1 Year Ago

It was a busy weekend, so I didn't have an opportunity to post ... but it marked the anniversary of an event that is still impacting my world. Last year in February, we spent several weeks at Maranatha Village in Sebring, on kind of a working vacation -- Keith was showing the men of the village how to use the concrete forms he sells. On Friday, Feb 23, I woke up with some discomfort in my side. It was sharp off and on but it didn't really stop me. Keith was pouring concrete that day and I went to take pictures. At lunch, we went to Avon Park to a wonderful little restaurant to have lunch with friends. When we returned to the village, Keith went back to work and I went to the little apartment where we were staying. By the time Keith got home from work, the pains were quite sharp ... at moments, I was nearly doubled over. We made the decision to go to the ER. It took 9 hours to figure out what was wrong ... my appendix needed to be removed. I didn't have the rest of the typical symptoms .... no nausea, no fever ... so it had required a lot of testing to find the problem. At 4 am, I was checked in and at 7am, I had surgery. It all went really well but when the doctor came out to report to Keith, he indicated that I seriously needed to see my OB-GYN. My recovery was fabulous ... I gained strength very quickly and felt pretty good pretty fast. We stayed in FL for 10 days of recovery time, then headed north to MI (home).

I saw my doctor, who ordered all the tests I needed and referred me to another doctor (he doesn't do GYN anymore). On April 12, I had surgery again, removing a fibroid the size of a small cantaloupe. This surgery was more difficult and it took me a lot longer to recover. I've had some ongoing difficulties, mostly what we laughingly call "mental clarity issues" -- memory loss, disorientation when I drive and I occasionally misplace things. It's been getting better, and most days, I'm almost back to 100%. I still tire easily but that's getting better too.

We have no health insurance. Between the 2 surgeries and related expenses, we racked up about $65,000 in medical bills. But God has been incredible in His provision! Some bills were reduced. For others, we received gifts from friends and supporters. We have paid off everything except 1 doctor and 1 hospital. The total of those 2 comes in around $22,000 but that's a huge amount of bills that have been taken care of! And having only the 2 payments is fairly manageable for us ... so we are praising God for His wonderful grace!

With the traveling that we do for our ministry, and now with the health, it's been difficult for me to find employment (that I can manage). So, I've put my talents to work, making jewelry. We've done a few craft shows and for the past few weeks, we've been selling at a flea market. And I have a shop on Etsy. The shop hasn't done well, but I'm still optimistic that things will improve there. More about that later.