A Glimpse Into Our Life

Monday morning came a little too early for all of us. Harris and Keaton had traveled to Pella over the weekend to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. He's been dealing with the effects of chemo for his prostate cancer and hasn't been feeling very well for quite a while now. The guys had left Saturday afternoon already so they could do some work on the farm and didn't get back home till around 11:30 p.m. Sunday night. We were all up way too late catching up, and we made a decision that Harris needed to make a doctor's appointment the next day for a rash on his neck that seemed to get worse over the weekend. By the end of the day yesterday, Harris found out he has shingles, felt completely out of control with all that can and should be done at the office, and realized that he really needs to pass a third mortgage test by Friday. He could use a whole lot of prayer this week! Instead of crashing, he still led our team in a conference call at 10, grabbed a highlighter to start studying, and still took the time to visit with the kids about their day. I'm so thankful for the dedicated father and husband that he is!

A lot of my day was spent at the office, but in addition to that, I found myself opening the first of the medical bills from Haley's ordeal, which will end up allowing us to meet our very large deductible this year. We've been JOKING that if anyone feels the need to break an arm or anything, this is the year to do it, but thankfully no one is feeling the need to inflict any pain on themselves other than me who might take the opportunity to get a little procedure done that I've been avoiding.

I found myself explaining details of Haley's missions trip to a couple of people who I'm pretty sure aren't in a relationship with Jesus and couldn't help but wonder what must be going through their minds as I'm telling them about our daughter's passion to spread the news. It was a vivid reminder of our mission field right here at home.

I picked up a bottle of "dry shampoo" for Haley's trip from my hairdresser that Haley can use on all those days that she won't have the luxury of showering. I had two long conversations yesterday with different reps from GE about Haley's packing needs, so I'm finally feeling a little bit better about that situation, but then I found myself handing over my debit and credit cards to two daughters who were very anxious to do some more shopping. My day ended with Kelsey helping me finalize details for Keaton's class picnic that I'm helping with today.

When we crawled into bed after midnight again, all I could do was verbalize that verse mentioned in my last post: "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

Thank you, Father, for sustaining us and letting us rely on you for our strength! Thank you for all the awesome opportunities you have blessed us with! Thank you that today is a new day and that your mercies are new every morning! Amen!