Approval
I posted on my stories today, the link to the FDA’s meeting w/ Pfizer and a committee of 18 doctors. I listen in to many of these meetings, so I’m getting my information directly from the horse’s mouth. The meetings are long, but helpful to not only learn about actual medical or educational content, but to also see whom and also what types of corporations are making enormous, consequential decisions for our country.
Emotional responses are the norm to the news we get pedaled these days. I’ve got plenty of emotions, however, I have made a point, during COVID, to go directly to sources, studies, and conferences to watch, read & learn.
Emotions don’t drive my parenting. Brian and I have had two simple prayers for the duration of our parenthood: 1) “LORD, help us to parent out of faith, not fear, “ and 2) More of your fingerprints on our children, and less of our own.” I check myself regularly. Today, the FDA voted in favor of allowing Pfizer/BioNTech emergency use authorization in children 5-11.
It was April 2020, this day first popped into my head. I shared it with several people (you know who you are). From the beginning of COVID, I knew this day would come. We were less than 6 weeks into this pandemic and God gave me a clear vision for the months and years ahead. I wrote parts of this blog, on that day in April.
You may think because I take my kids to rallies or am politically active in the medical/political arena of today’s culture, I may be upset about today’s vote/approval. It has large repercussions and introduces unchartered territory for parents and doctors. I have 5 vaccinated children. All up to date. I have never been adamantly anti-vaccine. I am adamantly anti-mandate. I’m happy for the families who will be able to make the best choices for their children in regards to Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine. As stated by many of the doctors present at the FDA panel meeting, ‘there are many parents who have children who are obese, have other comorbidities, or have fear (justified or not), who are desperate to give this vaccine to their children.’
Simply put, I would not want to stand in any parent’s way to make the best medical choice for their children. They know their children best. While several doctors pushed to approve the vaccine so children with auto-immune diseases or who are at higher risk due to obesity and other comorbidities could go safely back to school, other doctors also admitted apprehension to approving it, knowing it could be forcing families into a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to state-led mandates. Dr. Ruben of the FDA stated, “We’re never going to learn about how safe the vaccine is unless we start giving it, that’s just the way it goes. That’s how we found out about rare complications of other vaccines.” Another Dr commented, “We won’t have data and the models unless we start using it (the vaccine). We are in a fluid situation.” I’ll admit, those were dicey quotes to take in. Based on the limited data they had, Dr Meissner didn’t think it would be fair for kids to be forced to vaccinate or otherwise refused an in-person education. He said, “We simply don’t know what the side effects will be.” He knew in approving it for a needy portion of the population, it would be potentially harming a healthy portion of the population.
Can we appreciate there are desperate parents on both sides of this issue?
I have made plenty of counter-culture decisions, swam upstream on many hot parenting battles, been the odd parent out, been the only “No” in a cluster of “Yeses” and I have gone with my God-led gut for 19 years in raising the healthy, happy kids I have today.
So, I’m praying that no one will stand in my way of making the best to make choices for my children. If we are honoring parents desperate to give their child this vaccine, surely we will honor those who are equally desperate to wait on this vaccine. I’m praying that empathy and understanding will be a two-way street. I’m praying that for maybe one of the first times in this pandemic moms and dads can parent without judgment, without overreach, without blanket mandates and guidelines.
Take me or leave me. My heart is big, my convictions are big. My wisdom is big, and my discernment is big. My children are on loan to me from God to love and care for to the very best of my ability. I don't co-parent with the government. I don't co-parent with schools or churches. Parenting is a blessing from the LORD-He alone formed each of my children inside my body. I watched every day as He grew them. I quickly became vividly aware I had no control over this process. In all 7 pregnancies, with each day, as my stomach grew, I became more and more thankful God was giving me 9 months to come to grips with the truth that He was the miracle worker, fashioning life inside my belly. He knew every curve, organ, and tendon. HE knew every breath from their first to their last. He kept them a secret from me and spent intimate time creating them, knitting them together before they ever met my gaze or arms that would cradle them.
While the benefits may outweigh the costs for some, knowingly putting my kids into a “fluid situation” where we are administering a vaccine to healthy children so “more data will be discovered” and knowing this treatment could have adverse effects, is not a situation I would willingly take at this stage in the game. I generally don’t make decisions I could regret. I’m decisive and sure. Truthfully, God has used my motherhood to hone my decision-making skills. To possibly lay down the health of my own children, injecting something into their bloodstream that is new and experimental, for the health of other children, will be the ultimate sacrifice I have made as a mother. It will go against EVERY fiber of my mother being. Every fiber. It will be a careless decision made for me. I pray God will give me the ability to make it through the moment when the results of today’s vote leads to future forced medical procedures. On my own abilities, I will not be able to let this happen to them. God will have to move me out of the way and pick me up off of the ground, with whatever scraps of faith I have remaining. Rock-me-to-sleep-sweet-Jesus will plead my exhausted heart. My lips will mouth, begging for the One TRUE Physician to preserve and fortify my baby’s bodies. One parent’s dream situation is my nightmare.
We won’t all parent the same. That’s a good thing. There is beauty in differences. There is an unpredictability differences create. That’s a good thing.
As parents, Brian and I will see what lies in the days ahead. Vigilant to the voice and leading of our LORD. God told the Israelites, newly freed from slavery, that He would provide manna and quail. His only stipulation was for every Israelite to gather only according to their eating and the number of persons in their household. Do not plan ahead, so your faith was mustered up each day, and your sustenance doesn’t come from you, but from God. So we will EXODUS 16 the heck out of these next days and weeks. Having day-to-day faith in God who will provide for our daily needs. We will grumble and fear, praise and hope. Jehovah Jireh, our extremity is your opportunity.
Comments