He is good - all the time

It's been a busy time for me. As you know, I've been leading a Bible study and co-leading another study at church. I'm also involved in other ministries at my church - all of which I love. It does keep me busy though, so I've been trying to get my bearings again as far as my schedule and getting things done that need to be done as well as what I want to get done. I went from doing absolutely nothing to doing a lot.

We did do this over the weekend

We haven't had a tree up for three years because of my pain and other issues. So this year, I decided to completely skip over the fall decorating and go straight for Christmas! I am so glad I did. I used to put the tree up on my birthday, which is in early November, so really, I am only putting the tree up a few weeks early. We are really, really enjoying it.

We've also had some health concerns here which has kept me over-whelmed at times. My husband had cataract surgery and that went well. He recovered quickly and noticed an improvement in his vision pretty quick. Then last week, he had major surgery on his other eye. He had a film that was attaching itself to the retina. We thought we were going to have to go to the big city for the surgery (2 hours away) and stay for 10 days. This was very stressful for us both financially and because of my back pain. I had everyone praying about it and God answered the prayer in an amazing way - like He's so prone to do. The doctors office called him and said they were going to do the surgery in our town! What an amazing answer to prayer! The surgery lasted about 3 hours and we were told that he might have to have a bubble put in his eye which would require him to keep his head down constantly for 7 days straight. Again, I called on my prayer warriors as I knew my husband would never handle that well. God, again, answered those prayers and the surgery went very well with no bubble needed! He is recovering well, although he will have blurry vision for months as it will take that long for the eye to heal.

My stress levels were already high and then we realized that my son's already high blood pressure was really high. We went to the cardiologist who put him on an additional medicine. This medicine gave him the hiccups so bad that he couldn't get rid of them. Having them hurt his back and it was just so awful. They then changed his medicine to another one, but this one had his pulse at close to 130! This was horrible, too. Finally, they put him on another med which finally helped the blood pressure without giving him other side-effects. Then the cardiologist ordered a CT scan on his heart and kidneys to check his arteries. Unfortunately, the heart scan revealed he may have a pinch in his aorta. To confirm this, they will do an angiogram in early November. If he does have it, then they will have a heart surgeon be able to stent it,hopefully, but if it can't be stented, then were looking at surgery. Oh, this mama's heart has just been overwhelmed. Your prayers are greatly appreciated! I know that this all passed through the Lord's hands and that he is in control and I am just relying on his peace.

God is good - all the time - and I am so thankful that I don't have to walk alone through all this. He walks with me - with us - and He never leaves us. Oh, what amazing grace is found in Him!

God bless you - Julie