This week has been rough on my daughter Michiko. Her allergies acted up big-time. On Sunday, after she visited her grandparents on Green Mountain, she returned home with puffy and itchy eyes and a splotchy face. Parts of her face had such deep scratches, they oozed blood. Her nose has been congested the past week, her eczema is looking worse and for the past three days, her nose bled. Today it bled while we were all in a friend’s pool. She bumped into her daddy (who was helping little Josh kick his feet) and before I could say “Jack Robinson,” there was a little red tributary flowing down her nostrils. Boy, did that make me nervous. After resting for a while, she was back in the water for the next 30 minutes. Then she and her friend played in the living room. Her friend had built a fort with the sofa furniture before we visited so they had a grand time running in and out of it. But the mixture of the dust and the cat dander in the fort didn’t help her allergies and when we were in the van on our way home, she was crying as her eyes hurt so much. And how she raked her neck and her elbow bends with her nails as they too were so itchy.

Her face now looks splotchy again and sigh, her eyes look like she had been punched from all her rubbing.  I don’t look forward to tonight as when the “itchy hour” arrives (between 11.00pm and 2.00am), she’ll be scratching furiously again. Her night itches, which have stopped for a couple of months after I completely eliminated corn from her diet, seem to have returned!

But she is a real trooper and I’m very proud of her.  She doesn’t seem to mind so much that she has all these allergies.

I’ve to admit though that my response each time she succumbs to some kind of allergy isn’t something I’m proud of.  I get flustered, upset and impatient. It is very frustrating as I’m trying so hard to help her as far as her food allergies are concerned. With environmental allergies, there is nothing I can do especially when we are visiting.  This sense of helplessness is very tiring. But thank God for His grace and sustenance.

I don’t know how people who don’t know the Lord cope with their daily struggles. I realize other mothers struggle with more challenges so I shouldn’t whine so much, but I guess a mother’s heart is always so vulnerable to everything and anything that threatens her children. No challenge is too small. We just love our children and can’t bear to see them suffer in anyway.

If you happened to read up to the end, I thank you. And I would appreciate a little prayer for my daughter. Thank you! J