God Gifts

Have you ever experienced a time when God surprised you with something?
A couple days ago He did that to us. He gave us something that was so unexpected, something that took our breath away, something that was more than we could imagine, something that caused us to worship Him and thank Him for being our Provider.

Life is so full of worries and stress. It is easy to become distracted in it all. But our God is the Almighty. He is Jehovah Jira, my Provider.
His grace truly is sufficient for me.
We trust Him and know that He is the One and Only God.
He knows our deepest needs. When we follow Him and put Him first He takes joy in blessing His children.

We are thankful to those who love God and serve Him and who let God bless others through them.

It's a BEE!

My dad has been working with bee hives for the past few years. It has been fun to watch the quantity of hives grow and to be able to taste pure REAL honey. Great stuff!

Let love BEE without hypocrisy; abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.
BEE devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor. (Rom 12)

We went down to San Diego to the Headache Center to visit the neurologist....actually, let me back track a second.

Last Saturday God gave us a gift. A friend called Carol (Andrew's Mom) and told her that her husband was a neurosurgeon and offered to look at my MRI to give his knowledge and shed some light on the situation. We took him up on his offer and went to see him.

He thoroughly explained what a meningioma was (they are benign, whew!) and showed us where it was located . We actually got to see the MRI pictures of inside my skull. Saying it was amazing is putting it lightly. The details and images were great. It was very easy to see the tumor lying under the right side of my brain. He showed how it grew from the skull and was pushing up on the brain, but wasn't penetrating the brain. He described how it had been growing there for quite some time and gave us the different options we'd have to face.

If we did not have this information when we went down south we would have been totally confused and frustrated after visiting the neurologist in San Diego. He had NOT gotten the MRI films, he was still "trying to get a hold of the radiologist" to explain a few things, and he misread the results that told how big the tumor is. When he said that he didn't have the MRI films we offered him the disk that we had brought with us. I think that kind of startled him. He didn't expect us to get the results and MRI films and already know some information. (We didn't give away that we had already talked to a neurosurgeon because we wanted to hear what he had to say in order to compare).
We were not discouraged though. He did tell us about the nerves that rise from the base of the skull and travel past my tumor and up behind my eye. He thought that the pain I feel in my eyes and the pressure I feel could quite likely be from the tumor.
Because the tumor is slow growing he said we don't need to pull it out immediately, but at the same time we don't want to leave it in there. It will continue to grow and it will continue to cause problems. So even though he didn't add much information to what we were already told, he did give us a referral so we could proceed with dealing with this little sucker.
We will probably go up to San Francisco for consultation and later, if recommended, surgery.

This is where we ate lunch before the Dr.'s appointment:
As we ate our sandwiches at the edge of a cliff, that overlooked the ocean, we watched the many surfers trying to catch waves. It was quite peaceful.

Once we got the doctor's visit out of the way Andrew and I relaxed and enjoyed just being together.

We ate dinner at our favorite place in Oceanside and spent the time laughing and reminiscing of times past.
Our hotel was the same one we stayed in last time. It is a great little place. Nothing fancy but very comfortable.
The next morning we woke up early (when our bodies are used to getting up early it's hard to make it sleep in!). Then we headed out the door and drove and drove until our rears were numb and we were HOME!

What a great feeling, to be home.

We are thankful to our family who watched our kids while we were gone. Jeremy did great. Both Grandma's are still alive after taking turns watching him (he's one little energy ball). Joshua kept up on his school and demonstrated that he's taking the responsibility like a man. Angela came home with lot of artwork and art tools and the beginnings of a blanket she's crocheting. They had a great time while we were away.

New School

Last week was Joshua's first in public school. I've home schooled him since he was born so this was a big change for him. We went back and forth in this decision for quite a few months. I knew that I couldn't continue homeschooling him in my present condition and dealing with headaches all the time. But I was hoping to have solved the problem by now. But as the months passed with no solution we knew we needed to trust God and do what was best for our family.

At first we looked into schools near Andrew's office, up North. But when a friend asked us about the idea of sending him to a school in our area (inner city) and God convicted our hearts about our mission to reach our community: and that included personal sacrifice and extra effort. How can we say we love the people that are right here in our neighborhood, and do projects and mission work here, and invest in the school through Saturday sports and mentoring, and have compassion for these children and their parents, but when it affects our family personally we run up North where it is "safe" and "better"? (which really is more a figment of our imagination rather than reality. There are just as many problems that kids deal with up north as they do here, it's just that often the problems seem a little more disguised). So once we decided to put Joshua into the school here we became excited about the doors it would open to reach his classmates and their families. Of course we still had our fears and apprehension about how Joshua would do but we knew that God would be with him, we knew that Joshua loves and obeys God and that this would be an opportunity that would shape his life.

