His Grace is Sufficient

I apologize to everyone for not keeping up with this blog, like I said I would. Between home schooling and completing my own degree PLUS the ministry work I am so busy these days. But enough excuses…Get a cup of tea, because I wrote a mini-novel. :)

First, for the update: Dave will begin his anti-rejection therapy this Friday up at Cedars Sinai. They will begin with giving him antibodies that are called “good” antibodies. Since he has a large amount of the “bad” antibodies that will attack the transplanted kidney, he must increase his amount of the good ones. Sounds simple enough.

This weekend he will orally begin taking the chemo therapy drug to start bringing down his immune system. In two weeks they will begin giving him infusions of chemotherapy to further bring down his immune system, getting his body ready for the transplant.

We have begun what I jokingly refer to as our "quarantine" period, where the kids can have one friend over at a time, as long as that friend is healthy. Not a lot of visitors at once can come over and as of next week, Dave will have to work mostly from the house. It’s really important to minimize germs in our home right now, so his body doesn’t have to fight anything off with a compromised immune system. This becomes even more important AFTER the transplant.

Honestly, if I don’t already have OCD, I am sure I will by January!

Many of you are fellow believers, so hopefully you will understand what it is I am about to say. We are scared. We are thrilled. We are anxious. We feel blessed in so many ways. I guess we feel all of that and more at once. AND that’s OK.

Sometimes there is a political correctness about being a Christian, where we don’t want to express our true fears and our true doubts. I have issues with faith. There, I said it. I love the Lord so much, and I trust Him as much as is humanly possible….most of the time. But there are times that I feel so weak and so abandoned. It is these times when God sends a friend my way to give me renewed strength. He always does this!

Case in point, we have had a really bad weekend with stress and fear. You can imagine what poor Dave has gone through at work these past couple weeks. Add that to the stress of his health, and you can see what a mess things can become…and they did. I had a paper due on Sunday for one of my classes, which I was just not able to complete. If you know me, I am never late with assignments. No, not perfect, but a bit obsessed with being on time. However, this weekend I just couldn’t complete it. We needed to be there for each other this weekend. To get into God’s word; to pray and seek out the Comforter. To be a family.

I wrote to my instructor to ask for an extension on this paper. Long story short…I got an email this morning with not only a huge extension, but a beautiful prayer attached. She is a Christian!! She ended up calling me this morning and we talked and cried (silly girls!!) and we shared our hearts over the phone…miles apart... and we prayed together. What a blessing God gave me. Unexpected and truly perfect! God knew that I would need this woman in my life way before I even signed up to go back to school! Our Father is amazingly wonderful. His love is so abundant.

While I am ashamed that I have moments where I lack faith, those moments do exist. I am so grateful that His Grace is sufficient, because I am so weak.

Thank you to all my friends who have blessed me and my family throughout these couple of years. I honestly am humbled by your love and your generosity! My faith, while not perfect, has been strengthed by so many of you.