“Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?”
“Who made you a leader and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Then Moses became afraid and thought: What I did is certainly known. (Exodus 2:11-14 HCSB)

After reading this passage I am reminded of several things…

- Sin is crazy and it affects us, can ruin us and ruin the lives of others around us who are innocent

- I am thankful for a God that loves me enough that He wants to keep me AWAY from all the destruction it causes

- I am thankful for a God who offers forgiveness for all my sin and foolishness through His own sacrifice

- I am reminded that Satan often wants us to believe that no one will see or know what our sin is and that it will not hurt anyone else…..

But the reality is….

it is never in secret and it affects so many, and mostly the ones closest to us that we don’t want to hurt!

Sin… It’s terrible…. It’s miserable and it separates us from God! When the serpent comes as he did to Eve in the garden to feed us lies…. Don’t believe them!!

Just say “no”!!!

Well… So far we are not too far off schedule for getting it done today. We are currently just waiting on a PiCC line once again, some labwork and an antibiotic.

And if all goes well… It should be somewhere around noon to two o clock.

Please pray that everything goes smoothly. Though this procedure is usually a simple outpatient procedure, nothing is ever simple for Charles. But he is feeling good and of course our trust is not in the Drs or nurses but in the Lord.

“O LORD of hosts,
How blessed is the man who trusts in You!” (Psalm 84:12 NASB)

Well… Tomorrow we are “supposed” to head to the hospital in Memphis once again for Charles to be admitted and cleared for his pacemaker/icd exchange which is scheduled for Wednesday. However…. We have not heard one iota from the doctor, or received any information so we are preparing but also waiting! And we will let everyone know when we find out something as best as we can.

Just an update on his nightly foot pain: His neurologist prescribed him a new medicine that seems to be helping, however, it might be causing further muscle weakness. If that is the case, he may not be able to continue taking it. He was scheduled to see a new specialist today for the foot pain which we think is originating from his back, but it was cancelled because they were sick. So still waiting on that! But we are praising the Lord that Charles has been able to get much more sleep than he was getting, even if it isn’t completely better! Just praying he can stay on this new medication! If that is the best option.

“Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.” (Psalm 37:4 HCSB)

Yesterday, the day that I knew would come someday, came. Now, I’m back in my old bed, surrounded by many things that were in my room at my apartment and it feels so weird!

Don’t worry…. Charles and I aren’t in a fight….

I’m Quarantined!

After waking up with a slightly scratchy throat, I quickly started developing symptoms of none other than …..

a common cold.

For most people, though a “rhinovirus” may be a little more than annoying and can make anyone feel more than crummy, it actually could be life threatening for Charles… so anyone with such a cold, has to stay away.

And therefore, I was banished! Banished to the spare bedroom that is!

After crying to Charles for 20 minutes from the furthest corner of our room because being apart from each other is terrible!…I finally headed to the spare bedroom! But as I laid in my old bed, I was reminded of how quickly my life has changed! It is almost hard to remember what life in Texas was like because my life here is so different.

It seems in some ways that it was only yesterday that I was telling everyone that most likely I was never going to get married and living life full steam ahead by myself with only “me” to think about. Boy was I wrong!

Obviously God had other plans.

And what seemed to be a blink of an eye, those “other plans” involved being “transplanted” to Tennessee and becoming a good ole country gal all the way down to having a crazy country accent! I went from rushing out the door to make it to Starbucks every morning to get my iced coffee and blueberry muffin to cooking bacon and eggs every morning and making homemade biscuits that melt in your mouth!

God really does have a sense of humor!

I love my life! I love to see how God has brought so many details of my life together that prepared me for this! I love being married to an amazing man and living this adventurous life with him, even through the challenges! I love being able to invest in the lives of those who need to know the love of Christ and seeing beautiful sunrises and sunsets in the calm and quiet peacefulness of the country. I just love it!

The Lord is such an amazing and awesome God! Life is full of challenges and trials and is not always riches and rewards but I am so thankful for it! I am so blessed!

Thank you, Lord!

A couple of weeks ago we spent an unexpected 5 days at the hospital so just wanted to update everyone on that status….