Joshua was VERY excited! The whole week before school started he carried around his backpack, went over and over his schedule and couldn't stop talking about it!

Angela was sad that she wasn't going to see her best friend all day, all week.

Jeremy had no clue what "going to school" was. He just kept asking, "Joshua going to ride a school bus?" Which we replied, "no, he's not going to ride on a school bus, but the school buses will be at the school and will take other kids to school." (But to Jeremy it probably sounded like, "no, blah, blah blah school bus, blah school buses blah blah, school, blah blah, school."!)

Since I've not been able to be as active and on top of things the kids have taken a lot more responsibility. I charted out a schedule for Joshua so that he knew what he had to do before and after school. Can I tell you....Joshua is amazing. What an example he is to me of diligence and responsibility. Every morning I make sure he is up by 6am. He gets up without a fuss and gets dressed, puts on sunscreen, does his bible reading, checks his backpack, makes his lunch box up, and finishes getting ready for the day.
When he gets home from school he goes straight to the kitchen table and finishes his home work.
Looking back over this week I must say that it has gone well. He is encouraged that he's beginning to get used to the flow of how school is played out and understanding the rules and expectations.
We are trying to keep the doors of communication open with him so that he's comfortable talking about situations that come up in class and on the playground. We are praying for him to be able to stand strong and courageous in his obedience to God despite opposition. We know that God is continuing to reveal Himself to Joshua and that as Joshua knows God deeper these difficulties will be a joy later in life as he looks back and sees how God used them to make him stronger in faith and and greater in compassion.

This is what is best for him right now.

So... I wasn't sure how much to share, because blogs are not the place to have a running soap opera!
:)
But I really felt like I needed to share about this because I covet your prayers.

A couple days ago I got a call from my neurologist in San Diego who said the MRI I took last week came back with a report of an abnormality on it. We do not know exactly what it is but as far as we can tell at this point it sounds like a meningioma tumor. On Monday we will travel back down to San Diego to talk with the neurologist face to face. He will better inform us of what we are dealing with. On one hand we are very grateful that something was shown that explains why I am having all these headache and other symptoms. But on the other hand, with so many unknowns, it is a fight against fear and we must cling to the fact that nothing is hidden from God and He already knows. He's the Healer. Period. He's our Rock, our confidence.

O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. Psalm 34:3-5

Earlier this week we traveled to Stanford to watch my Dad compete in the Master's Track and Field. My Dad had been a runner all his life and has a natural ability to run fast. It is always fun watching him and cheering him on.

My Dad is such a great guy.

He's so humble that he'd never admit to being one of the best runners in the country. He doesn't have to say anything 'cause winning Bronze is definite proof:

We were out there all day watching him run the preliminaries and then the final race. It was quite hot but we found some shade which made it much more comfortable.

The boys take a quick snooze:

Angela busied herself with drawing:

Angela is sitting on the grass, my brother Russel, Andrew, my other brother David, and Joshua are watching races going on:

Thank you to those who have been praying and thinking about us.
We went to The Headache Center yesterday and talked to a neurologist who deals specifically with headaches. I feel like he listened and asked questions and really gave us his time. He has given us a few different leads that we are trying. It will still take a while to figure it all out. But we are thankful that we found someone that will help us find answers.
It will still be a long road. The past couple days have been pretty miserable. But I am thankful for family who have been available and Andrew who is taking good care of me.

Headache Center

No pictures here, since we're out of town. But I just had to post 'cause I'm amazed at our little guy. Jeremy has only been here two months but he has settled so smoothly.
We went out of town today to go to a Headache Center to try and figure out my headaches. We took Jeremy with us since it was going to be overnight.
He's a great traveler. No whining, no fussing, no complaining. I probably did more of that! :) It was a long drive. But we're finally here.
We walked on the Pier. That was fun! Jeremy keeps calling the ocean "lotion".
Then went to sushi at one of our fav spots in Oceanside.
Now we're just chill'n at the hotel. Jeremy's fast asleep.
I'll keep you up to date how tomorrow goes!
-Jenn