100% Thumbsuck-free

Remember last May when I was telling you about how we got our 4-year old daughter, Dawn, to finally be 99% thumbuck-free (read here)?  And how our progress deteriorated two months later (read here)? Well, I am happy to report that we are now 100% thumbsuck-free!

 

I know a number of you also struggle with the same habits. I mean, not you personally (I hope) but your children. So let me share with you how we were able to overcome the elusive 1%.

 

I'd say our journey to be 100% thumbsuck-free involved a lot of prayers and some parenting trial and errors. The past months were pretty much a roller coaster ride for Dawn as far as her sleeping habits are concerned. There were nights when we'd be thumbsuck-free and then suddenly the next night we're back to the old habit. Through those nights, Dawn and I never stopped praying. Every night she'd pray that she will not thumbsuck anymore and I know she has tried her best to avoid it. While I know that God can miraculously help her stop to thumbsuck in a blink of an eye, I also know that sometimes God uses people and other means to help us achieve our goal. The key is to constantly trust in Him during the waiting period.

 

A month or so ago, a friend of mine shared how her daughter stopped to thumsuck after using Manicare's Bite No More solution. This treatment was actually formulated to stop nail biting but it worked for their daughter's thumbsucking habit. After only two weeks of continued use, their daughter was able to kick the bad habit. So my friend gave me the solution to try on Dawn.

source

We decided to give it a try during our recent trip to Baguio. I woke up extra early the morning of our trip and applied the treatment on Dawn's fingernails while she was sleeping.  I also placed some on my fingernail and tasted it hours later just so I know the effect on her. It tasted so bitter and left an awful taste in my mouth! I was a little concerned on how she would react but thought it was worth a shot anyway.

 

Dawn slept through most of the ride to Baguio in her car seat. When we woke up her during one of our stop overs, she told me she needed to go to the ladies room because she wanted to vomit. She never really vomited so I thought it was probably just her cough giving her the gag reflex.

 

That night, Dawn woke me in the middle of the night in tears. She said she feels sad because her cough is making her 'not enjoy' to thumbsuck (her words). She said 'Remember when I said I wanted to vomit in the car? It was because my mouth and throat felt ouchy after I thumbsuck' .  I believe she was referring to the lingering bitter taste but could not describe it. Anyhow, long story short, she said she will never thumbsuck again. And that was how we were able to overcome the final 1% and be 100% thumbsuck-free.

It's been over a week now and she has not even attempted to thumbsuck. The bitter memory (pun intended) of the day she wanted to vomit was just too awful to be repeated. I have not told her about the 'magic potion' and will probably not do so until a very long time. I may eventually tell her or she may find out once she starts reading this blog. Either way, I am sure she will be thankful that her thumbsucking ordeal is finally over.

To those of you with kids who are still struggling with this  habit, do check out Manicare's Bite No More. I don't think it's available in the Philippines yet but you should be able to purchase it from the pharmacies in Singapore like Guardian or online for about SGD11.50 per bottle.

Try it!  Don't forget to cover this strategy with much prayers and let me know how it goes.

 

 

 

 

 

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Circle Maker Series: Experiencing the Breakthrough

I want to close our Circle Maker Series by sharing a story about breaking the sound barrier as shared in the Circle Maker book.

 

photo source

In the world of aviation, the sound barrier was once considered the unbreakable barrier. Many engineers believed that Mach 1 (the speed of sound) represented an impenetrable wall of air, and dozens of pilots who died trying to break the barrier solidified that belief. At low speeds, the shock waves are a non-factor, but as an aircraft reaches higher speeds, new aerodynamics is introduced.  When a plane approaches the speed of sound (or Mach 1), shock waves increase and cause the pilots to lose control. The buildup of air pressure in front of the aircraft causes a wave drag.  And because the air on top of the wing is traveling faster than air on the bottom, it basically results in a catastrophic nosedive.  The British, among others, put a hold on their attempt to break the sound barrier when their prototype self-destructed at Mach .94

But that did not keep a young American pilot named Chuck Yeager from attempting the impossible. On October 14, 1947, a four-engine B29 took off from the California desert.  As his plane hit Mach .965, the speed indicator went haywire. At Mach .995, the g-force blurred his vision and turned his stomach. Then, just as it seemed as if the plane would disintegrate, there was a loud sonic boom followed by an almost instantaneous and eerie silence. As the plane crossed the sound  barrier, 761 miles per hour, the air pressure shifted from the front of the plane to the back.  The shock waves that had buffeted the cockpit turned into a sea of glass.  Yeager reached Mach 1.07 before cutting his engines and coming back down to earth. The unbreakable barrier had been broken.

