Christmas Presents from God

I'm just now getting a moment to post this amazing story. It's now Christmas morning, my folks will be here in less than an hour...but it must be told today....

My colonoscopy was on Tuesday and God performed a miracle, giving me the most lovely Christmas gift I could've ever asked for...... a PERFECT colon. Yes, you read that correctly!
Dr. Summers said that he did a thorough search and could not find any traces of diverticulitis. NONE!!! NONE!! NONE!!!! I've been a bit in shock over the past few days, not even getting emotional when I tell people this wonderful news...almost numb to His goodness. I get it. I finally get it. Often when people receive a miracle, they don't fully accept it, embrace it or even fully rejoice in it. Why? The only conclusion that I can come to is the human sin nature. I should've fallen on my face and worshipped Him after this miraculous news. I should've immediately posted a praise to Him and told you all the good news. But, me in my flesh and sin nature was just worried about what I was gonna eat for dinner and finish up Christmas shopping.

Merry Christmas to all of you precious sistas! I love you all dearly and KNOW that your prayers carried me through this. God has healed me and I feel fabulous. This Christmas is literally the first one that I can remember that John and I did not go one penny into debt with gift giving. He bought me one item...new parfume. I bought him a t-shirt. That's it. But the feeling of a simple Christmas is a sweet aroma...one that I haven't smelled for a long time....all glory and honor goes to God. Let's just say He gently guided me to the Customer Service of Walmart at 1 a.m. two nights ago after I checked out and spent over $300 (which included lots more fun stuff for the kids, clothes for John, new Bibles, new this and new that). We couldn't afford that..what was I thinking???? So, i humbly strolled my hiney straight to customer service and returned $186 worth of stuff. Do you have any clue how embarrassing it is to say to a clerk..."Ummmmm, I am really sorry but I over spent a ton of money and I have no clue what I was thinking!!! How about I put everything up on the counter that I want to return?" God gave me the kindest clerk I've ever met. He never huffed nor puffed nor rolled his eyes. He was an angel in disguise :)
I was so worried that this year i was going to "miss Christmas", miss the meaning and just get caught up in the normal chaos of the holiday season. Well, let's just say that I, Kara, the human fleshly sinner that I am, DID miss Christmas. Yet, God, in His infinite wisdom and gracious love, swept along and blessed me with presents from above. Thank you God!!!
love you,
k

Healing

Today has been an interesting day....I have had "issues" all day on and off with my stomach/colon! This afternoon, it got so bad that I was in bed from 2-5 p.m. I ask you all to just pray that it be healed. I called the dr. to see if it was possible to get in for the colonoscopy earlier than Dec. 31st. I will recieve a callback tomorrow but it sounded like they might have an opening next Tuesday. Nothing like getting a good cleanin' out before Christmas :) haha!!!
That's all for now...please pray for a complete healing of my colon!!!!
k

Serving Others

Everytime I pull up to my mutilated front yard, I feel giddy and excited. How silly, huh? When I sarcastically said in the van "Look kids...at our beautiful front yard!" Avry replied with "Mom, I don't like this yard. I want our old yard back!" I'm sure that by now you are sick of hearing about my septic system. I'm tired of talking about it...but God keeps reminding me to pray, pray, pray! He is the great and awesome provider!!!!

If you've already read my first post, which I've now deleted..my apologies. I was very frustrated when I wrote it and that was not pleasing to God :)

Love you all,
K

Front yard only!!!

More good news..... Jerry called John and told him that we could put the entire system in our front yard ONLY and NOT have to tear up the whole back yard! Yahooooooo!! This is awesome!
Let me paint you a picture: Each leech bed, which by the way, if you are like me the word "leech bed" sounds scary and odd. So, let me explain it: This is a trench dug about 4 feet down and 2 feet wide, or the width of the backhoe bucket. It is filled about halfway with stone. Then a approx. 9" wide white tile with holes all through it is laid on top of this stone. There will be 620 ft. of this tile laid, in approx. 75 ft. increments across the front yard. Then, our septic tank box thing is in our back yard, so he'll only have to dig up a hole big enough for a 500 gallon overflow tank that will have a sump pump in it and alarm system incase the pump ever stops working.
Most people have fire alarms, but the Townsend family must also have a septic alarm...that's funny! I guess it's fair to say that we are full of poo!!! teeheee!
Jerry's exact words were "This is an industrial system. If this doesn't work for ya, then nuthin' will!" I love good ole down home honesty!
k

Septic Sytems are Soooooo Cool!!!

