How often do you receive advice when you share with people about being a caregiver? I bet it is easy to pick out who has actually gone through your type of situation. There is a lot of bad advice floating around—thank you, social media. Most of it comes from people who want to comfort you but have no idea what they are talking about.

As a family medical caregiver I was asked to put my faith in a lot of things. The knowledge of our medical care team. Medicines that were both dangerous and life-saving. Twenty years of favorable results for the surgeries performed on Leah’s heart. The thing I came to realize while listening to the staff during rounds every morning, is that medical care is as much art as science. Each patient is unique in their makeup and responds differently to treatments as a result.

I remember the first time I heard the words breadth, length, height, and depth as they applied to the Father’s love for us. While I was running around the house doing my caregiving duties, and just being mom to all three of my kiddos, I would listen to a particular radio show. This idea stopped me in my tracks. Who cares about clean laundry when your spiritual foundation is being reformed?

This passage is part of David’s Song of Thanks as he and the Levites brought the ark of the covenant to the city of David. He was celebrating, giving thanks to God who had brought his people through every trial. They played music with harps and lyres, dressed in fine linen robes, blew the shofar, and danced down the street in celebration. No one in the city could have missed that testimony.

One day in 2016 I headed down to the doctor’s office to have an anatomy scan for my third child. Having done this twice before, I didn’t ask my husband to join me. I dropped off the older kids with a friend and looked forward to a few minutes of “me time.” Instead of relaxation, I received news that my daughter had a heart defect and that I would need to see cardiology the following Monday.