Just as there is the sound barrier, there is also the faith barrier. That is the point where we have seemingly reached a wall in our spiritual journey. The point when we start to feel that our prayers are not going anywhere. Breaking the faith barrier often times feels like breaking the sound barrier.  Difficult to almost impossible. 

If we want to experience supernatural breakthroughs, we need to pray through. It may often feel like we are about to lose control and things are falling apart, but that is when we need to press further and pray harder. If you allow disappointments and doubts to stop you from praying through, then we experience a nosedive in our spiritual journey and our dreams end there.

If you want to experience a Supernatural breakthrough, you need to pray through

Do not give up. If there is one thing that we need to remember from the Circle Maker series is that giving up on prayer should never be an option. You never know when you're just a prayer away from the promise. 
 

Just like the story of Chuck Yeager, we need to wait for that ‘Sonic Boom’ experience in our spirits.  It may be the moment when the Lord answers your prayer or the moment when we have peace knowing that our prayers are in the Lord’s hands and will be answered in His perfect time. That is the moment when your frustrations turn into quiet confidence.  That is when we know we have experienced a breakthrough.

 

As we enter the holiday season, remember that the best gift that you can give yourself is the gift of hope. Prayer develops our faith, and with faith comes a renewed sense of hope. Never give up on the Lord, because He will never give up on you.

 

Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer"

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The Gift of Hope

I once read a quote that says "Never deprive anyone of hope because it might be all they have left".  I was 13 years old when I read that in Robert Fulghum's book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I read it in passing but the quote has somehow stayed with me and I am constantly reminded of it through the years. Hope, i came to understand, is such a simple yet powerful concept.

 

The toughest season of my life started two months before Christmas of 2006 when our first child, Tyler, was born. I can still remember having my two best friends sitting on my hospital bed when my mom delivered the sad news to me. Tyler had facial palsy on the left side of his face. I remember slowly processing that thought and asking questions I knew they had no answers to. I remember those nights I pretended to sleep beside Tyler by holding his picture on our digital camera on my pillow.  Or those days when I would instinctively turn on the camera first thing in the morning to look at his face once again.  I remember the first time Tyler held my hand on that November 24 morning while he was inside the incubator. I remember feeling overjoyed because I felt that he knew I was his mom. I remember the scent of the alcohol in the NICU that I tried searching for it in the groceries long after Tyler was gone. 

 

I can tell you a 1,001 things I remember during those two months with Tyler in our lives. I remember every feeling, every thought, every smell.  Because when you only get to spend two months with your child, you scramble inside your brain to try and remember every moment of it.

Through all of those random thoughts, one thing remain consistent in every day of Tyler's life. I remember praying. Praying hard. On my knees. Every single day.  Every moment I can. My days were filled with streams of conversations with the Lord.  I remember attending worship Sunday after Sunday. I remember going down on my knees as we sang. I remember my cousin embracing me and crying with me throughout the song.  I remember regularly attending prayer meetings and feeling comforted by the prayers lifted up for Tyler.  I remember how one of our church mates prayed over me in Chinese. I could not understand all the words but I remember feeling the Lord's peace wash over me. I remember finding solace in God's church, with God's people.

 

Prayer was my anchor during those times. One thing I came to realize recently was that during those two months, God's best gift to me was delivered through prayer. Consistently praying to the Lord gave me hope. Hope that my future is safe in God's hands. Hope that God's got my back.  Hope,  I realized, is a by-product of prayer. When we seek God and pray around His promises, then we are encouraged to repeatedly not lose hope.

 

While we all know that Tyler was not eventually healed, I realized that the power of prayer during those months was my power to carry on. Hope was God's gift to us.

 

It has been nine years since those difficult days. God has turned our sorrow into dancing.  It was not an easy path but God has been with us every step of the way. We went through two other pregnancies without fear because God has constantly been our hope. We are now blessed us with two beautiful children who will always be a testament of God's love and faithfulness over our family.

