May has always been a hectic month for our family with 6 birthdays between myself and our extended family who live in Idaho. Then there are the anniversaries. David and I will celebrate 14 years of marriage on the 19th and David’s parents will celebrate 43 years on the 23rd. Throw in graduations and finishing up the school year and it’s pretty hectic.
This year we are also gearing up for our upcoming international move to Romania. As part of this preparation, we are doing our best be up to date with our healthcare before moving. We’ve all been in to get check ups with our doctor and dentist. As part of these health preparations, I had an upper endoscopy and David received his implant to replace his tooth that was knocked out in the car accident. While at the dentist, we learned that James needed to have 5 baby teeth pulled because they would have caused his adult teeth to be impacted into his jaw. The adult teeth would never have come in. So on Tuesday May 11, away to the children’s dentist we went, and James came home with 5 fewer teeth and a jack-o lantern smile. I had asked people to pray and praise God everything went well. Of course James wasn’t feeling too hot when we got home, but some ibuprofen and a few cartoons helped him feel a lot better. By evening he was up and playing with his siblings!
May 11 I received a phone call that my dad has been put on hospice care. Hospice is end of life care. Nothing is done to prevent a person from passing away and only medicines for comfort are given. My father has congestive heart failure and kidney failure. That is not a good combination. He has been hospitalized twice for these things. The medicine that he is taking for the congestive heart failure is becoming less and less effective. He is at the end of what modern medicine can do for him. My dad is 78. He has lived at the Oregon Veteran’s home for the past 3 years. Initially, he moved to the home because he has Alzheimer’s and was not managing his medications well. His health has been up and down since he moved to the veteran’s home, but we have been very blessed in that he has always known us. My father has struggled with mental health for my entire life and we do not know where he is at spiritually. Please pray for us and for my dad! Pray that he will be ready to meet Jesus! We are planning to visit him next week. Please pray that we will be able to see him again before he passes.
In all of this craziness, we are fix our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith! Thank you so much for praying for us! We praise the Lord for health and strength, and we trust the Lord for the future!