It's been so long since I've written. I've been pondering so much in my heart over the last months. The family is doing well. Super busy with school and basketball. I love basketball season! Sophia, Jackson, and Audrey are all playing this year so I'm in for lots of basketball fun! Randy is the assistant coach for Jackson's team at school and they are both enjoying that!
We had a nice Thanksgiving. It was so good to have Andrew home. I don't get to see him enough! Andrew is a senior at American and about to start his final semester. How did that happen? He is a finance major. He has been accepted to the graduate program at AU and is planning to pursue a degree in data analytics. I'm not too sure what that is, but people act like its a great degree. He will take some of the classes for his graduate degree this coming semester and plans to finish up next May. Then, he is planning to move to Australia. Yes, Australia! As some of you know he spent 6 weeks there this summer with Campus Outreach. For those of you that contributed to his trip, thank you. It would not have been possible without your generosity. I had sorta braced myself for him to come back and tell me he was going to go on staff with CO. I had not braced myself to hear what he did say. He did not plan to go on staff, he really wanted to pursue his Masters and then move across the world and work in his field and just be a faithful Christian and church member in Australia. He said only 5% of Australians are churched so it's likely that even fewer are believers. He joked that he spoke the language. So he plans to spend his life in Australia. Wow. He told me this back in August. He's researched immigration, which is not easy. My response was better then I expected. I said, "I can't think of a better way to spend your life." My heart however was reeling. I had plans to be an involved grandma and that was going to be a little difficult halfway across the world. But the Lord has gently reminded me of the prayers I prayed so often for little Andrew. I prayed he would love the Lord with his whole heart. I prayed he would spend his life on something that mattered. I prayed he would make good choices. God is faithful. He has answered my prayers. If I go too far down the road I get sad, because I am selfish, but God has given me grace for today. He could be chasing after the world and all it has to offer. He could be wasting his life. He's choosing to lay down his life in service to God. I have no greater joy.
Another thing that has been overwhelming my heart in these last months is my sweet Lydia. She got hit with a dodgeball during a game of blindfolded dodgeball. She was blindfolded and so was the sweet boy that threw the ball. She was hit very hard and at close range. It was obviously a total accident. She however lost consciousness and received a concussion, which has been so much more than we ever thought possible from a hit in the head with a dodgeball. She's had headaches. She's on prescription medications. She's been in physical therapy for her eyes and neck which were injured. Her blood pressure is out of wack. Her memory was affected. She had memorized 300 digits of pi for a contest in her class, and post concussion was unable to say 4 numbers in a row. Its been a long journey. The injury happened at the end of September. She is slowly getting better. However, her migraines have been getting worse. They were present prior to the concussion but they have been horrible since the concussion. They do not seem to be related to the concussion. She actually spent Sunday night/Monday morning in the ER getting intravenous meds to help with a debilitating migraine that had been going on for about 6 hours. It was her second on a week. Praise the Lord, they gave her an MRI, which had not been done since her injury and EVERYTHING looked perfect. This was a huge relief to me, because she has had so many head issues since her injury, I was starting to think something more serious may be going on. The ER did refer her to a neurologist, so I hope that we can get some answers and she can get some relief. Seeing her in so much pain and not being able to help her is so hard for me. I'm reminding myself that God is good. That God is allowing her to suffer this for some reason and praying it will be used to point her to Christ.
Anyway, I better run! I've got school today and I'm not ready yet!
