Josiah has been at Texas Children’s Hospital for 8 days now.  We took him to the ER January 2nd. He had been having great difficulty sleeping, was extremely agitated, aggressive, self injurious and destructive.

He wasn’t sleeping, he wasn’t eating well, he wasn’t drinking much and he was very LOUD and bouncy. (Funny how a non verbal kid can make so much noise.) He had a huge goose egg on his forehead from banging it repeatedly on every hard surface he could find.  He was swollen on both sides of his head from hitting himself frequently at his temples.  He was punching us and kicking us; behaviors we hadn’t seen much from him before. Josiah was wired!

The poor kid was in distress and needed help.  We tried everything we could possibly think of to calm him, to get him to sleep, to keep him from being a danger to himself and others. Nothing worked.  In the end, we made some calls for help.

Friday night, January 1st, we talked to medical professionals. Our options were to take Josiah to an emergency room where he would most likely be transferred to a psychiatric hospital or to take him directly to one of  the 2 recommended psychiatric hospitals in the area.  I googled them both. The reviews were appalling.  “Horrible, horrible place.  Do NOT take your child here.” , “I hated this place so much!” and “This place abused my son at age 8.  I ran out of there and literally did not wait for discharge papers.”

In a crisis situation, when you are exhausted, overwhelmed and confused, reading comments like that does not help.  Obviously we could not take Josiah to either of those psychiatric hospitals.

We thought  we could get him to sleep Friday night, hopeful things might start to settle down a bit. Rick was able to give Josiah some of his medication (which he had been refusing off and on) and thankfully, he did relax some.  His agitation went down from a level 9 to a 2 or 3. We thought we might be turning a corner.

We were wrong.  Josiah was up all night Friday night, bouncing on his trampoline, banging his head all over the place, hitting himself repeatedly and laughing hysterically. Saturday morning 2 caregivers raced to the rescue.  They drove Josiah around for hours on end, knowing how calming that is for him. Eventually, he fell asleep and slept for 3 hours.

While they were gone Rick and I crashed.  It was fitful sleep, but it was sleep!  I awoke abruptly, knowing we couldn’t keep going like this.  We had to take Josiah for some help. Those 2 precious caregivers agreed to accompany me to the Emergency Room with Josiah.  I truly do not know what we would have done without them.

Josiah was given a triage room almost immediately.  As an IV was inserted, then became problematic and needed to be fixed, those compassionate caregivers lovingly held him.  As blood was drawn and IV fluids were pumping, they belted out ‘Shake It Off'” along with Taylor Swift (who joined in via Josiah’s iPad.)

Without restraint, Josiah would have pulled his IV out.  They sang and talked calmly with Josiah the entire time until the nurse removed the IV much later. They had been with Josiah since 9 am and stayed with us in the ER til 10:30 pm.

When life gets hard and you don’t know what lies ahead; when you don’t have any answers and just want some relief, take a moment to stop and look around you.  There’s a blessing there somewhere.

God never leaves us.  He tells us in Joshua 1:9, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

I was discouraged and afraid.  I wasn’t being very strong.  Then I saw it.  Right in front of me were 2 incredible angels sent to remind me of His promise.  Such a blessing.

Now I just need to convince them to move in with us!