Going into this year, we didn’t have any major health concerns in the family, so healing wasn’t really on our radar.
I didn’t think I’d spend over a week with my son in ICU.
I didn’t think my father-in-law would have an unexpected surgery.
I didn’t think my sister-in-law would have a tumor, probably cancerous in her bladder.
But…
I didn’t know that my son would live through it and have only minor long-term damage.
I didn’t know the doctor would discover my father-in-law didn’t have a blockage, but rather something he’s had from birth.
I really didn’t know, my sister-in-law would get into surgery to have her tumor removed just for the doctor to find no tumor at all.
And those are just the big things, if I were to describe every little detail that went into all those situations, the housing, finances, doctors, and so on that went into it all, we’d be here until bedtime.
Why did God choose to heal all three of these family members? I don’t know. Why have other people I know lost loved ones this year, while ours are getting to live? I don’t know. But whenever I don’t know things, I’m always reminded to think on what I do know. I know that we’re told to be thankful, I know we’re told to trust in our loving Father, I know we’re told to share His works with others, so that’s what I’ll strive to do. All these scenarios have reminded me how short life is, and the only thing that matters during our few days here is that we point to God and love Him and others.
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With all of these unexpected health issues, our furlough has not gone exactly as planned, remember my post about what we’re spending our time on furlough doing? I thought I’d glance back at it and write an update as to how that’s going:
- Sharing with supporters – We have done some of this, but because of the time taking care of Calvin’s health, we’ve pushed a lot of it to later in our furlough.
- Sharing at the training center – We were not able to do this because it was while Calvin was still in the hospital.
- Spending time with family and friends – Actually we’ve gotten to do extra of this! Cameron’s sister came back to the States because of her tumor (which as mentioned above has disappeared), but we’ve been enjoying getting to spend time with them.
- Refreshment – I feel a mixture of this has been accomplished this furlough. Obviously the medical sitations haven’t been what I’d call “refreshing”, the traveling and doctors appointments have been difficult, but the time with people has been uplifting. Seeing friends who have grown in their walks with the Lord in the 3 years we’ve been gone has been one of the highlights of this furlough. Hearing sermons in our heart language, reading Scripture and fellowshipping with others has really been a breath of fresh air.
- Schooling – Well….when you’re son is in ICU for a week…you don’t do homeschool, and then when he’s fatigued and needs all the enerrgy he can muster to do his therapies, you do just a little bit of school. All that to say, we’re still chugging along in our curriculum, but it’s been slower than planned.
- Health – Gracia’s got glasses, the kids are done with their dentist appointments, and Cameron and I are in the middle of some dental work. Calvin is having an EEG this week, we’re hoping he can then come off of his seizure medicine and only be left with the blood pressure pills.
- Training – Cameron’s child safety response training will be at the end of our furlough.
Despite furlough not going as we had planned, God has been with us the whole time and we thank Him for His goodness to us.