Update on David

Though I've set up a separate blog for updates about David, I'm posting this latest one everywhere in hopes that you will all take the time to pray for this entire family. This latest news is unsettling, and prayers for strength and healing and peace are greatly appreciated.

This is Michele's latest update.

"When I arrived at the hospital this morning, they informed me that they would be draining the cysts today as well as some fluid around his left lung.  The fluid around the lung was new news to me and a bit disturbing.  David's breathing was very labored prior to the draining procedure.  They finally took him down to radiation at 3:00 pm and he returned from the procedure around 4:30. They drained 4 litres total from his abdomen and chest.  His breathing respirations went from as high as 45 before the draining today, down to 9 to 13 after the draining, which was a great improvement.  They did say that the draining procedure was only treating the symptoms to relieve some pressure and wouldn't necessarily improve the actual pancreatitis.  This was a bit discouraging, as his overall condition has seemed to worsen over the last couple days.  He has been severely confused.  They really don't have a good answer for why he has been so confused, other than "sometimes people get confused and worn down after being in ICU for so long".  The doctors indicated today that they are concerned with his lack of improvement and deterioration the last couple days and reiterated that this is a "very severe case of Pancreatitis".

My hope is that tomorrow will be a much better day without all that fluid on him and that he will be able to get up and be mobile when Physical Therapy comes by.  We honestly need a huge miracle here for his Pancreatitis to start healing.  They will be sending a sample of the fluid to pathology and we should have the results within 48 hours.  That will tell them if there is any infection or other concerns present. I know he is exhausted and his body is so weary.  It is so difficult to see him still in such pain and so confused and disoriented.

I know God is able to bring healing to his body.  We have a BIG God...and He does BIG things.  I am begging Him to do a BIG thing here :)

Thank you to all of you for your continued prayers and encouraging messages!  I honestly do not know what I would do without all of your acts of kindness and encouraging words."  

Good Reports

We've had great news all around today!

~My Dad did well during surgery and is at home recovering.

~David has been up and walking and is scheduled to have the cysts drained tomorrow.
I've added the blog to the sidebar in case you'd like to check for updates.

~There was no cutting at my doctor's appointment.  Everything looks great, and I will  continue to have regular check-ups.  I'm so, so thankful for God's mercy!

~Mountain Man's gout flare-up has settled down, and he's doing much better.  Continued prayers, please, for complete healing.

Thank you for praying for and with us.

Love,

Praises and Requests

~Thanks to everyone who prayed for Mountain Man!  He's doing much better, and this recovery is one of his faster ones.  We're very grateful for the Lord's mercies and your prayers.

~I forgot to share this praise from a couple weeks ago.  Mountain Man saw my dermatologist because I was concerned he had places that might be melanoma.  We were so glad to hear that everything looks great, and there are no worries!

~I see the dermatologist on Wednesday regarding the place near my eye and whether she'll have to cut.  Honestly, it doesn't appear that the freezing took care of the lesion, so I'm concerned she'll want to take a biopsy.  There's not much skin there to work with anyway.  You can simply pray I'll be brave if this is necessary because I just don't think I have it in me to go through something like that in this particular area.  It's one time I'd rather they just knock me out. :)

~My Dad, who is diabetic, has been battling an infection in his foot for over a year.  He's agreed to have surgery done to remove part of the bone that is affecting the healing of the foot.  This will be done Wednesday, and we appreciate your prayers for a successful surgery, no infections, and fast healing.  Most of all, please pray that God would give my Dad a grateful heart, full of thanksgiving to God for His goodness and mercy.

Thank you.

Love,

Potpourri

What's been going on?

~Just when we thought we'd get back on schedule... Mountain Man relapses with a severe head cold and then suffers an acute gout attack.  He finally went back to work today, in great pain, though.  Just getting shoes on was oh, so tough!  Please pray he'll be able to make it through the day, and that his symptoms will clear up quickly!

~A blog has been set up to provide updates on my cousin's husband, David, as he's in the hospital for possibly months because of a very severe case of pancreatitis.  Encouraging comments and prayers are very welcome!

Praying for David

~Jedediah turned 7 months on Sunday!

~Whistler's become quite the helper in the kitchen.  The other night she prepared almost this entire meal on her own.

Salmon burgers, salad, buttered noodles, and french bread

Great job, sweet daughter!

"Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life."

