All things work together for good...

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

A couple of blog posts back, I shared in perhaps too much detail the ordeal with Rachel and the stuffing up her nose and how faithful God was in answering our prayers to give the doctor wisdom to help her. What I didn't mention that when we were there, the doctor also noticed a lot of wax in Rachel's ears. It was enough that she could not get a look at the eardrum. Since we had to return for a follow up on the nose, the doctor told me to put mineral oil in Rachel's ears at night for the week preceding her next visit and she would clean all that wax out and check her ears. Instantly, a light bulb went off in my head and I asked the doctor if a lot of wax in her ears would affect her hearing much. If you know my little Rachel, you know that she is not a good speaker. She doesn't say much and her words are very garbled and unclear. I can't even get her to say her own name. The thought had never occurred to me that her speech difficulties could be related to a hearing issue. The doctor said that yes, wax could diminish her hearing and that could indeed affect her speech development.

So, yesterday, we went for Rachel's follow up visit. The doctor has this long skinny tube hooked up to a low pressure "vacuum" so that she can suck the wax out and remove it. She said that there was as much wax in both of little Rachel's ears as she would remove from a full-grown man and that this had to affect her hearing. Once she could see the eardrums, she noticed that there was quite a bit of fluid behind them. It was not infected and it appeared that it is something that may have been there for some time. She had us see the audiologist for a test that measured the movement of the eardrum. In one ear, there was NO movement and in the other virtually none! My poor girl has probably not been hearing much of anything. It is as though she has been walking around with earplugs in her ears. I just wonder for how long this has been the case.

Well the solution for fluid behind the ears is surgery to put tubes in her ears. Although part of me wants to freak out aver that, I know that it is not that big of a deal because I had tubes put in my ears so many times as a kid that I lost count. Unfortunately, Rachel has probably inherited my bad ears.

Well, my point of this post is not just to share my little girl's problems, but that God is so good. I just know in my heart that these ear problems are the root of Rachel's speech problems. And to think, had Rachel not stuck stuffing up her nose, we would have never have found this out now. God truly DOES use all situations for His good, just as the verse above says! God's loving care never ceases to amaze me!