Hey!!!
There is a stack of lovely white septic pipes and concrete distribution boxes sitting in my back yard...I just keep staring at them thinking of how grateful I am to have this new system put in today (and probably in the next few days too)!!! God is good!!! The crazy thing is that I still believe that God is going to totally provide this system for us without us going into debt. How?? No clue! Why? No clue! Please, please, please, I am begging you to pray for a miracle and for the finances to pay for this. As you all know, we have the "loan" capacity from my aunt...but I am still "waiting on the Lord". God can provide for HE owns everything. We don't deserve it by any means as we are not the smartest cookie on the block when it comes to money. But our heart desperately wants to change. Our church is going to offer a 14 week program designed by Dave Ramsey beginning in Jan. My prayer is also that John would committ us to this program and that we'd see God do amazing things. I want to be financially free so that we can sow more into the Kingdom of God!!!!!
Ahhhhh, I'm hearing the beautiful sound of large machinery as I write this. The cute, little high pitched "reverse" beep just sounded from the backhoe or bobcat (not sure which one he's using).
Dirt, topsoil, leech beds, distribution boxes, solids, liquids, bacteria, stone, tile, grading, sewage:
these are new favorite topics for me. I'm truly in awe of how the whole septic system works.
We have a humungous gorgeous oak tree in our back yard and Jerry told us that it probably drinks around 500 gallons of water a day. Thus, it has actually been a huge blessing to us and helped the sewage to NOT back up into the house this entire time that we've been waiting.
Who would have ever dreamed that God would make a tree's thirst save my house from poop!!
Wow!!!!!
I'll update more later!
k
P.S... I just went outside to introduce myself to the crew and met Jerry. Are you ready to laugh...you know how the story of my life is that everywhere I go God puts someone in my path that "i know". Well, sure enough one of the men I said hello to had that familiar face so I asked his name...Timmy. Did you go to Mccutcheon High School? Yep! He graduated one year after me!!! How funny!!!!!!! So, I told them all that I was praying it went well today and i'd be here if they need anything!

Taking a Deep Breath is NOT fun!

First and foremost and I have to give praises to God for my dear friend/cousin Tina's surgery going perfectly well today!! Yay! Dr. Sennot was pleased with how smoothly everything went and had no complications. Lord willing, she'll only have to be at the hospital for one night.

Secondly, my trip to the ultrasound room at the Women's Clinic wasn't so pleasant. Let's just keep it vague by saying that the technician had difficulty getting some good pictures of my right ovary which has the dermoid cyst attached to it, thus I spent about 20 minutes of INTENSE interaction with the "probe." You all know what I'm talking about. Yikes! She asked me if I was doing okay and i said with clenched teeth "Just do what you gotta do." The worse part was when she said "Now, take a deep breath and hold it." You all know what that means..... MORE pressure with the dreaded probe!!!!
Onto another topic as I'm sure that one doesn't leave a fun mental picture.....
I'm in love with being home again. I really am. Avry is just growing up before my very eyes and i'm thrilled with the fact that she and I will be home together for another year and a half before she goes to school.
I need some ideas for treat making. Could you please post a comment that includes the recipes for some great Christmas goodies...ie...fudge, cookies, candy, bars- anything! I'm gearing up for some baking!!
K

My Appt.

First..I weighed in at 249.8...up a bit, but that is after a delightful indulgence of the Thanksgiving holiday :)
I met with Dr. Summers today who is a general surgeon. He said that we will take a closer look at my colon with a colonoscopy (which will be scheduled soon probably for the end of Dec.). He said that due to my age, he'd like to remove a portion of my colon because he has seen more aggressive forms of diverticulitis in younger patients and strongly believes that I will have more severe bouts with it in the future. He said it is much wiser to do surgery when the colon is not irritated than to wait on another attack and for it to worsen. (BUT, we will decide for sure what will be done once he's looked at my colon!) Some of you have been shocked by this news of surgery and the severity of all of this. I am too! I think that many of us associate diverticulitis with older people who just get a tummy ache when they eat the wrong foods, but it is varies greatly depending on the person and the severity of it. Pockets develop in the colon which are called diverticula and when they get infected and flare up it can be excruciating pain. Some people have just a few "pockets" and others have a large area of the colon that are infested with these pockets...thus the wide range of treatment options for different people. This is pretty serious stuff. I used to roll my eyes at family gatherings when my family would say "Keep granny away from the nuts, peas and corn!" I thought "Big deal! If granny wants to eat it and then get a tummy ache..oh well!" I never in a million years imagined myself having a severe problem with it and surely not having part of my colon taken out!!!! He said I'd be in the hospital for 4-7 days and then resting at home for 2-4 weeks. This is worse than what I had imagined.
I didn't mention that Dr. Summers is an outstanding doctor who has worked with my extended family over the past 5 years and he's a Christian!!!! yay!!!
Then, I headed over to the Women's Clinic to meet Dr. Sam (a newer female doctor there). I had quite a funny experience. The nurse showed me to the room and told me to strip down to just my socks and put on the gown. She instructed that once I was undressed and ready to flip a little red switch. Many of you know about the "little red switch." An odd sense of panic comes over you when you know that you are butt naked in a little office with your hiney exposed out the back of your gown and you are supposed to flip this little red switch which then indicates to the doctor that you are "ready" for her grand entrance. I don't know what my problem was but after I was prepared in my gown, I lunged for the red switch and then quickly jumped up on the table. Thank goodness there were no cameras in there..what a sight that would have been. Oh...but it gets worse.....I'm sitting there waiting and I look down at my legs- ahhhhhhhhhh! How on earth could I have forgotten to shave in the shower????? My legs were beyond the hairy mammoth stage. I knew I had to tell the doctor before she discovered it! So, she came in...we chatted...we laughed...we chatted some more and then I broke the news to her..."Well, I am super embarrassed, but I forgot to shave my legs." She said, "Oh, I thought you were going to say that you were embarrassed because you have your gown on the wrong way." What? What??? Holy smokerooos..sure enough I had the gown all screwed up and she probably was wanting to die laughing from the moment she walked in the room and saw me! Long story..but basically I'm having a pelvic ultrasound tomorrow afternoon and we'll decide how to proceed with this cyst.
Gotta put kids to bed...
good night,
k