God is Still in the Miracle Working Business!

I had a suprising thing happen last week...I was so caught off guard by it that I'm still trying to process it more than a week later.

I took Bri to her Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist to have an ABR (Auditory Brain Response) done.  This is a fancy name for a hearing test.  ABR's are done on children who are not verbal, and are not able to say "what" and "how well" they hear a particular sound in a traditional hearing test.  Just getting this test done has taken an act of Congress...that's probably not a good analogy, since it seems Congress is not getting much of anything done these days...but I digress.

Because of Brianne's challenge of chronic ear infections over the past 2-1/2 years, we have had to reschedule this ABR 4 times.  She had to be completely free of infection, so as not to hinder the results of the test.  Finally last week we were able to proceed with the testing.

My first challenge occurred when we arrived at the office.  I could not get her "lift seat" to work.  It would not come out of the van...which meant that I had no wheelchair to transport her with.  So, I had to walk her, holding onto her hands, which made opening doors, using the public restroom, etc... quite a juggling act.

The next challenge came when I had to try to keep Bri still and quiet, and not allow her to pull on the probes that they had attached to her forehead (which she definitely did NOT like).  These probes measure the brain activity when various decibels of sound are transferred through the ear pieces.  They measure the brain's response to these sounds, which indicates the person's ability to hear these sounds.  The entire test took about an hour...but who's counting??  ME!  It seemed like forever!

I was exhausted and exasperated by the time the test was finished, and definitely not prepared for the results.

"In comparing this ABR with the last one that Brianne had done in 2008," the doctor began, "it seems that her hearing has improved."

"Really?  Is this common for a teenager to regain hearing loss?" I asked.

"No, this is not typical," she replied.

[I cannot tell you how many times we have heard those exact words "This is not typical" but not usually said in a positive way.  It usually goes something like this, "We have never seen this before!" or "Your daughter is not responding the way that a child normally does!" or "This is new one for us!"]

When I probed further to see what could account for this, and what it would mean for Brianne, the doctor said, "I can't really give an explanation for this, but I don't think that she needs her hearing aids any more."

"What?"  "Are you sure?"  Rather than recognizing it as the miracle that it was, I kept wondering if she was really qualified to make these declarations? (Oh me of little faith!) I reminded her that often when Bri is not responding to us as she normally would, we will check her hearing aid batteries only to find that they are dead.

"Well, when the batteries are dead, she replied, "her hearing aids act like ear plugs, decreasing her ability to hear."

Wow, that was not what I expected!  That is not even something I had asked the Lord for!  But in a round-about way, I guess I had prayed for this.  We have been asking the Lord for months now to take away these recurring ear infections.  By getting rid of the hearing aids, we are removing a likely source of the infections.  I am still amazed at the goodness and creativity of God...killing two birds with one stone!

Scripture is filled with examples of David giving credit to the Lord for the great things He has done. 

I Chronicles 16:24, "Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples."

Psalm 26:7, "... proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds."

Psalm 86:10, "For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God."

Psalm 103:2-4, "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.  He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases; he redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love and compassion."

I want to be like David....I want to give God credit for His marvelous deeds!  I want to be an encouragement to others who may be asking the Lord for a specific answer to prayer!

Be encouraged friend, God is still in the business of working miracles today!