The Bigger Plan

Well, Ava got home today around 10:30am.  I can't tell you how great it feels to have her home and for our family to all be under one roof again.  As I think about the last week and a half lots of questions stream through my mind but ultimately I know God has a bigger plan for everything and we don't always understand things at the time....

Why did Ava have to throw up 8-10 times a day and become extremely dehydrated?
Why did we as parents have to go through the stress, sleepless nights, worry, and patience-testing?
Why did Ava have to go through this surgery?
Why did our family have to miss our trip back to Illinois to see extended family that we only make two times a year?
Why couldn't it have been a little stomach bug that only lasted 24-48 hours?
Why didn't the first doctor in the ER catch this?
Why did we have to spend a week in the hospital?
And on and on and on...

I don't come to these questions because I think it is unfair or to think "poor us."  I come to these questions because I know that God has a bigger, better plan that I won't know fully until I enter those pearly gates of heaven.  Until then I try to see the good that comes out of his plan as best as I can.

Was this His plan because...

...He wanted me to see again that God is our protector?
...He wanted our family to have opportunities to reveal our faith to others?
...He knew this was the week Zack and I had off before teaching our summer courses so we wouldn't have to juggle too much?
...He wanted to reunite one of our visitors with someone she had recently been thinking about while visiting Children's Mercy?
...He wanted us to give attention to a little girl across the hallway from Ava's room who rarely had loving visitors?
...He wanted to give me the opportunity to spend a little more time with a mama who's baby girl is in the NICU at Children's Mercy who is going home with a trach on a ventilator very similar to Ava?
...He wanted us to go to Illinois a different time?
...He wanted to remind us what wonderful friends and family we have?
...He wanted to reveal again what special angels we have as daughters?
...He wanted to confirm that I have the best husband in the world?

I know that I don't know the bigger plan for everything and I'm okay with that.  In fact, it gives me peace to know that I don't have to know all the details.  I can just rest assured that God has a plan and it is for good.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11