~Alexander Maclaren

Now even for me, three hours of sleep is too little, so this Mama is off to do what she can before taking a little nap.  Have a beautiful day in the Lord!

Much love,

Boundaries

Cap'n is not liking them.....

Three Answers

Many years ago, John Piper gave a sermon in which he asked his congregation to reflect on the past year and examine their spiritual growth.

"If 1980 were the whole of our life, could we say with Paul, 'I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness?'  My guess is that there are people here who can give three different answers to that question."

Years later, Piper's answers are still worthy of consideration.  Which one best describes you?

• One will say, "I fought no fight because I felt no great desire to follow Christ's counsel and trust his promises. Satan and my own flesh got no resistance from me."
• Another will say, "I felt some desire to trust Christ and go his way, but whenever a conflict arose, I was defeated every time. I really didn't fight a very good fight."
• And a third will say, "Praise God, it was a hard but glorious year. The Word of God came alive for me and helped time and time again to overcome temptation and hold to Christ. It wasn't always easy, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"Whichever one of those groups you are in now, remember this: by the grace of God, this day is only a rehearsal of the end. His mercy is opening before you a new life in 1981 (2011), and you can enter it and finish as a victorious fighter if you will declare yourself from your heart as one who now renounces Satan's power and self-reliance and who trusts Jesus Christ for all his word." 

~John Piper

Because I Don't Have Enough to Keep Me Busy

I've launched another blog, one that probably only my mother will love, but you never know.

Wanting to learn more about photography and practice, practice, practice, I'll be posting at least one picture each day this year as a bit of a photo journal.

Life in Pictures

Love,

Why I Can't Turn My Back for a Minute

....and why it's great to have the camera nearby at all times.

*****

Cooking dinner, and they're hoping there really aren't eyes in the back of my head.

Sneaky ice cream thief decides the crime is better shared.  Isn't it wonderful when siblings think of one another?

Who needs spoons?

And just where did they get a taste for cookie dough ice cream? 

Golden Minutes

"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:16 

"Gather up the fragments that are left over. Let nothing be wasted!" John 6:12

"Time is short!" 1 Corinthians 7:29

Time is made up of golden minutes—not one of which we should allow to be wasted! The Master said that for every idle word that men speak—they must give account. This can be no less true of idle minutes or hours.

Most of us live as if we had a thousand years to stay here in this world! We loiter away the golden hours of our little days—as if the days were never to end! We do not see how swiftly the sun is whirling toward his setting, while our work is but half done, our task perhaps scarcely begun!

We fritter away days, weeks, months—not noticing how our one little opportunity of living in this world is being worn off, as the sea eats away a crumbling bank until its last shred is gone! We set slight value on time, forgetting that we have only a hand-breadth of it—and then comes eternity!

Many of us fail to appreciate the value of 'single days'. "A day is too short a space," we say, "that it cannot make much difference if one, just one, is wasted—or idled away in pleasure!" Yet the days are links in a chain, and if one link is broken—the chain is broken. In God's plan for our life—each little day has its own load of duty.

How these lost days shame us—as they turn their reproachful eyes upon us, out of the irrevocable past!

Many people are wasteful of time. They fail to realize its value. They appear to have it in such abundance—that they dream it can never end. They do not know that a day lost—may mean misfortune or failure for them sometime in the future. They do not know that squandered hours, minutes spent in idleness—may cost them the true success of their life, bringing failure or disaster!

They should not make the mistake of imagining they have so much time—that they can afford to let days or hours or even minutes be wasted. They cannot afford to lose one golden minute of any day. We do not know what momentous issues, affecting all our future—are involved in any quietest hour of any common-place day. There is 'a time for everything'—but the time is short, and when it is gone, and the thing is not done—it never can be done!

What you make of your life—you must make in a few years at the most; for the human span is short—and any day may be your last one!Every day that passes—leaves life's margin a little less for each of us. Our allotment of time is ever shortening!

There are a great many things it is not worth our while to do. Some of us spend our days in poor trivialities which bless no one, and which will add no lustre to our crown.

Therefore, waste no opportunity! Squander no moment! There is just time enough for you to live your life well—if you spend every moment of it in earnest, faithful duty. One hour lost—will leave a flaw. A life thus lived in unbroken diligence and faithfulness, will have no regrets when the end comes.

~J.R. Miller, The Sacredness of Opportunity

Happy New Year!