We left Cali on August 2nd after a full 9 weeks of being home. Our time there was nice, we were able to reconnect with old friends, visit family, evangelize, and serve at the church. One of the best parts was spending so much time with our cousins and our little goddaughter who is getting so stinkin big. Good times. So in my last post, I updated you on why we were home for so long-my great grandmother passed away and we were waiting for her funeral before we could leave. Because of legal reasons, it kept getting pushed back and we didn't actually have the funeral until about a month afterwards. The week we were getting ready for the funeral, we were preparing to leave when we checked the mail and there was Marc's jury summons, for another 3 weeks after that. We were beginning to question whether or not God wanted us to finish the trip or if it was time to call it. Then we got our answer!
one of the many hikes we went on:
Danny Boy's epic jump
the boys epic tree battle
isn't she beautiful? I got to see this pretty girl a lot!
and hang out with the Ortega ladies!
and some awesome friends!
we served at VBS with El Capitan and Los Admirales
and my awesome uncle took us on a helicopter ride!
and lots of family time :)
Father's day with my dad and father in law
On Wednesday the 31st we got the call that we were needed in Ohio again and on Friday the 2nd, we were off! Remember our friends who were adopting from Ethiopia? After nearly 3 years (I think), they finally got assigned a child!! They had to go to meet him and go to Ethiopian court to gain custody of him, which left us to be nannies to their 3 other children for the ten days they were gone. Luckily, their kids are awesome and we love them! They're 9, 11, and 13, so old enough that I didn't want to pull out all of my hair.....just some of it. :) Anywho, check out their blog to read more about it! Also, they have to go back sometime in the next 3 months to have their embassy court date and pick him up and they still need travel funding for that! http://talesoftherogi.blogspot.com/2013/08/court.html Check them out!
So they went to court and they came back and we left! It was about an 8 hour drive to get to St. Louis, Missouri where arrived just in time to eat some food and then get to church. I would say when it comes to meeting new people I am a bit of an introvert-I more like to blend in the background then have any attention on me. Well we walked in and there were about 15 people there. I told Marc, "looks like we're not going to just blend in". If you know Marc, you know he was definitely ok with that. So we sat down with not a whole lot of time before service, but the couple people around us started asking us questions, what brought us into town, where were we from, etc. When we said we were from Moreno Valley, the lady in front of us says, "Isn't that John Milhouse? He was my favorite teacher at Bible College." Small world! Many times people think because we go to a Calvary in California, it must be Raul's church, or Chuck's church, or someone very well known, but most people have never heard our pastor's name before, so to hear this woman in such a small crowd say that she knew him, was really cool. Especially cool because after study, her and her husband invited us over to stay the night at their house. That was such a relief because the low for the night was supposed to be 73 and it was humid, then add 10 degrees to that because of the trapped air in the van. It wouldn't have made for a very pleasant night. It's one of those where you lay perfectly still on your side to minimize skin contact with anything and we're throwing down if your pinky touches mine because it's just too dang hot for that. Needless to say, Marc was very grateful for the offer. I was too, but Marc was giddy.
So all that day, I had been having abdomen pain, just short little sharp, cramps about once every ten minutes that lasted for about 10 seconds. Throughout the day they got closer together and a little bit worse, until that night around 11 when I tried to go to sleep and my body was not having it. I was starting to get nauseous and that's never pleasant. Long story short, the pains were getting REALLY bad, I was in and out of the bathroom. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was about to deliver a baby or something. It was intense. Throughout the night, when my head wasn't over the toilet, we tried to figure out what was wrong with me. A friend suggested gallstones and when I looked up the symptoms, I had nearly every one. It suggested that when your gallbladder is attacking you (actual term used-and for good reason) that you can take aspirin which should ease your symptoms. Praise the Lord, it did and I was finally able to make it to bed around 2:30. I am beyond blessed that the Lord brought us to the church and these awesome people took us in. As much as last night sucked, it would have been 20 times worse to be stuck in the Walmart bathroom all night. God is so good to give us what we need!
So today was not so bad. I had little pains here and there, a knot in my stomach nearly all day and I'm terrified to eat anything and make whatever it is worse, but I'm doing good. We looked into clinics and will probably check one out tomorrow. Throughout the night last night, Marc wanted to take me to the hospital but if it was gallstones, I would probably need surgery and without insurance, that adds up quickly, but God is good and He will see us through.
So that is our update! We should be here for about a week, as we usually shoot for, and then it will be off to South Dakota. Stay tuned!
