Legend has it that a well-known scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!" 
Trying to find out what exactly is wrong with Christi this time around has been a bit of a stack of turtles medically speaking. We brought her to the hospital in severe and nearly constant abdominal pain. It had been progressively getting worse for a while and after a few sleepless nights, we were at a tipping point. She had also had bloody discharge from her tube and, most recently, begun vomiting blood. After a few test we were flown to Phoenix where we have been in PCH since. 
After a brief scare with a suspicion of sepsis, We have sought diligently to source her abdominal pain. In the mean time, she has developed two blood clots in her right leg. They are non-occlusive (the blood has other ways around) but still not the best news. Her face has also swollen significantly and there is a potential blockage in the valve where the small intestine and large intestine join - which is possibly caused by the tubing from her shunt wrapping around it. While none of these things have been sourced or solved yet, there seem to be additional layers added too often - more turtles.Our own personal turtles are part of the pile here too. Our house is slated to go on the market this coming week, and we are also supposed to fly to Utah on a house hunting trip on Tuesday. Christi is currently on a ventilator and won't be making the trip (she was going to come) but that means that we will likely have to divide and conquer to get it all done. Not to mention our other 4 kids who have been so kindly and carefully cared for by family and friends in Snowflake while all this is going on. What stories this will make some day :)
The truth is really that there are, of course, no turtles that we are standing on here. There are no causal loops, or even any unsure footing at all. There are so many with so much more to wrestle with, with so much less support, with much more difficult circumstances. We meet them nearly every second step here in the hospital. The Lord said to the often troubled Israelites, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy one of Israel, thy Saviour"
He paid an enormous personal price to offer us the sure footing He has. It has made a tremendous difference for us to rest safely in His hands in the midst of this turmoil.
Who can stand for very long on a stack of turtles anyway?
