Updates, a butt-long post and exhausted ramblings

An update on the sadness-

Angilee's brother, Travis, is recovering from surgery on his hip this morning. He has pins in it and is still on morphine . . . but his head is okay! Please keep praying for him, as their uncle's funeral is on Friday.

Baby Olivia had an MRI today. There seems to be hope! After the "unfixable" diagnosis they received this weekend, they now have a diagnosis that it the stenosis does not seem to affect all 4 main veins as they had thought and that there is hope for surgery. So . . . Thursday brings an open heart surgery for Olivia. I copied most of the post below. Sorry for the length and formatting. I am too tired to summarize or to do anything but ramble!

I am almost overwhelmed with sadness for the things going on in our world. It is SO full of heartbreak, especially right now, and the rain is coming on saint and sinner alike. I am (strangely) comforted by some verses from Habakkuk that we covered inchurch tonight: "I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us. Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He will make me surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountains." I know that however barren our world is looking right now, He still is in control and we can still be joyful and strengthened. Be joyful because Heaven is just over those mountains my friend. My advice? Keep walking!

From Aaron:

Sooooo…the basic result is that there is a discrete narrowing of the pulmonary veins on her right side, but her left side looks fairly good. The stenosis isn’t throughout each vein as we expected, and the surgeon feels confident about the effectiveness about attempting surgery on the right side. Although the left side looks fairly good,
one vein potentially has some narrowing. The plan will be for the surgeons to
evaluate it visually and make a decision in the OR. If they are confident about
not doing anything, that would be the best case scenario. The less they have to
mess with these veins, the better. The plan is for her to go into surgery
tomorrow, but we haven’t heard a time yet. It will be open heart surgery, with a
heart/lung bypass machine.We feel like we have been given some hope, as we were ready for the result that they couldn’t even do anything. Thankful that the stenosis isn’t throughout all her veins, thankful she was able to come off the anesthesia and
the ventilator from the MRI, and thankful that she is eating again today and
back to being our little Olivia (at least before she goes in tomorrow). Thank
you too for all your prayers and support. It is amazing to hear how word has
gotten out, and so many people who don’t know us personally have been lifting
her (and all our family) up in prayer. We have been blessed in so many ways, and
can’t say thank you enough.

A Place of Bad News

Okay- so I am seriously considering renaming my blog "A Place of Bad News". I don't want to abuse my new readers with bad news, but it seems to be the quickest way to get news and prayer requests out, especially from Madison.

Angilee's uncle died in a car crash today and afterwards her brother Travis(whom we all know), apparently very upset because of it, was injured in a serious car wreck himself. He was airlifted to Milwaukee and she and Michael are on their way to be with him tonight. He is in surgery due to a brain injury and a broken hip. Please pray for her family and for their travel. I do not believe that there are many or any mature believers in her family.

Sigh . . . I will post again later with a more positive post.

Thanks for bearing with me.
A

Heartbreak

Friday I found out that my friend's little baby is in heart failure. She's had mysterious medical issues for all of her 3 1/2 month life, and had heart surgery before leaving the hospital less than a month ago. She came home on oxygen and a feeding tube. With a 3 year old daughter and twin not-quite-two year olds they are busy. When Olivia began passing out, they took her in to the hospital, where they shipped her to Salt Lake City(from Ogden). Her heart is unfixable. Her vessels will continue to shrink until she is in complete heart failure and she goes home to Jesus. I know he likes kids and is an even better parent than her earthly ones, but please pray for a miracle! God can amaze even the doctors! Also please pray for comfort for Aaron and Tori and their family. They are strong believers and their faith in The Great Physician appears to be of great comfort.

Maybe I will write more on friends and family and my thoughts about them later, but for now I'll leave it at the facts because creativity has left me.

Can 2 or more be gathered so that God is here, even in blog format? Please pray.

A

I am a geek! AKA boring post.

I am a geek. I don't need any online test or second opinions to confirm this.

I am currently in Madison, Wisconsin at a conference for work. Four of us ladies traveled down today together. On the trip down I got and replied to a voicemail from Sacka(I replied and then lost service). Upon arriving I grabbed the computer to check on a friend's blog(perhaps I will post on that issue). Once up to our rooms, Kelly and I immediately whipped out our laptops to take advantage of the hotel's wireless internet and also had our cells front and center. As the other 2 (older) ladies were refreshing and talking in the connecting room, Kelly and I confirmed that we were geeks, although we later decided that it was more of a generational thing. After dinner we came back and Kelly and I are surfing el netto and watching TV. The other ladies are reading books(what are those again?)

The conference looks like it will be interesting, it's a career conference geared towards all ages and lots of education areas. Should be good!

The weather here is snowy. It started just before we got here and is now snowing great big fluffy snow balls of joy! I think it will be gone before we head back on Wednesday! See you then!

Good bye from Madtown!
A

State O' the World Address

Well- I stopped for some Mickey Dee's tonight and wanted to update you all with the state that our world is in. I never thought the day would arrive that those wholesome golden arches would put a farting toy in their happy meals. I'm not sure what kind of toy it was, but coming from the back seat of the car came the farting noises and 7 year old boy hysterical giggles(It wasn't him making the noises, either, I checked!). The character was a little creature with it's right arm up in the air. When you pulled on it's arm it made one of 3 different farting noises. I mean, what message are they really trying to portray? We all know what that place does to our innards, we don't need any suggestions! What were they thinking?

Is this the most pathetic excuse for a happy meal toy or what? Can anyone remember any thing remotely close in the history of happy meals (or kids meals to be more PC)?

Place of Surrender

Well- It's official. I've created a blog. I must say I held out for quite some time. I will now likely become one of those damnable people who fail to update their blog as the world sees fit. I apologize now!

I would like to say I chose the name entirely on spiritual terms, but I must say that surrendering to the blog world plays a big part in the immediate decision! What pushed me over the edge you ask? Not being able to comment on other people's blogs! No comments about White Trash Barbie or Mork & Mindy or oranges! It was killing me! And now all you freaks with the "no anonymous comments" better watch out! It's no holds barred commenting now boys and girls!! Game on! (Or it will be once I've figured out how to use this durn thing . . . . . )

Welcome!