Riverbend Ramblings

A week ago today I was on a plane headed toward Detroit. My hubby preached all week long in a Bible conference at one of my favorite churches. We had a great week in Toledo. In addition to hearing some fantastic preaching, we also had a chance to fellowship with old friends and make some new friends as well. This trip had been planned before my hospital battles began, and I am so thankful the Lord allowed my body to heal so that I could still go. I am feeling almost back to normal, and I'm now officially "bandage-free". Those of you who have ever had an open wound know how excited that makes me. We flew home on Saturday. I actually got everything unpacked that same day, and I think that was a first for me. The three older kids spent last week at our church's youth camp while Lil' Nut spent time with her grandmas. It's been great to have us all home together again. Today I'm hoping to get the downstairs tidied up and work on a few projects at the office. I need to go to the grocery store, too, since the fridge is empty. What's on your agenda today?

Labels: Daily Life

Lil' Nut graduated from kindergarten on May 25th. I was so upset about not being able to attend the service, but our church's media specialist was kind enough to stream it live over the internet so that I could watch from home. I enjoyed the program so much! Here are a few pictures my mom took of Lil' Nut's special day. Lil' Nut had a manicure and pedicure before her big night.ProcessionalDaddy and Lil' NutGrandma M. and Lil' Nut Bookworm, Curly Girl, Lil' Nut, and Mickey Papa C. and Lil' Nut Grandma C. and Lil' Nut

Labels: Family Life, Special Days, The Kiddos

I had another visit with the doctor today and received a good report. My body seems to be healing, slowly but surely. I'm still very sore, but each day I feel like progress is being made. I will continue to check in with my doctors over the next couple of weeks and have the open wound monitored. One of the hardest parts of all of this is that our family life has been turned upside down. The kids have been away from home for the past three weeks. And while I'm so thankful that they've been well-cared for by their grandparents, little habits and attitudes have found a way to creep in. I am looking forward to things getting back to normal. It will take a while, but it will happen. Mickey has spent the last couple of days here at the house. He is a good helper, always willing to fetch something for me. We played a game together on the Wii for a little while, but I'm not as good of a player as his sisters are. He almost misses them. :) Bookworm has gone to spend a couple of weeks with my dad. His wife has Alzheimer's, and Bookworm is going to be her companion. She called today and told me she worked for a few hours in the garden and baked a blueberry cobbler. She is in her element! The little girls are floating between our house and their grandmas' houses. It is so much fun listening to them chatter back and forth. They never run out of things to talk about. Yesterday I received a basket of goodies from my "Secret Encourager" at school. She blessed me with several of my favorite things, including the latest Real Simple magazine. I'm going to enjoy browsing through it tonight. If we had T.V., I'd probably watch the NBA Finals. Now that the Magic are out, I'm pulling for the Celtics. Enough of my ramblings...have a great day! :) image credit

Labels: Daily Life, Family Life

Thanks so much to all of you who have been praying for me. I am so thankful for the power of prayer! I have received emails and cards from people all over the world letting me know they are praying. Last Friday I began having severe pain and made another trip to the hospital. Tests revealed an abscess in my abdomen. The surgeon had warned us that this was a possibility following surgery because of the severity of the peritonitis. The doctor wanted the radiologist to drain the abscess, but because of the holiday weekend, the radiologist wanted to put it off. So, I spent the next couple of days waiting. I couldn't have anything to eat or drink, so I was pretty miserable with just the I/V fluids. The hospital is no place to be on a holiday weekend! Sunday morning I had another CT scan done. It revealed that the abscess was a couple of centimeters smaller. They wanted to wait and do another scan the following day, but we asked my doctor if I could go home on antibiotics to wait it out because I was just miserable in the hospital. He agreed, and I came back home late Sunday. Yesterday I went to see the surgeon. He believes that the abscess will resolve on its own. I have a rather large incision on my stomach from the most recent surgery. The staples were removed last week, but the surgeon had to open part of it to release fluid that had built up. The opening in a bit larger now and looks awful, but the surgeon said it is healing. My amazing husband, who has taken such great care of me, continues to act as my "nurse". He's taken a break from his responsibilities at church for the last few weeks and hasn't left my side except to catch up on sleep. He is constantly looking for ways to make me more comfortable or fixing me a meal. We've had families from church bring food. Our moms have taken care of the kids for most of the past month. I feel blessed to have so much help! I have felt so out-of-touch lately, but I guess that's to be expected. I missed all of the year-end activities at school and Lil' Nut's kindergarten graduation, but I'm thankful to those who stepped in and took on many of my responsibilities to keep things running smoothly at school. I haven't worried about any of it, because I know that it's all out of my control. It has been encouraging to be able to watch our church services live via the internet. It's not the same as being there, but it's close. Right now I'm just taking things day by day. I go back to see the doctor tomorrow, and hopefully I'll get a good report. I am not taking any pain medication now; it really slows down the healing process. Thanks again for lifting me up in your prayers, and thank you in advance for continuing to do so. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. ~James 5:16b

Labels: Blessings, Daily Life, My Thoughts, Prayer Requests