Short Update

**Formatting is off so it won't do paragraphs and I don't have the headspace to figure it out right now** Just wanted to update everyone since my allergic reaction....my body is definitely feeling the effects of dealing with things it doesn't like. I've been just absolutely exhausted, but still having to function as we are moving next week and the house won't pack itself and doctors appointments don't stop leading up to surgery. Yesterday I had to get my port flushed and all that entails is saline flushing it and then a little bit of heparin, but most of the heparin stays in the actual port. I get this done every month and after my nurse finished, my head was extremely woozy...the worst part was I had an appointment 45 minutes after my port flush to get my vehicle alignment done, so I asked for prayers and used my "function no matter how you feel superpower"--or rather my great need and dependence on God and I made it to the shop. It's a small local shop that we found through word of mouth, and they started here in Huntsville in the 50's--they had pictures of antique cars, drag racing, and space missions on their walls and I started talking to one of the owners since I learned to love car stuff with my Daddy growing up and it turns out they also own the Rocket City Dragracing track in town! I remember going to drag races in Phoenix with my Dad and it brought back all sorts of fun memories growing up so that was a sweet distraction and my head cleared a bit while I was waiting for the car. I was able to take a nap and a hot bath that afternoon and both of those really helped. I got some good sleep last night but I can just tell my body is fighting to deal with everything. My lungs were extra junky today and I threw up this morning (that happens off and on as I wake up nauseous most mornings, but the endometriosis can make it worse so it makes sense it's happening more and more as it continues to grow) but a friend Julie came over with her youngest daughter, Lily, to help me pack so it was an enjoyable day of fellowship while getting some things done in the midst of great fatigue. We also enjoyed parts of the day sitting on the swing in my yard, throwing the ball for Blue, and watching Lily collect sticks and old grass clippings and build a "campfire" without the fire. :) My friend Jenn also brought us homemade pizza for dinner--I truly don't know how we would do life without our church family--as Julie said while she was packing stuff and I was sitting down for a minute, "the body of Christ can be your body when your body doesn't want to work." I'm so very thankful for Jesus, the grace He pours out in each moment, and His people that love us so well here at GCC Another sweet moment was we were out in the garage and Lily was looking at a little tiny glass tea set that I had sat out to find someone to give it to. It was one of the first Christmas gifts Grandma and Grandpa Moor gave me when I was 7 and I remember being so excited that it was glass and that it was a "big kid" gift. I have had it in my hope chest all these years, along with a 101 Dalmations pajamas that I was originally saving for my kids one day. Obviously that never happened, and I have given other things I had away, but the tea set was so small and the pajamas were one of my favorites and I hadn't parated with it yet. I asked Lily if she would like them and she got really excited. When they were leaving, Julie had wrapped them up in paper towels and put them in a container and she was trying to get them out to get ready to show her brothers when they picked them up. It was fun to see the joy it brought her and just one more example of God's healing of my heart over the years and blessing me with so many kiddos to love on, that I wouldn't have the time or opportunity to love if He had give us our own children. As hard as it is, He truly knows best, and I can trust Him through it all. I'm gonna sign off for now, but wanted to update y'all (look, I can speak "bama") and thank you for your love and prayers! I got to UAB on Tuesday and that will be a crucial appointment to try and figure out what we can do, especially now that I have this additional complication with the allergic reaction and my head reacting to saline....if it's doing that with saline, any IV antibiotics we try will have some sort of effect on me, but I can't have surgery with my lungs this junky, and I have to have the surgery....last week I ate a tiny piece of homemade chocolate cake Mom made and immediately had pain in my right ovary area--I always got abdominal pain with sugar for years and when I had my hysterectomy we figured out it was the endometriosis. Thankful that though I feel very overwhelmed and extra emotional (Jord and Blue have dealt with a lot of tears this past week!) I can still rest in my mighty Savior's arms--"Underneath are the everlasting arms" as it says in Deuteronomy and part of the verses I texted this morning was James 5:11 "Behold, we count those blessed who persevere. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and have the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that he Lord is full of compassion and is merciful." And for that I can give praise Him in the storm, knowing He is my anchor and will never let me go. **Formatting won't let me add descriptions to individual photos--the first one is my head hurt really bad all morning so I had some pain relieving stuff in my eye cover and was being creative lol--the rest are self-explanatory. :)