It Is Well With My Soul

Picture taken on the way out of the hospital

It Is Well with My Soul
Words: Horatio Spafford
Music: Philip Bliss

1. When peace, like a river,
attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul”

Chorus: It is well (it is well)
with my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul

2. Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ has regarded
my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
(Repeat chorus)

3. My sin, oh the bliss
of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross,
and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
(Repeat chorus)

4. And Lord haste the day
when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound,
and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
(Repeat chorus)

We have a bedtime routine for each of the girls. Before being put down to sleep, a hymn is sung to them. DearHubby and I picked out a hymn for each child and I believe that every detail in life is planned and ordained by God, even to this smallest detail of what hymn will be sung to our children every day before going to sleep.

The hymn we chose for DearDaughter1 was "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". It is a hymn about God's wonderful grace and we chose this hym for DearDaughter1 because her name has "grace" in it. It is by God's grace that we have life, especially life eternal with Him! "Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above."

DearDaughter2's name is a feminine form of Christian and in choosing a hymn for her we were looking for one similar to DearDaughter1's, one with her name in it. We looked at "And They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love", but for some reason that hymn just didn't seem like the right "fit". We then decided to find a hymn that best describes DearDaughter2's beginnings...DearHubby and I desired a VBAC for DearDaughter2's birth and throughout my pregnancy there was a lot of opposition to it. The doctors at my practice were very skeptical of me having a successful VBAC because I am so small. So, I, especially, went through a difficult time finding peace about what the right decision was for her birth and often second guessed the decision to have a VBAC. DearHubby on the other hand always trusted God and His perfect plan. As the time drew nearer to my delivery date, I grew very anxious because the doctors just kept pushing the C-section on me and even scheduled one for the day after my due date. It was just days before my due date and my soul was desparately in need of comfort and the Lord knew it. He brought me down to my knees and poured His peace over me. In the end, I was able to say, whether I deliver this baby naturally or by C-section, it is God's plan and it is well with my soul. Therefore, we chose "It Is Well With My Soul" for DearDaughter2.

This song is already such an appropriate song for DearDaughter2. In such a short time in this world, she as a 2 month old baby has already had it rough, at least compared with DearDaughter1. She's had to deal with fighting for Mommy's attention because DearDaughter1 is in a stage that requires much of Mommy's attention. She's had to deal with adjusting to this Big New World a lot on her own because Mommy has been pulled in so many different directions from caring to DearDaughter1 to caring for everything else while the construction work in our home was in full swing.

And to top it off, we just returned home from a couple days stay at the hospital. DearDaughter2 caught a cold over the weekend and I took her to the doctor on Monday. We were informed it was a cold, but with her being so young, even a cold is dangerous and so we needed to monitor her breathing. On Tuesday morning, I noticed her breathing really hard at 5am. If it were not for the doctor telling me to monitor her breathing, I would not have noticed the hard breathing. I would have just assumed that she was just having difficulty breathing because she had a stuffy nose. Well, the breathing didn't get better and so by 9am, I called the doctor for another appointment. As soon as the doctor saw how hard DearDaughter2 was breathing, they called 911 for an ambulance. Her oxygen level was monitored and it had fallen to a level below normal. We were taken to the ER. They did tests for RSV, the flu, and pneumonia. Praise God they were all negative. DearDaughter2 had bronchialitis...The cold virus had gotten into her lungs and restricted her breathing. She was given treatments to open up her airways, but on the first day she was still unable to sustain her oxygen levels on her own. So, DearDaughter2 was on a supply of oxygen to help her and she received 'round the clock treatments for her airways. On the second day she was finally off of the oxygen and we were discharged with a nebulizer and a prescription for more airway treatments every 4 hours. Needless to say, DearDaughter2's also had to deal with getting sick and being hospitalized.

Yet, despite all these hardships a little tiny baby can go through, DearDaughter2 has gotten through them with a smile. I used to be concerned for DearDaughter2 because she was very colicky in the first few weeks as a newborn. I wondered when her crying would stop. Well, she has actually turned into such a very happy baby. She smiles and coos all the time. While we were in the hospital she won all the medical staff's hearts over because despite all the poking and probing that was done, in the end, DearDaughter2 always had a smile on her face. When we got home, I set her on the couch and she looked up at me and smiled. I looked at her and told her that she needed to teach Mommy a lesson or two about smiling more because Mommy hardly ever smiles. There's just something about DearDaughter2's happy disposition that just says "it is well with my soul."

My prayer for DearDaughter2 is that through her life she will be able to say "whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, 'it is well, it is well, with my soul.'"