Guys. This year.

We enter yet another new normal here— John Mark (11) has been diagnosed with Acute Confusional Migraines. (I’ll wait while you google it. We had to as well.)

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He spent two nights in Children’s. CT scan, MRI, MRA, EEG.

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It’s been scary. For us, and for him. Especially for him.

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Eleven year-old boys know that healthy people sometimes get sick. They know what it is to pray for their friends, for their friends’ mommas and daddies, to take meals to houses made unnaturally quiet by the specter of something unexpected and grim.

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They also know that when they look into the eyes of their own Momma and Daddy, seeing fear, well… that’s the scariest part of all.

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But that’s behind us. Mostly. Today, we have a diagnosis that seems to check all the boxes. We have a team of neurologists in whose skills we feels confidence. We have a trust in a God who is bigger than the storm that has raged in and around us this week.

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We are home. Life feels fragile, the peace feels wafer thin. This morning, our sweet, smiley guy has ridden three terrifying waves and braved them like the fighter he is.

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And now, for no reason at all, life feels normal. Just… normal.

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We will learn to live with this new curveball. This time next year, God willing, we will look back and say, “What were we so scared of?” To quote Aragorn, today is not that day. But it’s coming. Soon. We just have to keep moving forward.