Friday, April 12, 2013

The Honest to Goodness...

Life.  We sure have a way of letting that 4 letter word become overwhelming.  At least, I know I do.  What with one thing and another, I find myself 33 days past my return home from Nicaragua with a very pencil filled, erased and re-written schedule between now and then to show for it.  Amongst the day to day of home, kids and work, hubs and I stayed involved with church activities, celebrated an anniversary, a Risen King, and a birthday all within the 4 week stretch upon the touch down and re-entrance to American soil. 
While I’ve shared at church and amongst a few friends how “my” trip was, I have had this odd feeling of not wanting to “put it out there”.  Sure, we’ve been busy, but I certainly could have made time to sit down for 5 – 10 minutes a day to type out my journal entries and share with “the world”, right?  Looking back, I’m not so sure.  In speaking with other friends who have gone on missions trips, they seem to share my needed time for processing.  I can easily give you a daily recount of what happened, but the true story is my thoughts and feelings behind those activities, and I’m still not sure if I’m ready to share those.  In the meantime, please view the trip’s blog to catch up on said daily activities!  I’m hard at work editing my 900 some odd photos to make up the photo book and will begin to distribute those that were sold, and sell some for next year’s funds as well, by June.  To tide you over, here are a few of my favorites from one of the clinic days:
Si, es claro!
Our interpreter, Salvador, with a handsome little patient!
A little dear that I was priviledged to spend some time with!
Other than busy-ness, home life is well.  We are fighting tooth and nail with EJ to get this whole potty training thing down.  Evie is entering her terrible twos with a flourish.  Don had his other cancer spot removed over 2 weeks ago and goes to get the 2 pre-cancer spots taken care of before the end of this month.  As for me, well…insurance has approved my gastric bypass!  I’m sure that there are a host of opinions on this subject and weight loss in general, but this is my choice and all I ask for is love, support, less requests to go out to eat and more requests to split a salad or go for a walk.  J  My first pre-surgery procedure is on the 26th of this month and prayers would be appreciated.  I’m still waiting to hear from the doctor’s office about the ‘big’ (pun TOTALLY intended) surgery date, but they were thinking early-mid June.  In the meantime of that, I’m working with an awesome health coach who is quickly becoming one of my favorite people, a fitness trainer who is helping me to get in the habit of exercise and am also really trying to focus on portion size and calorie control.  I’ve been overweight for going on 2 decades and really want to be a fun, active wife, mom and being.  That can’t happen at my size & weight.  Goal shape:
It's NOT round...get it?!
So…that’s what’s going on with me.  If you have any advice, encouragement or even questions about my process, I’d love to have a chat with you!
Praying this finds you all well and loving life!
Love,
Chan