Character of Caleb

When I, uh, we were pregnant with our son, we knew we wanted to name him Caleb. The first time I ever saw the name Caleb was in the Old Testament in the Bible. If you are not familiar with him, Caleb was one of the 12 that went and spied on the Promised Land. Well, I decided to do a little more research to discover more about the man from whom we were getting ready to name our son by. Caleb in Hebrew means "wholehearted". He also showed courage,faithfulness,  was a warrior and possessed a different spirit! (Numbers 14:24)Caleb always had the right attitude toward God's will.Things in life didn't always come easy for this man. Caleb took a stand with God when everyone else was willing to oppose God's will. He had to face adversity and they even wanted to kill Caleb for his willingness to encourage the people to go in and take the Promised Land. He told them, ""If the Lord delight in us,then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us." He was trying to tell the people that the Lord promised them the land if they will just have faith they could overcome the enemy.
 When choosing his name, little did we know of how our Caleb would live up to this name. We became pregnant with Caleb 5 months after we miscarried our third child. We were so nervous at the time and a little anxious until we could finally feel him moving inside me. The pregnancy was considered a little high risk. Every time we had a checkup, it seemed that a lab test was suspicious, or an ultrasound had to be redone. But finally, on Feb. 17th he was born. But he was born very, very sick. At the time, I did not know how sick he was. Caleb ended up having to be transferred to  Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville, NC and spent 2 weeks in the NICU. (For a nicu baby that was a pretty short stay!)  He had to have what is called a double exchange transfusion. 80% of his blood had to be taken out and replaced with "clean" blood. They had to "purify"the blood of all impurities before it was given to him, or it would kill him. Even as a newborn he was such a little fighter. The nurses would comment how strong he was considering how sick he was.Then once we were home, a lab test came back saying his carnitine levels were bad and he was severely anemic! Finally after 6 months he was declared to have normal levels and no longer anemic. But then his white cell count was horrible and the scare of leukemia came up. We were sent to UNC Chapel Hill for testing and while there they discovered he had an egg allergy and he had MRSA behind his ear and severe eczema. We were prescribed an epi pen, an antibiotic for the MRSA and tar shampoo for eczema. (Just to note..his eczema was so bad that his skin cracked so bad on his scalp and behind legs and his ears. The wound behind his ear was so bad and that is how we found the MRSA.) Then at 18 months he was diagnosed with a peanut allergy. Whew!!! Needless to say we were exhausted with all the testing!
But I look back and can now see the story of my Caleb. He has beat a lot of the odds. It was a  miracle that he made it alive at birth! It was a miracle that he didn't have leukemia but his white cell count was wacky due to the eczema and MRSA. He overcame his egg allergy! Caleb also goes to a peanut study at Duke and is losing his peanut allergy.  Caleb has always been a little fighter and has overcome so many odds and he is only 5 now! They were lots of needle sticks, and heel sticks, IV's, medicines, poking, etc... I know in my heart that God has great things planned for him because the enemy wanted to destroy him since birth!

Every time I become down or my faith is a little shaky I look at my little fella! I remind myself that when things seem to be going wrong, to keep my focus on God and his promises because God will keep his promise to us! Nothing is impossible with God. Have you ever read the story of this great man? I encourage you to do so. This man never gave up. He never retired doing the Lord's work. Even in his old age he did God's work. He stood for truth, even when it was not popular! He was not concerned with what everyone else thought, but rather what God thought. Caleb never blamed God, but simply trusted. Oh if only I could be more like Caleb! I am challenged more and more to have more courage and to become stronger to do the Lord's will in my life!  I pray about this in my three children's lives as well! I pray they will stand for what is right and work hard for the Lord!

I know right now that Caleb doesn't understand the deep meaning about anything I said above! He is a typical five year old! He loves cars, baseball, trucks, and making all kinds of noises with his mouth. I never knew that your mouth could make so many car or gun sounds! HA! I have told him about the Caleb of the bible and what he did. We read a lot of bible stories! He does ask a lot of questions, especially here lately he ask alot about heaven and Jesus dying on the cross. I love hearing him try to explain about the story of Jesus dying on the cross and rising on the third day. He recently attended a bible school and he came home and told me," Mommy, God is wild about us!"

Here are a few pics of my little Caleb and a backyard play day we had with a slip and slide! Best $10 I ever spent!

Caleb

putting his

whole heart

into

it!!!