Emergency
The next morning Steve and I ate breakfast in my hospital room and around 9 a.m. I was discharged. After a quick stop at the pharmacy for pain medication and Gas-X we headed home. The old familiar emotions that jarred me the day before began rumbling again and I was grateful we lived only twenty [...]

A Warm Embrace
Shortly after my brief phone call with Steve two nurses arrived to anesthetize me. The friends who had faithfully stayed by my side all day were ravenous so they departed for dinner. Once they left the nurses told me to count backward from ten as they wheeled me into the operating room. In [...]

Sovereign Comfort
Once the hospital admission process was complete, I was escorted to a private room for final surgery prep. My friend never left my side from the moment she arrived late that morning. While I changed into a lovely hospital gown her husband went to find out if Steve had received the Red Cross message.
Across [...]

Contradictory Doc
The ob/gyn who discovered my miscarriage had contacted my friend, called the Red Cross, and sent me to a different ob/gyn who would perform the D & C. This new doctor explained the importance of getting it done immediately to prevent complications over the weekend. So, there I was on Friday, April 20, 2001, [...]

Unexpected Loss
After my first ob/gyn visit I went home still unsure what to think. The 10.5 week old fetus seemed normal but it had developed only to 9.5 weeks and the doctor’s incongruent words, tone, and body language suggested there could be a problem. With that I trusted God with the pregnancy knowing His will [...]

Confirmation and Concern
The first week of April 2001 Steve and I returned to Clarksville, Tennessee. Within days he headed west to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for the last phase of school. Although friends invited me to stay with them, I chose to stay home. Besides, I had news I wasn’t willing to share yet, and I [...]

Unexpected Discovery
Each day I sat propped up on the bed reading, journaling, and praying. An inviting picture hanging on the wall across from me beckoned to me like a memory luring me back in time. Two white, wooden beach chairs faced forward toward the ocean. Seated on one was a woman wearing a white sun [...]

Did you know that God is love? Not just that He has the capacity to love, but that He is love. This is an immutable part of who He is. It is as true for Him as it is for me to say that I am a woman. No matter my emotional or physical state, [...]

   
Insults, Dippy Doctors, and a Road Trip
During my mysterious symptom accumulation, I landed in the office of a new primary care physician whose kindness and sensitivity were astounding. Not! After hearing me talk about my strange symptoms and the tentative diagnosis of “lupus” given by previous physicians, he examined me and asserted, “I think you [...]

We are stationed at Ft. Irwin, in the California Mojave Desert and have a 1,000 foot volcanic mountain virtually in our backyard – “Mt. Blackie.” As a family with three boys, we like to make a weekly hike to the top for exercise. On our way up, my 5 year old and I like to [...]