“Won’t it get worse in Singapore?”
I sobbed hard that night.
I lay awake, worrying.
When we lived in Canada, just before Sarah-Faith’s 2nd birthday, a strange thing happened. Her skin, once porcelain-fair, began to break out. What first started as stubborn marks on her thighs, spread onto her arms, body, neck and face.
No matter how hard I prayed, how many doctors we visited, how many remedies we googled, how many creams we bought, the eczema worsened relentlessly, covering her from neck to ankle with angry red welts.
It got so bad we had to use wet wrap therapy, a painfully tedious regimen of wrapping a fighting toddler in a wetsuit over thick Vaseline on skin, under a dry suit.
No matter what we did, the eczema worsened.
Why, God? I cried every night.
A week before we moved back to Singapore, a neighbor commented her eczema would worsen. Yet, with a year more of my work contract to serve out in Singapore, I knew returning was the right thing to do.
By doing so, we’d lose the beautiful cottage home gifted to us. We’d lose Cliff’s health insurance, the only insurance that covered his liver issues. We’d risk worsening Sarah-Faith’s severe eczema condition. The stakes felt high.
Yet, whenever we prayed, God said, “Let go and trust me.”
I will never forget that bizarre first week back in Singapore. While incredibly disorienting, what took me off-kilter most was seeing Sarah-Faith’s skin dissolve from being dry and scaly, to leathery pink, to perfectly smooth baby skin, in the sweltering heat.
No one could explain it. Her paediatrician said, “This is very rare, for eczema to improve in a hotter climate. Maybe it’s humidity.”
Yet, it did. I believe it was God’s way of telling me, “When you uphold integrity by honoring your contract, by trusting Me, I won’t let you down.”
If you’re on the brink of making a tough decision, no one can guarantee a good outcome. I don’t know why God doesn’t answer all prayers, why He at times makes us wait. But I do know He honors integrity, that He cares for all our needs, and He does not let us down.
*Pics in Canada & SG