4 days and counting

Four days until we begin our journey to SC to see Dr. J, a wonderful Lyme Disease specialist. Over the past few months it has been encouraging to hear how great this physician is as many of my friends that I have met through online Lyme Disease support groups are traveling to see him. It confirms again and again why we chose to see this specialist even though the journey itself will be difficult and definitely not convenient.

We have had some praises! I am adjusting to the apartment and it seems to not be bothering me as much anymore. Yay God! I have been doing chiropractor acupressure (kind of like acupuncture but w/out all the needles, lol) treatments for my allergies and those seem to be working to lessen the intensity of my allergic reactions. I am SO thankful that God is using that. Who would have thought a non-western medicine approach would be so beneficial. We thank the Lord so much that he led us to her and that her treatments are giving me somewhat of a relief.

Brian is looking forward to a vacation even though most of it will be spent driving in the car, lol. His bookkeeping job is going well at his grocery store and he is adjusting to the strange sleep schedule. They are impressed with how quick he has picked up on all of the details but I wouldn't have expected anything less. He is such a hard worker and is very talented.

Grad school update... I will be submitting my application for graduate school to the University of Colorado on July 20th. It's a very lengthy admission process as I have had to track down former professors and other professionals to be references and write numerous essays. I was told by my enrollment advisor that she will try to push my application through for review for fall admission, but she can't promise anything since I am past the application deadline. I am just so excited that I found this program and that they would even consider me for the fall. I would love to start in the fall of 2009, so if you guys could pray that everything will go through, that would be awesome! If not, I can start in the spring, I just hate waiting, lol.

We had kind of a glitch in Brian's financial aid for his last semester at the U of A. Apparently, since he already has an undergraduate degree, he hit the maximum number of credit hours allowed for financial aid this past semester. We were counting on that money to help us afford his schooling. He met with his academic advisor today and they put together an appeal. His advisor said they should be able to get it approved, but we won't know anything for about a month. If you could just pray that it would go through and that we would be allowed to take financial aid out for his final semester. We know God will provide and we are trusting in Him to work this out.

Now onto our big trip. Brian and I will make sure to update everyone through this blog periodically on our journey. We have some really major prayer requests as we start out:

-Please pray that I will be able to tolerate the new rental car with my sensitivities.
-Pray for safe travel.
-Pray that the hotel room in Iriving, Texas (our half-way point) and also the hotel in Atlanta, GA will work with us in order to provide the best environment for me to stay on. The one in TX is a bed and breakfast that I found that was recommended to us by other people with very bad chemical sensitivities. So that one, we think will be okay. However, the one in Atlanta is a regular hotel who said they would try not to spray any room deodorizer for 3 days before I come in our room. The windows also open. We are praying that with those two things, that it will be a safe place for me to stay. We never know until we get there.
-Please pray for an extra measure of rest. We have broken the driving trip into two 15-hour days in order to avoid staying in more hotels than we have to but we have lots of early mornings Our schedule is as follows...

Saturday, July 11th-leave super early to begin driving to Irving, TX
Sunday, July 12th-leave TX in AM and arrive very late in Atlanta, GA
Monday, July 13th-rest and see my sis who lives in Atlanta
Tuesday, July 14th-Get up at 3am to drive to Fort Mill, SC for 8:00am appt.
Wednesday, July 15th-Leave GA in AM and drive to Irving, TX
Thursday, July 16th-Leave TX for HOME!!! :0)

-Pray for my appointment on July 14th with Dr. J. Please pray that his office will not bother me sensitivity-wise and that I will be able to tolerate the 2-hour appointment. Please pray for Dr. J and that he will have wisdom on the kind of treatment plan he should develop for us.

Well, that is all I can think of right now. We look at this trip and there are so many things that seem like huge mountains for us to climb, however we know that God will be with us every step of the way as our protector, our provider and our source of peace. