Health fair at Campo de Aviacion (the airstrip.)
On Wednesday, March 26 I woke up with a stomach ache. I went for my normal walk in the morning and then ate breakfast. We were having a worship service at 9am that morning. I remember thinking, I need to go to worship because I know it will make me feel better. So I went to worship - still not feeling well. Molly was having an off morning and was very fussy during worship so I ended up leaving and coming back to the apartment. I had Lacy and Alia babysit as I went in crawled in bed (where I stayed for the next 24 hours.) As the day wore on my stomach ache increased. I tried taking different medications but nothing touched the pain. I prayed, I cried, I read the bible, I tried to sleep. The base-nurse came over and prayed over me and offered me what little medication she had. By the middle of the night I was in tremendous pain. Carl continued to pray over me and insisted that I quote scripture out loud. As long as we were quoting the word of God and praying the pain lessened. At times, I told Carl I couldn't pray or talk because I hurt so bad, but he continued to insist that I quote scripture. Finally, with him still praying over me, I fell back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning the pain was a little better but I still felt something wasn't right. The base nurse checked on me and seeing I was still in pain she went and got a doctor who was visiting from the states for one of the short-term mission trips. He felt my abdomen and asked me some questions and then said he thought I should get an ultrasound to check for appendicitis. Then both he, the nurse, and Carl laid hands on me and prayed. I got up and we went to get the ultrasound done and lab work. When we got both reports we took the results back to the doctor. He immediately said that I needed to go to Oaxaca to have my appendix removed. My first thought was - I've never had surgery before, and fear began to set in. As soon as people began praying over me and reminding me to trust in the God I knew, the fear went away! I knew without a doubt that God was going to take care of me! Before leaving for the 2.5 hour trip to Oaxaca, I asked about pain medication. I was told to take Ibuprofen. The day before it had not touched the pain at all. But soon after I took it, all my pain went away. I believe God had kept it from working the day before as a sign to me that something was really wrong. As we entered the hospital and prepared for surgery I had no fear and no pain! Praise be to God! I was taken into surgery about 8:30pm and remember waking up and looking at the clock in the operating room to see if they had done the surgery yet. The clock said 10pm. Yep, surgery was over and God had taken care of me every minute! Only God can give this type of peace. Living in Jesus means living in freedom - not always freedom from physical pain but freedom from fear, freedom from worry.
Waiting for surgery!
"Enjoying" a liquid diet the morning after surgery!!
The Dr. said the recovery should be about 3 weeks! The total cost of this was $3500 (US). Anyone who would care to help us with this unexpected expense can send a check with our name on a separate sheet of paper to :
Thank you once again for all your prayers and support! We are thankful to God for the peace He brings to us even during trying times!!
More Fun Pictures!!
Noah at his Spiderman Birthday Party!