 

That, my friends, is the power of prayer.

 

 

Know Tyler's story:

• Tyler's Testimony - http://densandfan.blogspot.com/2011/08/tylers-testimoney-blogged-november-28.html
• A Letter to Heaven - http://densandfan.blogspot.com/2011/10/letter-to-heaven.html
• 65 Days with Tyler - http://densandfan.blogspot.com/2012/10/65-days-with-tyler.html 
• One Sad December Morning - http://densandfan.blogspot.com/2012/12/one-sad-december-morning.html 
• Remember 2006 - http://densandfan.blogspot.com/2013/10/remembering-2006.html
• I Will See You in Heaven - http://densandfan.blogspot.com/2014/04/i-will-see-you-in-heaven.html 

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Circle Maker Series: Praying Through

Every night before going to bed, I would pray and lift up my concerns to the Lord. I have a number of prayer items that have been there for as long as I can remember.  Do you also experience drought in your prayer life sometimes? When it feels like you are just going around in circles and nothing is happening? Well, you need to read this.

I will start this post by sharing two stories. One from the Bible and one from the Circle Maker book.

Story 1: Luke 18: 1-5    

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

One day Jesus told his disciples of a story to show that they should always pray and not give up.  "There was a judge in a certain city," he said, "who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, 'Give me justice in this dispute with the enemy.'  The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, 'I don't fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!'"

Story 2:  In standardized math tests, Japanese children consistently score higher than their American counterparts. While some assume that a natural proclivity toward mathematics is the primary difference, researchers have discovered that it may have more to do with effort than ability. In one study involving first-graders, students were given a difficult puzzle to solve. The researchers weren’t interested in whether or not the children could solve the puzzle; they simply wanted to see how long they would try before giving up. The American children lasted, on average, 9.47 minutes. The Japanese children lasted 13.93 minutes. In other words, the Japanese children tried 47 percent longer. Is it any wonder why they score higher on math exams? Researchers concluded that the difference in math scores might have less to do with intelligence quotient and more to do with persistence quotient. The Japanese first-graders simply tried harder.
 

Now do these stories tell us? Success is, more often than not, a product of persistence.  In the story of the persistent widow, the Bible was silent on what sort of injustice took place. Maybe her son was falsely imprisoned or maybe a man who molested her daughter was still walking free. Whatever injustice she was facing, it is apparent that the widow will not stop until the judge grants her the justice she is looking for. That is what makes her a circle maker.

In my previous post, i talked about dreaming big and praying bold prayers. Now here's the question we need to answer. How desperate are we for God to fulfill those dreams? How many times are you willing to lift that request up in prayer? How long are you willing to wait?

We all know that God is sovereign and the answers to our prayers do not depend on us. Ultimately, the answer will still be God's decision. But it is also up to us to show the Lord how serious we are with our request.

Pray like it depends on God (because it really does!)

 

If I tell you now that I know a person who can grant your deepest request, wouldn’t you be curious and immediately schedule an appointment with him?  Stop for a moment and consider this.  God CAN answer that desperate dream that we have.  Why aren't we constantly seeking the Lord for the answer?   If we do not pray and seek God like the miracle depends on Him, then our answers will always be out of our prayer reach.

In 1 Kings 18: 41-46, the Bible talked about a story of drought. Very similar to Honi's story.  Elijah went up to Mount Carmel to pray for rain. After each prayer, he would ask his servant to go and look out toward the sea and check for rain. When there was still no sign of rain, Elijah would pray again. He did this for seven times before God sent a terrific rainstorm.

This story reminded me of a story I previously shared about the Jericho Wall. The Israelites had to circle the wall of Jericho for seven days before they were able to break through the wall conquer the promised land. Similarly, there was no tangible difference after Elijah prayed for the first, second, third, until the sixth time. But he persisted until the Lord answered his request for rain after his seventh prayer.  Just like the Israelites, Elijah would have forfeited the miracle had he stopped praying on the sixth time.

Now in my prayer list, there are big and small items. I have a few friends who tell me that they only pray the big-ticket items so that God is no longer bothered by the smaller ones. Here's the next point that i want to share with you.

 

God is great not only because nothing is too big for Him.  He is also great because nothing is too small for Him.

