Watching Him Work

Can I even tell you how unpredictable my life is? Can I even tell you how BIG the God that I serve is? Can I even tell you how I know that all things happen for a purpose and that He does have a plan in mind for my Ashley's life? Can I even tell you how I KNOW that He is never caught of guard and surprised? No, I really can't put all of these things into words. I can't explain it enough to do it justice so that you might really understand what I am living, but I pray that if you see anything in Ashley's story that you might literally see the hand of an almighty God.

This morning we have been given the go ahead to MOVE BACK HOME TO OUR LITTLE YELLOW HOUSE IN TEXAS!!! Rub your eyes, shake your head, and sit back down to read that last sentence again. YES, we are preparing to move home this week in time to have Ashley's chemo treatment done in Dallas on Monday morning. Only God knew that Monday's adventure was serving a purpose in her story. It has led the team to deciding that she is stable enough and that this is our opportunity to seize.

Now as wonderful as all of this is to hear, real life is rearing its ugly little head. Dave laid down at 1:00a.m., left to fly into Dallas at 4:00a.m., got into his car to begin the 2 hour drive home around 8:30a.m. to get to our office and begin seeing patients by 11:00a.m. and now I have called him to let him know that our plan to begin rebuilding our bathrooms has to be started immediately. He will now go home at lunch and begin tearing out the sub flooring in the children's bathroom and then return to the office to work until 7:00, then go back home and continue demolition on our bathrooms that HAVE to be rebuilt before our Ashley can resume life in our home. What a crazy, wonderful, unpredictable life we live. Our 60 year old home has a mold issue in the sub flooring of our bathrooms to go along with the plumbing leak under the house and our Ashley is very susceptible to contracting a mold infection which could be deadly to her. We assumed we had a month or two to remedy this issue and to make our home safe before bringing her back to it. Now I could begin to panic, but I won't because I KNOW God is busy working behind the scenes and that He must have a plan in mind. I don't know how we will pull this off, but I know that He already does. In the meantime I suppose I will move Ashley into my in-laws guest room while I wait for my husband to find the time to remodel our home. Did I mention to you that I live a CRAZY, WONDERFUL LIFE? We still haven't resolved the broken pipe under our house issue, but God knows that too. So I will just enjoy knowing that He is answering our prayers to move our Ashley back home, to restore our family, and to begin a new chapter in her story. This one is starting out with a bang and I can't wait to read how it ends.

On another note my Ashely is very weak today and very nauseated. She is vomiting with the slightest of movements and her smiles have faded for a while until her body can recover from this last dose of chemo. Please if you have a moment to pray for her today would you? She just feels so yucky, but this too is part of battling cancer. You get a few good days, a few bad days, and then you go back for another round.

Needless to say, we are blessed beyond measure this morning, we are surprised, we are overwhelmed with the responsibilities that loom before us, we have a major remodel to pull off in the next few days to weeks (while going out of town to Dallas over the weekend), but we are also living the life of our dreams raising 3 beautiful children.

I am going to go for now. I have a meeting with the transplant director to get to. They want to know all of the events that took place on Monday that led to our day stretching into its 16 hour jaunt in their treatment center. I wish I didn't have to go, but they have asked me to help them make a list of the mistakes that were made so that it might not happen to another child. I would do anything to protect another child, so off I am going. Please pray that I have the right words to share with them that convey our appreciation as well as our concern. Thanks for loving us, for praying for us, for hanging in there with us. You are appreciated. Trish