I Love the Lord

One of the reasons my love for the Lord continues to grow is that throughout my life I have seen Him answer prayer after prayer.  Perhaps not in the way I asked Him to or as soon as I would have liked, but His ways were always so much better than the solutions I could have devised myself.  His timing was always perfect.  And so I trust that this situation is no different in that regard. I believe it with all my heart.

I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live... I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD;  'O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.'  Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.  For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.  I believed, therefore have I spoken:  Psalm 116:1-8

Update

There was a slight delay this morning getting the chemo to the procedure room, not sure why exactly since we were just there yesterday to make sure the orders were where they needed to be.  But everything after that went very smoothly.  Every single member of the Summa staff we encountered was pleasant, some were downright delightful!  I am so grateful for all of them who helped make our morning pass quickly.  God is so good to take care of even smallest details.

Jeff is resting comfortably, hoping to catch up on some sleep.  Thanks for all your prayers so far!  I'll update again later.

Chemotherapy Today

I’m getting everyone ready for the day.  One kid’s off to school already and two more to go.  Then it’s off to the hospital for Jeff’s spinal chemotherapy infusion.  I can’t say I’m looking forward to this—the side effects last time seemed so severe.  He developed a spinal headache and his vision deteriorated so rapidly and so much that he was not able to read much less return to work.  The sudden loss of independence was quite a strain on the whole family as you can imagine.

So today I’m praying for minimal side effects, while I wait.  Jeff’s take on this is a bit different.  He feels that if there are side effects, the metho-trexate is doing its job.  I understand that, but given the amount of vision he’s already lost, I’m worried this treatment could make him completely blind.  Also, if he experiences another spinal headache, then a permanent port inserted into his right ventricle becomes more likely. 

I’m trying not to worry, trying to put today along with this whole situation in God’s hands and rest in the truth that He always does what is best for us and for His glory. 

I’ll post more later today.  Thanks for checking on us and for praying!

Thank Heaven for Mothers

Jeff’s mom called early last week and said that she and her husband were going to come for the weekend.  Jeff’s step-dad wanted to spend some time with Jeff and help him with some various handy-man tasks that have come up.  Mom asked if there was something she could help me with while they were here.

Well, I didn’t have to think hardly at all.  Our routine is completely out of whack, and dinner around here has suffered.  It isn’t as though I’m spending too much time away from home to get dinner ready.  I think I’m just overwhelmed by everything and planning  dinner has been the task my brain has abandoned to make room for other things that need attention.  

So when Mom asked what she could do to help, I knew just what to say.  I asked her to go through some of her recipes and help me make some meals to put up in the freezer.  She loves to cook and has tons of wonderful recipes.  And if the meals are already prepped, all I have to do is take one out of the freezer, pop it in the oven, and set the timer.  I’m pretty sure I can handle that.

We spent about an hour on Saturday morning browsing through the recipes and writing out a grocery list for items I didn’t already have in the pantry.  To make things even easier, I bought three of those rotisserie chickens from the deli to use for the chicken casserole dishes.  (Less prep, and it was only about $1 more per chicken than if I had bought them raw and cooked them myself.) 

I stacked up our 9x13 and 8x8 foil pans in the middle of the island, and we got cooking.  Mom started an assembly line of sorts, mixing up the other ingredients while I took the meat of the chickens.  Megan helped, too, mixing crumb toppings and running our finished products down to the freezer. In all, we made 4 main dishes, 2 side dishes and 4 desserts that day.

By the time all my ground beef had thawed, we were pretty tired and decided to do the rest later.  Jeff and I finished prepping five meals yesterday morning. 

You can click over on the sidebar for the recipes we used.