The bible said that there is no sparrow that falls to the ground that the Lord does not know about. I recently found out that the maya bird is a type of sparrow. I guess the reason why the Lord used a sparrow to explain this point is because there are just a lot of sparrows in the world. With all the seemingly more important world events, can you imagine why God would even bother knowing each one of the sparrow?

A few weeks ago, our Pastor shared something with us that made me understand God's heart more.  The Bible says that the hairs on our head are numbered. The Lord did not say they are counted, but that they are numbered.  This means that when a hair falls, the Lord does not say "Minus 1 hair from Fan's head", the Lord will say "Hair #2546 has just fallen". Our hairs are numbered.

Isn't it amazing how God is into the details of our lives? There is nothing too big for him and yet there is also nothing too small for Him.  The Lord listens to all our concerns. May it be our parenting struggles, healing from a serious illness, career choice, or finding the love of our life.  The Lord is interested in all of them.

I urge all of you to pray through the tough times and not give up.  Because, who knows? You may just be a prayer away from the miracle you have been waiting for.

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How My Daughter Stopped to Thumbsuck

Dawn practically came out of the womb with her thumb in her mouth.  She loved to thumbsuck!  When she was less than a year old, most of our friends who see her thumbsuck would always tell me that babies who thumbsuck are 'good babies'. While it may be an old folklore, I guess it also stemmed from the fact that they are easily soothed and therefore cry less.

When Dawn turned two and the habit continued, I started to get a little concerned. I read some articles and got tips from friends whose children overcame this habit. From putting vinegar or chili on her thumb (both of which i did not dare try) to putting a band-aid around her finger. The latter, of course, did not work because she can easily remove it.

Three years later and we were still thumbsucking. I got more concerned because her thumb was developing marks and her teeth were already being pushed forward. I tried negotiating with her and even offering to give her prizes if she can go overnight without thumbsucking (i know it's not the best parenting trick but i was desperate). All of which did not work.

When January 2015 rolled in, I made a list of my faith goals for this year. Similar to when i prayed for Troy's leg healing in 2013.  Among other goals was for Dawn to stop this bad habit.  I knew it was impossible to curb this habit without the Lord's help. 

When Dawn was about to turn four in February, she went to visit her dentist, who also happens to be my sister-in-law.  When she came home, she told me that her aunt explained what will happen to her teeth when she thumbsucked.  So I explained that her aunt was right and how she might get crooked teeth if she does not stop. Then she asked how crooked teeth looked like. So i pulled up some google images of crooked teeth to show her and she was horrified! And you know what, she stopped thumbsucking that very night! I could not believe it. God answered my faith goal in just one month!

Four years of my own efforts proved useless compared to one powerful prayer lifted in faith. The Lord does amazing things. It's been three months now and we're 99% thumbsuck-free. I say 99% because Dawn sometimes forget so we need to constantly remind her. She would usually quickly remove her thumb and say sorry.

What is your parenting struggle now? I still have a long list but I can rest in the assurance that my God is bigger than my struggles. What a great comfort for us parents that we can lean on a mighty Father who loves our kids even more than we do. Whatever it is that you're struggling with, lift it up to the Lord. He is just a prayer away.

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Of Soccer Dreams and Faith Goals

Remember one of  my old blog posts about Troy's flat-foot? (Read about it here). Because of it, the ortho-pedia that we met a few years ago told us that Troy should not participate in any sport that involves a lot of running.

Last year when we visited Troy's school, he saw some older kids playing soccer. He told me afterwards that when he grows up, he also wants to play soccer like them. I said 'why not?'.  I know that medically it may seem difficult for Troy to truly be good at soccer because of his foot. But i also believe that God is greater than any medical limitation. For all I know, maybe God introduced us to Dr Kong so that we can start correcting Troy's foot problems early on!

Ever since Troy told me his dream to play soccer, i've added it to my list of faith goals. This concept was shared with me by one of my friends. Unlike the regular goals that we set for ourselves, faith goals are those that are impossible to achieve with our current resources. It is a goal that can only be achieved through faith in the Lord.

I know that Troy's heart's desires may still change. Maybe just six months from now he'd like to play basketball or baseball instead. But either way, i would like him to have the option to play the sport that he loves. This world may give us limitations but we pray to a God who is limitless! Wonderful, isn't it?

Now, what about you? What is your faith goal?

Hebrews 11:1
"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see"

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