In Sickness and in Health....

As I think back to the last year, there has been so many memories made and lessons learned.  And in reality, with all of life's changes and events, it has been extremely difficult to keep in touch with all our friends and family.  So, with that in mind, we now officially have a family blog!  Even though everybody seems to be on Facebook these days, this seems like a better way to share with people what is really going on in our life.  My hope is that in the months ahead, we can share with loved ones what we are up to, recall memories of the past year, and share lessons we have learned along the way. 

I just now feel like I am able to start returning calls, write thank you notes, and reconnect with people.  It seems like the last year has been marked by both incredible celebrating and just reacting to pressures of life.  It isn't that we have over committed ourselves in busyness.  Rather, there have been a lot of things that have presented themselves in our life that have required a lot of our attention and emotions and time.  However, I must add that, although these things that have made it difficult to stay in touch with everybody, they have allowed us to draw closer to each other as newlyweds and to our Savior together.  And for that we are so, so thankful.

So.....where do I begin?!?!? :)

To be honest, it seems like more than 9 months ago that Caleb and I exchanged our vows, Easter morning, on the beaches of Hawaii.  We had an intimate ceremony with a small number of family and friends.  In one word....it was simply "perfect."  I cannot think of a more perfect way for us to begin our marriage, than remembering what Christ did for us. 

However, the week of our wedding was a foreshadowing of the year ahead, in regards to our health.  Unfortunately, I had mono and Caleb was in a neck brace, with acute pain from a neck injury when we were in Hawaii.  We laugh thinking about it now....but one of these days we will have to go back for a second honeymoon, when we both feel up to it. :) 

It took me months to recover from mono...way longer than I anticipated.  It was probably the end of summer before I started feeling more myself.  But that was when things went from okay to worse....

I ended up having to see a breast cancer specialist to test me for cancer, to check on a lump that was found.  To say that this was emotional is an understatement, being that it was the cancer that took my mom's life.  Simultaneously, I had an unusual lump on my throat that I was told I needed surgery for.  And when I had an ultrasound on that lump, it came back inconclusive as to what it was. 

At the same time, my strong husband started having his own health issues.  To appreciate the severity of Caleb's issue, you must learn a little of his story.  When he was in college, he was a football athlete.  He thrives in competition and sports.  But he ended up going from a star football player in college, to using a walker to get to class, and eventually his life consisted of using a cane to get from his bed to the bathroom.  After seeing so many doctors during his college years, he would be left with an undiagnosed condition that would result in acute joint swelling, that would jump from joint to joint.  It is hard to explain how severe the swelling is, except to say that it is deformative and when he flares up, he loses use of that joint for months.  But God used this crippleness to bring him back to Himself during that time.  And it is what makes my sweet husband so amazing....he has been humbled and broken by the Lord, and is now the most grateful person you will ever meet.  The thing is, Caleb seemed to be better the couple years before I met him...he really hadn't had a flare-up in a while...until this last September.  Below are a couple pictures of his knee recently, with about 200 cc units of fluid.

Since September, we have taken Caleb to the doctor on average every two weeks, to have his knee drained.  Sometimes he is able to have decent mobility, just a little limp.  Other times he has needed me AND a cane to get to the next room.  In fact, the day after my surgery he was in a wheelchair taking me to my follow-up appointment.  We laughed walking into the hospital, me with a tube coming out of my throat and bandages across my neck, and him in a wheelchair.  We joked it would make for a great first Christmas photo! haha!

Which brings me back to my health issues again.... To sum it up, I had throat surgery the week of Christmas.  They ended up taking out a double lobed thyroglossal duct cyst.  It is a pretty rare condition...but I have probably had it since embryo.  The doctor is very glad we got it out when he did because it was starting to create complications.  But, thankfully, neither lump in my body was cancer!  And I am better!!  I have a little scar...but thankfully Caleb thinks scars are cool.  hahaha! :)

So, now we are focusing on Caleb.  I cannot tell you how thankful we are for the doctor God led us to.  Dr. Kaluza is an amazing Christian man, who truly cares for Caleb.  He has recently diagnosed him with a condition called "psoriatic arthristis".  It is hard to know if this truly is what he has, since it is a condition diagnosed through process of elimination.  But, we are so hopeful!  Caleb is on a pretty potent drug (it is actually used on cancer patients) that suppresses his immune system.  Also, he was recently prescribed prednisone.  The prednisone has really helped the flare-ups and has allowed him to walk much, much better.  Last week he was able to straighten his leg for the first time in months.  So, if nothing else, he is walking better and it has given us a little "break" emotionally.  Hopefully the prednisone gives him enough of a jump start to stop the pattern of flare-ups and the other drug helps in prevention.  We are also pursuing testing for other conditions as well, since the diagnosis is not concrete.

I do not write all this to make anybody feel sorry for us in any way though!!!  We are SO BLESSED! Wow, we are learning so many lessons and God is working in such amazing ways!  And really that is what we want to share with everybody in this blog.  We are just two simple people, with a simple life, but who are experiencing so much peace that comes from God Himself.  I am literally thinking of so many things I have been learning that I can't wait to write about.

But for now, I will just say this.............I remember the years after mom died, my Dad would often say "You only experience God's grace to the measure you need it."  And I would tell people how joy and trials come together...and you really can only experience that unbelievable, unexplainable joy if you have been broken.  Well, this year we are learning that is a new way. 


We are getting to put our vow of  "in sickness and in health" into practice right away. :)  I have been sick so much this year, and Caleb has literally needed me to help him function.  I keep telling people that it makes me think of those cute, elderly couples that just appreciate each other so much cause they have been through so much together and nobody but they know how deep their love goes as a result....well, I feel like Caleb and I are in a small way already that close BECAUSE of this.   AND we are learning to trust God in new ways together.  It is actually a special time, when we take a step back from the pressures of it all.

It just shows that the joys of life, and sorrows, sometimes just can't be separated.  But we all need perspective....to measure our life by the blessings God gives us, and not by the sorrow. 

We are so, so, so thankful for those of you who have PRAYED for us, LOVED us, SERVED us, and SUPPORTED us!!  In a way, I feel like we are coming out of this.  We are praying he doesn't flare-up again for a long, long time.  And when he comes out of it, we are going to make a "monument" to remind us of how faithful God has been to us.  (Just what that "monument" will be is will be explained in a future post...I am excited about it.) :)

So, for now, we are just thankful.  That pretty much sums up our hearts and life.  So thankful........