I don’t feel like writing…I just want to go get an iced coffee, a pair of sunglasses and pick up a few things at Publix. But today, the prompting to write something has been so strong in my head. Reagan is with Rob at therapy, I was about to walk out the door…I even kissed Bauer and told him to be a good boy, and then looked at my computer and the prompting in my head was even louder, “WRITE!” Sigh…fine.

Let’s see, we are about four months outside of Reagan’s metabolic crisis. I will never forget April 8, 2014. The other day, I was going through my purse and I found the hospital bracelet. We have quite a few of them, but this was the one that had the date of a complete and drastic change. A date can hold so much meaning. A birthday, a wedding, the death of a loved one…and April 8 is one of those days.

My friend recently sent me an email with specific things she felt like God did through our lives that prepared us for this.  But at the end of her email, there were some notes that she’d forgotten to erase as she had written her email that week. And it had a link from a blog post in April and a video of Reagan trying to lift her head, which she could not do.

That video is painful to watch, but it’s also awe inspiring. How far she’s come from that is incredible, and can only be attributed to God’s hand on her. The below video is what Rob captured in therapy today. In four months she went from unable to do much of anything, to walking with a walker for the first time today.

I’ve been holding on to this story and these thoughts and connections for a while and I don’t know why. About a month ago, friends of ours visited us from TN. She told me a story about her daughter throwing up randomly and how a co-worker said she felt like they needed to anoint her with oil b/c they thought it was a spiritual attack. So, they anointed their daughter with oil and the vomit spells stopped.

That story sparked a thought that maybe we should anoint Reagan with oil. So we started to, with the regular ‘ol Pompeian extra virgin olive oil. Nothing fancy, it’s in a plastic bottle. But we started doing it every night. Praying for everything that was lost to be restored. Maybe you think it’s crazy that we put oil on Reagan’s head and pray for her brain to be healed, and on her neck for her throat to be able to swallow food again, and on her arms and wrists so they will gain tone, strength and fine motor skills, and on her stomach for her insides to heal, and on her legs and feet so that they will walk…I don’t really care if you find that manner of prayer crazy, it’s what we do.

One time I was on a walk with Reagan, and I heard a clear voice telling me to “Run and anoint.” Seriously God?! You want me to run home from here? It’s far, I don’t run, I can’t run that far. “I will sustain you.”

So that’s what I did. I checked how far it was after I got home…3/4 of a mile and I didn’t stop (if you know me, you know that’s a miracle in and of itself). I haven’t done that in probably 10 years. But I ran home and anointed Reagan with oil. Was she instantly and miraculously healed that moment? No. But I think it was more about obedience. I just needed to do it. And I feel like that’s why we anoint Reagan, not to mention, it’s Biblical and we pray that God will put healing properties into the oil we put on her.

A friend of mine recently went to Israel. “Oh boy!” I thought, “the motherland!!” I asked him to bring back some oil, and to bring the good stuff, the strong Jesus juice…don’t hold out!  He brought oil back from the region that Jesus performed 75% of his miracles in. I love smelling that on Reagan’s head at night. We put it on her before bed when we pray, and I can smell it on her forehead when we feed her at 10:30 p.m. and I can smell it in the morning when I pick her up and kiss her forehead. It’s a constant reminder that we are covering her in prayer, and that Jesus has a purpose for her life. I don’t understand what it is or why we have to go through these hard times. But something that does provide comfort is that God knew her life would be abundant with us. We would not leave her or forsake her.

God sees each of us much differently than we see ourselves; “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Not only does God see deeper, He sees with an expanded spiritual spectrum which we can scarcely imagine. {excerpt from my devotional today}

If God looks at the heart…that means he looked at my heart and Rob’s heart and he knew that there was something in our hearts (that we didn’t even know about) which would allow us to care for Reagan, tell her story and direct the spotlight where God wants it. That’s encouraging…

On June 19th, I asked my friends to tell me how their kids are praying for Reagan. Jesus told his disciples to have faith like a child. And I’ve often thought, “What if our prayers are just not the right kind of prayers? Maybe, we need the prayers of children to heal Reagan.” Children are held in such high regard by God, they are not to be shushed and pushed to the side…they believe, they have faith and they have not been tainted by the pains of this world yet. Here are some of my friend’s kids, and their prayers for Reagan…

Emery (and sometimes Reese – depending on the nap she got that day) pray for Reagan every single night. “Dear Jesus I thank you for baby Reagan. I thank you that you can heal her and take all of her spots away and that her body would feel all better.”

Wyatt–“dear God, help baby Reagan feel better and not get sick anymore” Miles–“aaaamen!”

“When I say prayers with Everett before bedtime, I ask him if he wants to pray for Reagan. His response is almost always, “Eat.” I say, “You wanna pray that Reagan eats good?” He says “yes.”  I start to pray: “Dear God, we thank you for Reagan…” And Everett says: “Eat.” He’ll keep interrupting me until I pray that Reagan eats good and her feeding tube works right and she gets the nourishment she needs. Then he’ll let me continue with other prayers. It’s important to my boy that your girl eats well, so we’ll keep praying.”

Cody: “Dear Jesus…please be wid baby Reagan. Make her bedder. Aaaaaaaaaamen!” (He gets a little excited about the amen!)

Ev prayed tonight that God’s hand would be on Reagan, that she would feel better soon, and that He would “keep her safe and sound for when she is healed.”

I love all these kid’s prayers. And I love Ev’s prayer…for God to keep Reagan safe and sound WHEN she is healed…not IF, but WHEN! I want to pray like her. And I pray that these kids will see God move in HUGE ways for their friend Reagan.