An Honest Moment

Hi everybody. I know it's been a long time since I've written a blog. It's been an insane month or so as I finished my first semester of grad school. But guess what?? I FINISHED!!!! :) I'm quite proud that I made it through the first semester. I learned a ton and my first semester reflection blog will be coming soon. I also have lots of fun pictures to share from my weekend visit to GA when we celebrated Christmas with the various sides of the family, and that blog will be coming soon too. For tonight though, I have a very honest post to share, along with some prayer requests....

First of all, Matthew had knee surgery today. It went very well and the doctor is confident he was able to clean things up to the point that it will hopefully reduce the pain he has been in. Prayers are certainly appreciated for a quick healing for him and that his pain levels will be as low as possible.

Secondly, my grandmother was taken to the ER on Thursday evening with severe pain. Turns out she had a blockage in her intestine, and they had to do emergency surgery in the middle of the night. They were able to remove the whole blockage but with where it was and what it looked like, the doctors feel pretty certain that it is most likely cancer. She had already said that if it was cancer she wasn't going to do chemo (she is 79), so we'll see what the results are and what her decision is.

Before that is even a contemplation, there are many other issues going on right now that I would appreciate your prayers for. I want to be very respectful of my grandmother and her situation, so I am attempting to explain as much as I can while saying as little as possible. My grandmother has struggled with alcoholism for a very long time. Because of that, there have been a lot of extra complications with this surgery that might not otherwise be there. There are a lot of problems with her heart and blood pressure. On top of all of that, we are now dealing with withdrawal and all that comes from that. Let's just leave it at this: it is not pleasant for her or anyone else. So I would really appreciate your prayers for this situation. Pray that my grandmother will heal quickly, that this stretch will go quickly, that her children (my mom and aunt and uncle) will be full of grace and love and patience, and that they will have wisdom to know how to handle the upcoming decisions.

Because of the situation with my grandmother and the unknowns with that, the original plans we had for Christmas are no longer going to be happening. Due to my work situation, my parents and Matthew had planned on coming down here for Christmas, and they will now be staying in GA. This is completely understandable, but this also means that this will be the first Christmas in all of my 32 years that I have not been with my family. Nikki is working all day and evening on Christmas Day, so I will literally be alone the whole day. Don't worry - I do have some options of some potential things to do so I won't spend the whole time by myself, but it's still hard. It's a lot harder than I thought it might be, and I'm sure that day will be tough as well. I'll make the best of it and enjoy the celebration, but for tonight, I'm whining. :) I'd appreciate prayers for me and my family as this Christmas will look different than we had hoped and that we'll be able to focus on what God has made possible instead of what isn't happening.

Finally, I'm personally just about done. With the madness of finishing school and the holidays making work crazy, life has just been insane. I'm exhausted and feel like I could use about a week's vacation but unfortunately, that is not a possibility. I'm working a ton of hours this week, and the mall is filled with tons of holiday shoppers. They are very un-jolly more often than not, which is never fun. There are some people I want to bash with my reindeer antlers, but that would not be a good thing. :) So pray for me that I will be able to make it through this week and maintain grace and kindness and Christmas cheer.

I think that's about it for now. I've tried to keep my blog authentic and real since I started it, and while ultimately we'll all end up where we need to be, this is an honest look at the struggles that my family and I are going through this evening. Thank you for letting me share them with you, and thank you for your prayers and support. More to come soon!