Ecclesiastes 11:7 “How sweet is the daylight, and how pleasant it is for someone’s eyes to behold the sunshine!”
We got home late last night from the most amazing week away. The weather was perfect in Florida. We made lots of memories, laughed hard, relaxed, learned new games, and had the best time as a family. It was refreshing to get away from all the craziness of life. Each of the kids told me at some point during the week that they needed the time away. They also expressed how much the trip meant to them. We all arrived back in Kentucky last night with a little more bounce to our step.
Today was a brutal reminder that our vacation was over. The day started with Sophia’s PT at 8, picking up Bo, Wayne PT/speech (he got his iPad device that will assist with his communication), my petscan, and a million other things like laundry and grocery shopping. Can I go back to Florida?
We all wore our shirts that Stephanie made us for Christmas.
We had our friends, the Hartman family, over for tacos. It was wonderful to catch up with them. They are missionaries with Ethnos360.
Abigail taught me how to play pickleball. We had a lot of fun…especially since I beat her! We ended up playing three times while we were in Florida.
Wayne decided to walk the whole way to the pickleball courts for his exercise. He has walked so much that his cane broke!
The resort had movies every day at 2 and 8. It was amazing to have this option: swimming and a movie?!?
Meal with a view.
We all enjoyed the gym too. They had a stairclimber with a screen, which allowed me to hike through British Columbia.
Rainbow!
I would daily pack my bag with books, snacks, and drinks. I would head to the pool and stay there all day. I wanted to maximize my time at the pool.
The girls went to the beach to take senior pictures of Naomi.
We enjoyed spending time with the Edwards family. Micaela takes ASL with Naomi and enjoyed having class in person vs zoom.
Kids are crazy. They decided to play in the rain.
Shan falls asleep in the most unique positions.
Relaxing by the pool!
We had bbq hamburgers at the pool with the Edwards family.
Joella was putting sunscreen on with the phone camera.
Morning pickleball with the kids. This was the one time I forgot sunscreen and burnt my shoulders.
We learned how to play Nertz!
Wayne wanted to play pickleball. The kids would hit it right to him, since he can’t move very fast. He made my heart stop a few times, but he had fun.
This sign lead to many laughs. Joella glanced at it and read it wrong. She said, “Do not drink no beer!” I told her she has lived in KY too long. I said there is no way the sign said that. We all laughed when we realized her mistake.
We made a brief stop in Georgia to see Lemarc, who is like a son to us. Wayne and his grandma shared an office at Moody and spent countless hours with his “dad”. Wayne would pick him up from school and the kids would be confused that Lemarc called Wayne his dad. He’s grown up to be an amazing young man.
Another day and another IV. Today I was injected with radioactive glucose for my petscan. My favorite part was being left in a dark room for 45 minutes to let the medicine circulate. Can you say nap?
The technician told me that the results are usually read in about 48 hours. I am just trying to trust God with the results. Every phone call about stops my heart with anxiety. On Friday, I received a phone call about a test I had done and they said they were referring me to a gyn oncologist. I told them I already had one and I’ll send them the information on Monday. My friend Naomi, who was with me at the time, listened as I cried and told her that I just want to go back to life being normal. I’m tired of all the suffering. She stopped right there and prayed with me. A couple minutes after praying, my oncologist reached out and said she had already received the report from the other doctor. She told me that she wasn’t very concerned and said she took it as a good report that they didn’t find any cancer cells. Crisis averted! God allowed me to finish the rest of our trip without a cloud over my head.
I don’t know how to express how hard it is to get these phone calls and have your stomach drop to your toes. I dread answering my phone now in case it’s a doctor or nurse… but I choose to trust God, no matter what the outcome. A friend shared this on her Facebook page: “sacred assumption - the space between what we know about God, yet what we are experiencing of God. We know God is a healer, but why isn’t He healing? And in those moments, that space of mystery, it’s easy to fill it in with our own narrative and our own assumptions based on our past experiences. But what we see throughout the Bible is that no wilderness lasts forever. God’s not done until He’s done. If your prayers don’t get answered, it’s not a rejection, it’s an invitation for sacred assumption - to assume the good of God you know and not fill in that space with our disappointment.”
Prayer Requests:
- Please pray for my petscan results and wisdom for my doctors moving forward.
- Please continue to pray for Wayne. We know it is all the prayers that allows him to continue to improve, despite what the doctors said.
- Pray for my dad. He fell a few days after back surgery and we took him to the ER. They sent him home without an MRI. He’s been in pain since and they just did an MRI yesterday and discovered that a screw became disconnected and he will need surgery again to fix it. Please pray with us that they can get him in sooner than they are saying. Pray that he doesn’t get discouraged. I have been helping him out with his outdoor stuff so he doesn’t get too down. He loves to garden, so he is teaching me and I’m being his hands and feet.
