Please Pray for Emotional Healing
We try to only post every week or two unless something comes up that really worries us. Rest assured, Cyrus is doing fantastic and continues to make progress. We aren’t worried about him right now, and all our other external circumstances are doing well. However, we really need prayer for internal circumstances, particularly for Laura and the girls.
It’s come to my attention during the last 24 hours that they’re all struggling worse than I realized. Laura told me she’s been experiencing severe depression, primarily centered on wanting to be with Arthur. While it’s been a couple years since these type of thoughts have come up, this isn’t Laura’s first time dealing with this. We have a lot of tools to support her and keep her safe, but it doesn’t make it any less scary and painful for her or me.
Edee cried herself to sleep last night after waking up hearing Laura crying. This morning Edee said she was crying because she misses Oakley and thought Oakley might be in heaven too. Edee also prayed at breakfast “Please help Arthur feel better, please help my owie feel better, please help Mommy Daddy feel better, and please help Oakley feel better.” For Oakley’s part, she prayed at breakfast that “Cyrus wouldn’t stay dead, that Mommy and Daddy could get new chocolate chips,” (Edee spilled all of them yesterday), “and please, help Mommy and Daddy love each other.” She must have heard us arguing about something, and started worrying about us.
We’re doing ok, but we haven’t had much time to work on our marriage lately, and I’m not sure when we’ll be able to make up for it. It’s good that the girls can understand and share their feelings; it’s just hard to see them hurting. And now that Laura’s realized how she’s been feeling, hopefully we can put more effort into getting her some good rest and time to process. I say “hopefully” because in her depression, Laura hasn’t always been willing to take steps toward healing.
Please pray that this time she will begin doing so right away, and that God will give us wisdom to figure out how to balance Cyrus, the girls, and our other responsibilities with our own wellness. It’s hard to decide which of these essential-feeling things should take the backseat. For my part, I don’t know how I’m feeling now. I was doing better, but this is really weighing heavily on me and I’m feeling very tired right now. We haven’t forgotten that we have a lot to be thankful for, and we will do our best to keep those things front and center in our minds. Please pray that our minds function correctly and allow us to be intentional about choosing joy and thankfulness.
