Time for an Update (this is long, fair warning)  

Posted by Heather




Well, first. I now have a name for the photography company. "Times Gone By" is its name, if you know anyone who needs a photographer feel free to give them my name and such. I have business cards too which makes me happy beyond happy.

okay now for the real purpose of this.

This has been a long time coming. Months in fact, however, I am just now writing anything that deals with this.

It started in October. October 9th to be exact. I was on my last day of Fall Break from NGU and decided to head over to the High School to chat it up with the May and some old friends. Ben was at my house, but I let him sleep and I just went over by myself (i mean he didn't really know them so that would have been weird). Anyways, I had been there for a bit and sat through singers and then she and I were left to discuss the ways of the world and all. All of a sudden my phone rang. Not that this is unusual but people don't generally call me in the morning. So I took it out and looked and saw it was my dad. I answered it and did the usually salutations of a phone call. On the other end I heard a man, a slightly depleated grown man talking to me. He asked where I was and what I was doing. I answered and then heard an unexpected next few sentences. "Well, get home as soon as you can okay?" "sure, what's up?" "Well you know I had my doctor's appointment today, well we were headed back and the doctor called back with tests and I'm in instage renal failure." A million thoughts ran through my mind during that next few minutes. I had never heard of anything involving kidneys as renal, but i quickly got the memo. They told me to get home as soon as I could because he was to be immediately admitted to the hospital. Well I quickly took my leave, walked as fast as I could (i live RIGHT RIGHT next to the HS) and as I turned the corner to my neighborhood ran into my parents leaving. They drove me to the house and I went and woke Ben up and got us there as soon as possible.

My dad had been sick for just over a month. High fevers, aches, pain, pretty much bedriden. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. They tested him for everything from Leukemia to Lime Disease. All tests came back negative. Finally our doctor sent him to a Hemotologist. She is who found his problem. My dad had Anti GBM Antibody in his system. This disease is rare beyond rare, 1 in a million men...what's that tell you about my dad? It is extremely rare yet is carried in very ordinary objects like hairspray.

When Ben and I got to the hospital that day I walked in to a room full of my family and family friends. That was unexpected but very well received. We sat in the ER for hours and hours and just waited. It was pretty much an all day thing. He was finally given a room and set up for weeks of testing. It was discovered until later that the Anti GBM was what the culprit was. It was still unknown about certain cancers and stuff. We didn't know for about a week and a half of what we were dealing with. It was a constant battle. The night of the admittance once everyone left Ben and I stayed for a bit and talked and just tried to help. As we were leaving my dad looked at him and said "take care of her, i can't right now." Ben agreed and we left. I got in the car and didn't make it out of the parking lot. I bawled. I seriously broke down.

The next month consisted of going to and from school seeing my dad and doing what i could to keep up with studying. We finally heard that my dad did in fact have the anti GBM thing and they transferred him from St. Francis to Greenville Memorial because they were better equipped to handle that type of thing. From there it was Photophleuresis and Dialysis to get all the liquid out of his system. Soon he was able to leave the hospital and get home and back to a somewhat, however not really, normal life.

My dad's life now consists of 17 pills a day, 3 days a week of Dialysis treatments and a diet that sometimes isn't too pleasant. At leat for now that is what it consists of.

This weekend we went to Charleston to go to MUSC for my dad's transplant meetings. My dad is almost officially on the transplant list. At any point in time my parents could get a call and be told to be in Charleston within hours. They have to leave, I stay here and until 2 weeks after the transplant be down there by themselves. This has been a whirlwind of a journey.

During this journey my brother has been hospitalized, my aunt broke her arm, my other aunt her foot, my cousin in law his foot, my cousin married her Ben, my mom is stressed, Ben and I parted ways, God has brought a lot of new people into my life, and taken some as well and still God has been amazingly sovereign through it all. There is not one thing that has happened that it is not obvious that God is in control. In that there is peace. In that there is hope. In that there is...Love.

John 14:27 says: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

I love that verse because it can apply to ever single situation that you find yourself in.

so you most likely, if you have gotten this far, are wondering why i decided to do this now. Well, i must confess, i have a hard time with that whole bearing one anothers troubles thing. I can listen to you and talk with you about yours all day long, however it is hard for me to be vulnerable and let people, all people minus like5 really in and know what's going on in my life. so if you have read this you now know the big happenings of the past few months. As my amazing roommate always tell me "you know you don't always have to be strong right?" Well it might be sinking in now, so take my vulnerabilty nugget for what you will. and pray that all will go well with my dad and his transplant. and that he will have patience...that seems to be something he is lacking with right now concerning this whole thing. Pray for my mom, she might not have to have the surgery but she definitely needs to feel God's hand on her during this.


Okay. I think i am done.

Really? Really?  

Posted by Heather

I hung out with one of the dearest people in my life on Friday night. She is truly one of the most inspiring individuals I know. Her walk with Christ, her true friendship, and her love for the simple this is something I have always admired. She has helped me through many things since knowing her and she has truly been a blessing to my life and to the many others she has had contact with. She moved to Boulder, Colorado on Saturday for the summer. I know God will use her to do great things and to set a path for herself. 


Every time I hang out with her I always feel inspired, refreshed, as if God himself has met with me that day. I know that sounds like a lot and when she reads this, which I found out the other day she did, she will most likely not understand why I am writing this about her. Hence, the reason I am. 

I have been learning in the past few weeks to not take people for granted, to appreciate your time with them, to stop the superficiality in all relationships and start caring for others on a level that is in no way earthly. I have realized that I have a deep passion for youth programs. I want to help and strive for better. I want to see God glorified and God alone. I want to have relationships with friends that are Holy and Just. I want to be a friend that others know they can always come to no matter what. I want to be a wife to someone who is my best friend first and husband second. I want others to see God in me. I want to help inspire my children to be imitators of Christ and love others and be compassionate. I want my life to be a reflection of the Love I have been shown. I strive for that. I fail at that. I ask your help in keeping me accountable. 

In Santus Real's song "Whatever You're Doing" I have found a song that I feel completely resounds with me. It sums up how I feel in starting anew and letting God take full control of everything, the way it should have been from the start. It's a tough road and chaotic, yet Peaceful. Here's the song. It says, 

It's time for healing time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
And all I can do is surrender

(Chorus)
Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time for a milestone
Time to begin again
Reevaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will
Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is You want from me
I give everything I surrender...
To...

(Chorus)

Time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This *is* something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly
Something Heavenly

It's time to face up
Clean this old house
Time *to* breathe in and let everything out"

Please Glorify God first. Pray for acceptance in the trials, and even in the peaceful times. Live life to Glorify Him, the one who created you, created your life path, created you to do greater things than sit on your hands. Take on this mentality, "May the vision of You be the death of me."