary to what you may have heard your, body actually needs). They are fine as long as they take their medication, steroids that do the jobs of the missing hormones. As long as they take their meds, and as long as the doctors keep their dosages correct, they are fine. But this is not what I am writing about; it is just a little background information.

Kyra, our oldest child, was the first to be born with CAH. Although we understand it better now, we had no understanding of it then, so it was a frightening experience. Let me back up and give you a little more information. When Kyra was born we were living with my parents in Anacortes, Washington. Anacortes is a beautiful little town in a beautiful area of Washington, but there is not a lot of work there. We lived there for about a year, right after Becky and I finished school. Although I enjoyed living with Mom and Dad, it was a difficult time because I was struggling to find employment and Becky's pregnancy was not an easy one. The night Kyra was born there was a freak snow storm that shut down much of the state (at the time Seattle only had four snowplows and they were all being used to try and clear nearby passes). Becky went into labor around 7 pm or so and Kyra was born around 9:30 am. It was a very long night. When Kyra was finally pulled into this world the doctor noticed almost immediately that things were not right. First of all, Kyra had double clubbed feet; it looked like her feet had been put on backwards. Second he noticed signs that her adrenal glands might not be working properly so he brought in a consulting doctor there who happened to know a lot about adrenal glands. They both decided she needed extra care, so plans were made to send Kyra to the Children's Hospital in Seattle (a place I will forever love and be grateful for), and about an hour after she was born Kyra was flown down to Seattle.

It's hard to describe how I felt then. I had barely had a chance to meet my beautiful little girl and she was being whisked away because of problems I did not understand. The doctors tried to explain things to us, but I had not slept in about 24 hours, I was worried, and so I had difficulty understanding everything they were telling us. Becky and I slept pretty much that whole day and then early the next morning, as soon as they would release us, Mom and Dad drove us down to the Children's Hospital. We spent the day with Kyra and then spent the night at the house of Becky's sister Heather (another person I will be forever grateful for).

Keep in mind this was Christmas Eve, one of the most difficult Christmas Eves I've ever spent. I spent a day listening to people try to explain my daughter's condition and help ease my fears, but it still did not help a lot. Here I was, semi-employed (I was substitute teaching at the time but not getting a lot of work), having difficulty finding full time employment, relying heavily on my parents and the government (I don't know why people complain about our healthcare system, it sure worked great for us), and here was my first born with all of these tubes and monitors attached to her being subjected to all of these different tests, and that night I had one of the most powerful spiritual struggles I have ever experienced in my life.

I was downstairs alone in Heather's house, doing some laundry I think, and all of these concerns I just mentioned just overwhelmed me. I fell to my knees in anguish and prayed to Heavenly Father for help. I felt so helpless, helpless to help my daughter, helpless to provide for my family, helpless to be the man I was supposed to be. I poured out my heart to Heavenly Father, and He heard my prayer. The immediate answer He gave was to calm my heart with some words of comfort which came from a familiar scripture but at the time felt as though were being spoken in my ear by a loving Father with invisible arms holding me. He said, "Be still and know that I am God. My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment (you can find these same words in Doctrine and Covenants 101:16 and 121:7).

I was gently chastened that night, reminded that I had wept for my own suffering, having asked why I was having trouble finding a job and why I had to suffer while my child was in the hospital. I had felt anguish and pity for myself when it was my daughter going through so much more than I was. But at the same time I was comforted and assured all would be well. I asked to have Kyra cured of CAH and to get a job the next day. That did not happen, but for the next several months Kyra was cared for by some amazing doctors (she did not have to stay in the hospital all that time, we just made frequent trips from Anacortes to Seattle), and continues to be cared for. It still took time for me to find a job, but that blessing came, as all do, after the trial of our faith. We came out to Maryland for a family reunion and ended up staying here. I got two jobs here, working for Border's Bookstore (me with a job in a bookstore, how can that not be a blessing?) and substitute teaching again, those this time I had a job pretty much every day. A year later I got a job working as a studio teacher for Promised Land on CBS and we moved to Utah for the job, and eventually we came back here to Maryland and I got a job at Magruder High School.

I look back on everything, on everything we have done and received, and I know that all of it came from Heavenly Father. Kyra is now 13 years old, beautiful and one of the joys of my life. We have a home, and I have a job I love. It didn't all happen at once, there have been other struggles, other trials, but the one thing I know is Heavenly Father continues to bless us and watch over us, even in the rough times.

There is nothing special about me. Well, that's not true, I'm "special" :-), but what I mean is there is nothing special that would set me above anyone else, nothing that would lead God to help me more than anyone else. Heavenly Father has heard each and every prayer I have ever offered to Him and has answered each prayer, to because of who I am, but because of who He is. He hasn't always answered my prayers in the way I expected (or maybe had hoped for) but they were always answered. Yours will be too, as long as you have faith and let Him answer the prayer in His way. No prayer falls on deaf ears and no prayer goes unanswered. I know this. I step down off of my soapbox.