Dear Friends and Family (and friends of friends and family!)


I hope this finds you all well.


I wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little about the prayers that we have already seen answered during the last few months.


One of the biggest prayers I had from the start was that I would forget. That the image I had in my head of Owen during his seizures and how he looked in the hospital on the Friday night would just be completely erased from my memory. Each time we saw people for the first time since it happened we obviously found ourselves in a position of retelling the story. Each time I recounted what had happened those images just came flooding back into my head. Horrid! The scariest thing I've ever seen being repeated over and over in my head.
Those who were praying for us, I so appreciate your prayers on this. I can now tell people what happened without seeing it in my mind's eye. I can recall the facts, and I feel the emotion of the moment, but without the horror of the image. Praise the Lord!!


When I read back over messages that I sent various people on the Friday night my prayer request was for a distinct lack of fear. I needed to be calm, peaceful and strong for Owen. God absolutely answered those prayers! There is no other explanation (in my mind!) for my calmness, especially in those first days. It was not only strange given our circumstances but also completely uncharacteristic! I've been known to be a worrier in the past! But my prayer now is that I don't forget God's goodness in this, that for the future I know God's love will carry me through all that life throws at me. "Who am I to worry when the King of kings and the Lord of lords is working on our behalf!"


Owen's biggest prayer requests in that first week were for answers. For a timescale for treatment. For a feeling for himself of God's reassurance that all would be well.
We received the answers we needed from that first appointment at John Radcliffe that I told you about in the last letter. To know that it was definitely a tumour, that it wasn't cancer and that there was a definite course of action gave Owen (us!) the answers we needed.
A timescale for treatment has only been answered more recently. As some of you will know, last week we received a date for the operation. 20th October. Although sometimes this feels like a long way off given we originally expected a date sometime in late August or early September, we know that ultimately the timing of the operation is in God's hands and that the doctors are confident that Owen does not need to be rushed through for the operation. We now have something to work towards.
Owen's feeling of encouragement from God that it would all be fine in the end came at our church away day. The speaker that  day was a visiting speaker, and he talked of the greatness of God. He spoke of miracles he had witnessed and how God had revealed himself. Of how God had given him faith for those miracles. What a perfect subject for the day! The greatness of God and the miracles he performs to this day! Reassurance that God was right at the centre of this and that he would act. That all would be well.


" And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose," Romans 8:28.


I realise that for some of you this may all sound a bit crazy. That we're convinced of answered prayer because that's what we want to believe. I understand that. All I can say, and make of this what you will, is that I have felt , and so has Owen, a sense of God being so close to us throughout this. His love, his protection, his hand on the little details. I hope that this is coming through in all the posts that I have written and will write because I absolutely want to give God the glory for all that he has done. All those little positives, the answered prayer and the sense of being carried through, they speak of God's goodness. I trust him for every step of the way, his hand is mighty to save!


Thank you for reading and I pray for a blessed week ahead for you all.


Much love


Rachel xx