They say you can’t get struck by lightning twice. They were wrong.

We sat silently in the car during the long drive to the University of Michigan Hospital. We’d been in a terrific struggle of care and survival with our disabled son, Calvin, and were struggling to manage his care. All the while I kept noticing our other son, Noah, was not looking well and was complaining of leg pain constantly. After several tests it was discovered that his aorta was narrowed down to the size of a pinhole and the bottom half of his body was hardly receiving blood. He needed to have open heart surgery.

The next weeks were filled with shuffling between the onsite hotel room in the hospital and the ICU and recovery rooms. My husband and I would sit on opposite sides of Noah’s bed with Calvin in our arms, stunned, hardly able to believe this was all happening. Two of our four children were struggling with life-threatening conditions.

Do you have crisis in your life? Ones that leave you unable to catch your breath? Maybe your challenges are coming in waves and you wonder if you can keep your head above the water.

Kara shares some reminders while you are treading in deep water over at Not Alone …