It’s been two months since we left Nicaragua. It seems like forever ago. Despite the fact that we miss our home, our friends, our ministry, our life in Nicaragua, God has blessed us abundantly since we’ve been back in the States. We have had so many opportunities to be involved in things we are passionate about here, and even though the reason we are here is not a fun one, we are thankful that this is where God has us. We have been getting involved with CollegeLife at Wildwood Community Church and are excited about the potential for relationships and ministry there. Wildwood is also beginning a new campaign called “Ready for Take Off” where they are leading the congregation to be more involved in partnering with other ministries, both locally and internationally, through prayer, giving, and serving. We love getting to be here to represent Nicaragua for the launch of this exciting challenge. We have also spent a lot of time preparing for Urbana12 and the JBU missions conference and are thankful for the resources available here to do this that we wouldn’t have had in Nica.
As Julie's kidney function remains in decline and her diet gets stricter in order to compensate, many people have asked me an unwittingly vague and complicated question: "What can Julie eat?" I appreciate the question, but unfortunately the answer is somewhere between "almost everything" and "almost nothing." Here it is: she can eat a portion of anything that would not throw her strict daily regulation of sodium, protein, potassium, and phosphorus out of balance.
Not that helpful, right?
Unless you studied medicine (or chemistry?) or know someone with serious health issues, you probably know next to nothing about potassium and phosphorus. That's okay—we hardly knew anything either! They aren't required to show up on nutrition labels, but let me give you an idea of what this whole deal looks like. Julie has to be careful about (or even avoid altogether) the following:
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We have filled the last few days with travel, doctors, driving, and making a huge mess with all of our stuff we brought home, hoping to make some kind of convenient order out of it. We failed. But at least my (Chase's) parents' living room isn't full of our dirty laundry, loose change, and spare batteries anymore.
We got into Dallas Monday afternoon/evening and pretty much crashed. Tuesday morning, we drove to downtown Dallas for an unexpectedly long appointment with a nephrologist who agreed that Julie needs a transplant, and he illuminated the next tiny step in the process: applying to some government organization to confirm transplant eligibility.
Lacking directions (and the name) to our dentist's office, we raced back to the house to wolf down some lunch while getting directions. Julie brushed her teeth to be kind to the dentist. I figured, "Why clean them twice?" We rushed out the door several minutes late.
For those who are interested, here is a quick update on how Julie’s health has been and how it affects our future plans. While regular blood tests and doctor appointments over the last year and a half had shown fairly steady kidney function, the last month has shown a rapid, unexpected decline. It is very possible that we may have to move back to the States soon for six months to a year for a transplant. The move would hopefully only be temporary–and nothing is definite yet–but we will have more information to make a final decision after she has more blood work done in a couple of weeks.
One good thing in this is that a lot of the work that we currently do can still be done in the States. For several months now, Chase has been training someone (Yeril Lozano) to take his place as children’s director so that he can begin writing Spanish curriculum and creating other resources to help train and equip Nicaraguans involved in ministry. Also, Julie will still be able to do almost all planning for short-term teams via email and phone calls, as she has already been doing. The fun and personal aspects of our ministry will be missing with our absence, but we will still be actively employed by One by One, and our desire is to be able to move back to Nicaragua after this is done.
Come what may, we already have tickets for our annual fall visit to the States (starting August 13th), so the next couple of weeks will determine whether we cancel our return ticket or whether we come back to Nicaragua after three weeks.
We obviously don’t have all the details worked out yet, but we will update the blog when we know. We are a bit anxious and stressed, but trust in God, knowing that He is not surprised by this development even though we are! In the meantime, we would greatly appreciate your prayers as we potentially get ready for a big transition. Also, keep your eyes and ears open for inexpensive housing in Norman and a car to borrow or rent since we might be in need of both!
A few weeks ago, on April 15th, Chase and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. In our pre-marital counseling with Bill Brewer, one thing he recommended to us was taking a day or two to go away and celebrate our anniversary every year. In the States, we began this tradition by visiting a different Bed & Breakfast each year, but since moving here, we’ve changed it up a little bit. This year, we went to the Holiday Inn. I know in the States that the Holiday Inn is no big deal, but here, it’s actually a really big deal. Not only are the rooms air-conditioned, but they also have bath tubs, cable TV, and carpeting, all of which are luxuries to us these days. Anyway, we stayed for two nights and had a great time (except for that Chase was having intense back pain the whole time!) We went out for a Steak dinner one night at one of our favorite restaurants here and generally enjoyed celebrating our last 5 years of married life together.
They like to play and sometimes they still spoon. They break things, we get angry, but then they do something hilarious, like in the videos below, and they make us laugh (which is why Chase likes them). And the longer we have them, the cuddlier they get (which is why Julie likes them).
