Thursday, January 23, 2014

Living Day to Day in Trust as He guides

 Thank-you for everyone's prayers for Rebecca! She is completely recovered and doing wonderful! We are so thankful the surgery is behind us and she is better. We thank God for His healing touch!
   We took Caleb to Riley  to meet with an Endocrinologist. Caleb is on the lowest end of normal for his age and weight. Still weighs 35 lbs, even though his appetite has seemed to pick up a little bit :o) He is just very active and must burn off the calories as soon as he eats them! She had a Bone Age x-ray ran on him and a lot of blood work. She said that an MRI of the pituitary is just a picture and does not really tell her anything. These tests should tell us more and if he needs any treatment then we will go from there. We are a little frustrated that we did not get any real answers but have resigned ourselves to the fact that we have to...WAIT...ugh! ;o) At this point, it is very important to us that we know what Caleb's medical needs are going to be and how they can be treated with us going to Haiti. Thank-you for helping us pray about this. God's timetable is very different from ours and we continue to trust in His perfect plan.
  In other news, we have temporarily re-located. We are very thankful for my parents allowing us to stay in their extra efficiency apartment for the past couple months and we have enjoyed spending time with them. However, due to tight finances, it has become necessary for Danny to find some temporary work. God has provided some handy-man, construction, carpeting jobs for him and housing has also been provided for us closer to where he is working. Our family is enjoying being together in our 'own' place and not living out of a suitcase, as we have for the past two years. We have been blessed with a 3 bedroom with a large area upstairs for school and a play room and we are loving it :o) So, temporarily, we are now Gas City, IN residents and are enjoying being apart of Community Bible Methodist Church. Pastor Jeff Moore leads a friendly, welcoming group of people and we feel right at home. :o)  God is so good to provide this temporary house, job and a fantastic church while we wait for His timing to return to Haiti.( We are still receiving mail at our Craigville address of PO Box 62 Craigville, IN 46731 if anyone needs to send us anything.) In the meantime, we are going to try not to freeze into icicles with these polar temps..brrrr! Haiti is sounding pretty good and WARM right now! ;o)

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Surviving the 2014 Blizzard and Surgery Recovery

We have been hoping for a couple good snowfalls since we have been back here in the North. Our family loves snow and missed it when we lived in Florida for two years and we know we will miss it a lot when we are in Haiti. Well, as most of you know, God sent us SNOW! LOTS of it! And is it ever beautiful! Now, we did NOT hope and pray for the frigid temperatures that have came along with it, but I guess you sometimes have to take the good with the bad when it comes to winter in the North! Our area received over a foot of the white stuff and the day it was falling down the temperature was in the 20-30's so we let our kids go out and play for a while and they loved it :o) They have been sad that it has been so cold the past few days and they have been unable to go out in in. We have literally been buried here as it has taken the plows a couple days to dig everybody out. Yesterday was a snow day for a lot of people as most businesses and places of employment were closed and the schools are going on three days of no school. Last night, my brother, sister-in-law and new baby niece came over and we made Pepperoni Rolls and other goodies and played Dominoes. It was fun to have an impromptu party while being snowed in :o) If you remember in my last post, I mentioned that Danny and Ben were going to be driving to Florida today. Well, due to the blizzard and the fact that 29 counties in IN had level 3 snow emergencies out and anyone caught driving would be fined several thousand dollars, they did not go. We are a little disappointed that they could not go since we were hoping that they could finish out our kitchen, yet I am relieved to know they will not be driving on the roads.( We are trusting that God has another plan and that He will reveal and lead in His time.) We have had high winds and a lot of roads keep drifting shut and they are forecasting more snow in the next few days. I think it is safe to say that we have had enough 'winter' to last us for good, long while! (And something tells me that it is not yet over!)


 
A beautiful winter wonderland!

  We have appreciated everyone's texts, calls, prayers and emails asking how Becca is doing from her surgery. She came thru surgery just fine and when it was over the surgeon came out and told us that her tonsils were quite a bit bigger than he had thought and it was good we had the surgery. We were not prepared for how MUCH pain she would be in afterwards. She said it was the worst pain she had ever had in her life and she could not get enough ice chips and cold liquids. We felt so bad for her and helpless and were so thankful when the pain meds finally took effect. It is 5 days after her surgery and as long as she keeps taking her pain meds and drinking/eating cold stuff she is ok. We have to watch for any bleeding as the scabs can sometimes bleed as much as 10 days after surgery. So 5 more days to go before she is out of the woods. Appreciate your continued prayers!

                                
This was taken before her surgery and she would have not been happy if I had taken an after picture!
At this point, she was happy to be getting them out.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Surgery today and a Quick Up-date

 Rebecca is scheduled to be at the surgery center at 12:30 today for her tonsillectomy. She is relieved to be getting them out and we are hoping and praying that she will feel much better after getting rid of her swollen, scarred tonsils. Please keep her in your prayers today and for the next 10 days of recovery. The ENT has told us that there is a slight chance of bleeding up to 10 days after surgery so we will be watching her closely.
  We have been so thankful for our insurance company during this time of medical issues that we have seemed to be bombarded with the last few months. Christian Healthcare Ministries have been wonderful! After scheduling Becca's surgery at the ENT Surgery Center, and thinking we were going to get billed for it, they called us to let us know that the regular scheduling person was not in the day we scheduled and she neglected to tell us that we needed 1/2 of the bill down before they will operate! What?! Needless to say, this was a huge surprise and concern! We called CHM and was so relieved when they worked it out to over night us a check..whew! They came thru with getting the money to us, even though it was the Holidays and we are ready to not only pay 1/2 but the whole amount today! We are very satisified with CHM and thankful we have them! The best part is that they are covered under the new health care mess and way cheaper! If anyone is needing a great insurance program for major medical issues, check out www.chm.org . If you decide to join, feel free to let them know we referred you with our member number...321-160895 and we will get a FREE month once you have been with them for 3 months! This is a great way to help support us and get insurance for your family too! Win-win for everyone! We have already had 2 people join and possibly a third in just this last month, feel free to jump in :o) Then you can turn around and tell people about it and after they join then you get a free month too! This gift just keeps on giving! It is simply Christians helping each other out the way the Bible asks us too and it works!

  With all the changes going on, it has worked out for Danny and Ben to fly back to Haiti next week. They will be driving to Fl this next Tues. and flying out Fri. with another work team. The plans are to get our kitchen finished out and the kitchen in the mission house below re-done. This will be soo nice for Madame Dominique to have a new, functioning kitchen to cook in and I need a working kitchen when we move there. God is good the way that He works out things for our best and to His glory! We can see Him working in many ways thru this 'detour' that we are on presently, proving that His time truly is Best!

 Please pray for traveling mercies for Danny and Ben next Tues. and Wed. and all week as they go back to Grande Riviere. Anyone wanting to help out with the financial end of this trip can click on the donate now button or you can go thru Hope International's website www.feaministries.org  Go under the Where we serve button to the Caribbean button to our name and make your donation there. You can specify what you want it to go toward under: Special Instructions.  We are still raising money to buy a water pump for the orphanage. Thank God that some has come in for that and we are trusting Him to supply the rest so we can insure our kids have clean, drinking water. We continue to raise the rest of the $6,000 needed to complete our house. $1,000 will complete the kitchen. Thank-you for praying and giving as God directs! Investing in His work has wonderful returns and no regrets!
 We LOVE to see who all is visiting and where you are visiting from! Please leave a comment just to let us know you stopped by and are praying. Thank-you!