What comes to mind when you think of an audacious rainbow? For me, it creates the image of the most beautifully brilliant rainbow. So bright and vibrant. So breath taking...that you become mesmerized as you stare at the Lord's creation; at His promise. I love rainbows. They remind of God's promise to Noah (and us) that He will never flood the earth again...God ALWAYS keeps HIs promises. Every time I see a rainbow, I am reminded that God also promises to care for His children. He promised to take care of me, my family, my daughters. All I have to do is trust Him. Trust...that's a hard thing to do sometimes. Life throws us curves and unexpected events...but my Lord and Savior knows about it way before I do. He's there waiting for us to TRUST Him in that circumstance as well. He knows our journey before we do. There are things in life that happen that make us question how, why, what will we do now. Its bad enough when trials happen to us, but when it involves our kids - its so much worse to go through. God understands that too. His Son died on the Cross. Thankfully, it didn't end there - His Son also rose again the 3rd day and is in Heaven...We too will triumph over every trial, every tribulation - but only with the help of our Lord and Savior.
My audacious rainbow is actually our daughters. They are my heroes in so many ways. They are both so strong which has only made me stronger. Their faith in the Lord has strengthened my faith. Their understanding is far beyond their young years...
Our journey began when our oldest daughter was born with very dry skin. Nothing seemed to help it, and as she got older, her pediatrician said it was eczema. I never thought to learn more about eczema - just took it at face value and tried to treat it topically with creams and hydrocortizone. It was manageable for many years. About age 4, I was told her liver didn't filter things out like it should so her toxins were coming out through her skin. We rocked on for a few more years. When she was 7, it began getting worse and right after her 8th birthday, her body had enough. Her eczema was the worst I had ever seen it. She itched so bad, baths were so painful because of all the open sores on her legs and arms. She couldn't straighten out her legs and had a hard time walking. Even on the coldest days she had to wear shorts because she couldn't handle anything touching her legs. Nights were long and no one got much sleep - for what seemed like months. Topical treatments weren't working much at this point and we began using Benadryl and Zyrtec or Claritin - which helped in the short run. Even they seemed to stop working. Knowing that eczema and psoriasis (which runs in my family) are related and that my dad's psoriasis was the result of food allergies, that's where we started. Her food allergies are not the typical anaphalactic reaction that require a trip to the hospital and an epi-pen - thank God! Instead, her SKIN reacts that way. We chose to treat the cause of her eczema vs simply masking the symptoms. That in itself has been a LONG journey. A very educational one. With its own twists and turns and hiccups with more lessons learned.
And our youngest daughter...she has so much compassion and is such a shining light. She has become like a mother hen to her sis - telling her to not scratch, making sure she doesn't eat anything she can't have and making sure I know of things going on at school that may involve food for her sis. I'm sure thru all this, she has felt a little ignored...Imagine the baby of the family suddenly not getting the attention she once got. Any family with any kind of "special needs" child knows what I am talking about. She's such a trooper and we try to be so aware of this. Her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is so amazing. And watching the two of them together is definitely heart warming.
I know God will use our rough journey and our child's eczema to His good and glory will come to Him for it. I know I have gained knowledge which is to be shared. I pray others benefit from our story and our experiences. I pray this blog, which is an outlet for me, is a blessing to you. I want to share our journey and what has and hasn't worked for us. I want to share recipes that I have collected and modified to fit our allergic kid. I thank you for indulging me as I share.
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