He is the LORD.....

"He is the LORD;

let Him do what is good in His eyes."

1 Samuel 3:18

"If I see God in everything, He will calm and color everything I see. Perhaps the circumstances causing my sorrows will not be removed and my situation will remain the same, but if Christ is brought into my [situation] as my Lord and Master, He will "surround me with songs of deliverance" (Psalm 32:7). To see Him and to be sure that His wisdom and power never fail and His love never changes, to know that even His most distressing dealings with me are for my spiritual gain, is to be able to say in the midst of my [situation], "Blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 1:21

From Streams in the Desert

September 17

Indeed, He is the LORD.  Let Him do what is good in His eyes. For I/we cannot see as He can and His sight is perfect.

I have delayed giving updates this summer during this waiting time.  But as it continues to extend, I had the prompting to write today and at least give a short status report.

Dr. Matt is still setting up his new practice and as such has not been able to see me yet.  We are grateful that he will be closer to us, in our own city even, and look forward to his care for our family.

In the interim, I have tried a couple of new things in the hopes of taming the nausea.  Earlier in the summer, I tried essential oils, which kept it at bay for 9 days.  It was wonderful.  But then it came crashing down again.  In the past 3 weeks, I've also tried acupuncture.  After the first treatment, I felt amazingly well for 3 1/2 days. The best I've felt in about 4 years.  And then it came crashing down again, and after subsequent treatments, I have had very rough days.

In reflecting on the various treatments I've tried over these 4 1/2 years, there have been several times that I've felt better briefly, but then the nausea returns.  Still no clues on what is causing it.  Humanly speaking, it seems there should be a discernable cause that can be treated, but no light yet.

In the midst, I am, as always, so very grateful for my wonderful family members who stand with me through it all, showing their love and care in so many ways, and for my friends who are an extended loving support network.  Thank you all.

Yesterday, in the midst of a very difficult day, I had the blessing of this loveliness, through the hand of my dear daughter and the gardens of friends.  Bless you all.  You know who you are. :-)

I think what we would appreciate prayer for right now is perseverance and endurance in the midst.  We, of course, don't know what the future holds.  We don't know when I'll be able to see Matt again.  We don't know if anything will ever help.  But we know that James says, "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing,"  and we want to appropriate that truth.

Thank you for praying with us through all these years.  You are a great blessing to us all.

The deep, deep love of Jesus

Oh the deep, deep love.

All I need and trust

Is the deep, deep love of Jesus.

From The Deep, Deep Love

Sovereign Grace Music Company

This song has been running through my mind for days.  So much truth in so few words.  ALL I need is His love.  His deep, deep love.  No matter the storms that this life brings.  No matter the joys, either.  He doesn't often leave us without the blessing of the love of others, or of the blessings and joys of the fullness of life.  Those blessings are part of His deep, deep love.  But in the end, it is His love that I need.  All I need.

In the past month, I've mostly been dealing with the same old stuff with a few new difficulties added in here and there.  We had a bit of a scare last week with weight loss again and difficulty with finding things to eat, so I talked with Dr. Matt on Friday and in the process we went over my recent blood work and discovered a few things that we can work on.  Low thyroid, low protein, low B and D vitamins (not a big surprise!), and low glucose levels which he thinks could be at least partly responsible for the continuous nausea.  So, I'll be starting natural thyroid this week, I'm taking an amino acid supplement for the protein problems and will be using highly absorbable B and D vitamin drops.  For the low glucose he is recommending trying some of the more innocuous (to me) fresh fruits every few hours to try to bring those levels up.  Then he has ordered another DNA stool test because he learned at a seminar a couple of weeks ago that there have been many false test results coming out of some of the labs, the one I previously used being one of them. We'll be using the only one of the bunch that hasn't had false results.  So, that's on the docket to try to see if we can determine why I'm continuing to have so many gut issues, regardless of the treatments we've tried.  The genetic testing results won't be back for another few weeks, so no news on that front yet.

In the midst of my health issues, our family is struggling with one of those heart-hurting situations in life that I'm not at liberty to talk about.  But it weighs heavily on all of us, and we would covet your prayers that God would have His way and use it for the good of those who love Him, and in the process bring glory to Himself.  He is so able.  

Thanks, once again, for praying with us.  We are so, so grateful.  Bless you, each one.

A Quick Update

Dear Ones, this is just a quick update to let you know that I've started the new meds (Nystatin) for Candida yeast overgrowth, which the insurance is covering, praise God.  The meds can make me feel as bad as the disease and it continues to be a rough patch.  However, since it appears that the meds are making me feel sick, that would seem to indicate that there is an overgrowth of Candida, so we'll stay the course and see how things go over the next couple of months.

I so appreciate your prayers during these coming weeks.  It's really a day-at-a-time, sometimes an hour-at-a-time getting through the nausea and tiredness when they hit hard.  It helps to have low-key things to do, so I try to have projects at hand to distract me, so to speak.  :-)

In the midst, my dear daughter Jessie has a wonderful blog post today about the centrality of Christ.  It brought a sense of undergirding to me today.  She is a wonderful writer and if you'd like to read it and perhaps be blessed as I was, you can read it here.

Thanks so much for praying.  I'll keep you updated as we go along here.