About a month ago, Charles starting having excruciating pain in his foot in the middle of the night. It was not only so severe he could barely endure it, but it was also leading to extreme sleep deprivation. We had contacted his cardiologist to hopefully obtain an outpatient order for some tests to rule out a blood clot but instead got a call from him telling us that we needed to instead head to the ER to make sure it wasn’t anything extremely serious. So of course, in all of the urgency, my husband had to go to his business meeting first! Lol – and then we loaded up and headed to Memphis.

The hospital in Charles’ case is not necessarily a good thing for Charles because of his immunosuppression and potential for pulmonary infections being around other major infections in the hospital and being out of his routine. But the sleep deprivation and excruciating pain was also not something he could continue to endure.

Other than a difficult ER experience, a crazy nurse during the night once we got to the floor who couldn’t get his facts straight or have correct prioritization and an “overly confident” x-ray tech – we had a pretty good experience – fully complete with an inquisitive nursing student. We spent most of the five days just waiting to get a PICC line so that they could finally do some tests. Once a few tests were complete with no clear direction of the source, we headed into the weekend with most of his doctors going out of town the next week. We were also hoping to have his pacemaker exchanged which will have to be done very soon, while we were there, but the Dr. who was supposed to do that was also leaving town – so we headed home on Saturday – exhausted from the mini-adventure – but also more rested than we were going in. Charles had also not had any pain while we were there – so even though the pain has returned – unfortunately – we were able to eliminate some sources of possibility and he will be heading to an Orthopedic Dr. the first week of April to hopefully start to get some answers.

Overall, it was a good learning experience – and relieved a lot of questions for me about how things go with Charles when he has to go to the hospital without it being so incredibly urgent or “life-threatening.” So that was good…..we also took with us a great staff who were truly a huge help while we were there – as one of our staff said…..”I didn’t know you could bring your own crew to the hospital.” And well…yes, you can. Yes, we did – and we pretty much ran our own show while we were there – per Dr. McGrew’s order!

If you feel led, please pray that we can figure out how to help this pain go away. We have cried out to the Lord many nights asking Him to relieve this pain that Charles is having. He is really starting to somewhat adjust and some nights have been better than others – but a lack of sleep is tiring on anyone – but especially Charles.

But anyway – we had some great times while we were there – well, I don’t know about “great” but at least memorable! Some of which included – my complete nose hair plucking on Charles in the ER, two of our staff getting lost getting us something to eat for 45 minutes when it should have taken 5, I told one nurse “you and me, out in the hall, NOW”, Charles told a nurse that she needed to “take it down a level”, one of our staff got the worse pick up line ever “I need a nurse, it’s getting worse.” And one of our staff mentioned – that if they are ever in the hospital – they were going to “bring me along” because I can get things done! Lol!

Just some pics to share from the trip:

Well we will be heading back to the hospital the first week of April for a two night stay to get Charles’ pacemaker exchanged so more fun times ahead – I’m sure the nursing staff will be trying to pass us off to anyone that will take us after I definitely made a name for myself on that unit!

“Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread.” Mt. 6:28b

As I was leaving for work this morning, I looked out across the road and saw such beautiful scenery of the spring landscape and began to feel a really peaceful sensation.  As I was driving to work across the countryside I kept thinking of the beauty of God’s creation as I topped each hill and rounded every curve.  It brought to mind Matthew 6:25-34 and how God clothes the lilies of the field in such great splendor.  Of course, the thrust of those verses is if God takes care of the lilies of the field, how much more does He take care of us as His children; thus, we should not worry (if we fully submit to Him and the standards of His kingdom – Mt. 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.”) 

As Spring and I live out the difficulties in life (life issues that both of us face, my health issues, staffing issues, work issues, etc.) in the midst of the first few months of marriage, that set of verses is very reassuring.  I am so thankful for Christ saving each of us so that we may first of all, be His children and have the opportunity to seek Him first.  I am also thankful for God’s providential care that we receive by always seeking Him first and pray that we always continue to seek Him first.  The foremost blessing that God has given me beyond salvation is Spring and our marriage.  I know that from the promise provided in Matthew 6:25-34 that as long as we “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” God will continue to provide what we need and take care of us throughout our marriage. Neither of us have anything to worry about because of His promise.

I challenge anyone who reads this to first submit to Jesus Christ with your first step of obedience, Romans 10:9-10, and then to continue to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” so that you may always receive God’s amazing providential care that is a blessing to each of us as His children.

   Mt. 6:25-34 “This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying?  And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”.