Tennessee and healing

Well. We’ve called Tennessee (temporary) home for a month and I half now. Life has actually resumed a sort of normalcy, and we are doing well here.

Tennessee is beautiful. The fall colors here have been absolutely lovely. Our small home that is a huge blessing is lovely. Everything is lovely. Well, except for the plane... That’s not actually lovely.

Here’s the most recent photo of the plane:

As you can see, we’re all working very hard* on the 180.

(*disclaimer: this photo was staged and no unauthorized personnel have actually mechaniced** on the plane)

Actually, for the past 6 months Inspector has not actually done any mechanicing** either. It’s been a whole lot of inspecting, organizing, part researching, and more paperwork than I ever thought one man can handle. By the end of this week Inspector should be able to answer the 4-million dollar question: Will THIS be OUR plane? Will it make financial sense? Will it be timely? Will it be possible? Get ready for the drumroll.

(**disclaimer: I made these words up)

Meanwhile, back in the trenches, the kids and I - who am I kidding. No trenches. We’re living it up here. For reals: dishwasher. Washer AND dryer. Piano. Internet. Electricity. Clean water. Do I really need to go on? The house we’re staying in comes at no financial expense to us (read: free house). Our blessed donors are still faithfully supporting our still stipend and we’re able to have food every day. Good, wholesome, healthy food. Every day. We really, truly feel blessed beyond measure here.

AND we have a Christmas tree!

I had been trying to think of some clever idea for an “alternative” Christmas tree Sunday morning, when, on our way to see Cousin Lisa, there beside the road is none other than a FREE little fake Christmas tree for the taking. What a blessing! It’s a silly little thing, but fills my heart with love all the same.

Another blessing we’ve experienced here is a huge one that will impact the rest of my life. Here in Tennessee, I found my health. And my sanity (well... kinda).

Most people don’t know that for the past two years I’ve been experiencing some pretty extreme hormonal problems. I won’t go into the gritty details, but let me tell you: it was a rough two years. It was bad enough that I’ve been on medication for it for the last year. I had really been praying that I could get off the meds but every time I tried it was... well, it wasn’t pretty. About three months ago now I started getting pretty bad stomach aches almost every night. I prayed and prayed about the stomach aches and the thought kept coming to me: it’s the soy. I was quick to dismiss the idea because well, it seemed silly.

It’s the soy. That thought just kept coming to me, so finally I decided to see why I kept having that thought. Almost immediately after no soy for 2 days the stomach aches went away. For good measure, I ate some soy just to see what would happen (a stomach ache, if you were wondering). I stayed on the no-soy diet for 2 weeks and then one day, I realized that I was passed the time when my hormones should be going haywire and should be making me insane. I was unmedicated and felt better than I had in years.

Healing had come.

Now it’s been about a full month since I’ve given up soy. Almost everyday I feel almost ridiculous with giddiness for life. I haven’t felt this good since before my hormones got weird (read: pregnancy and children). I am filled with gratitude and joy and a zest for life. I feel healed and whole and blessed.

So very, very blessed.

This week is Thanksgiving week. I have a lot to be thankful for. More than I can count. More than I have words for. I hope that you’re feeling blessed this week too.

I also wanted to share this link with you. I get a lot of questions about to to support our ministry in Guyana. It was a little wonky online, but it’s been fixed. Tax-deductible donations are now actually easy to do online. If you’re interested, here is the link. If you’re not, well that’s OK too.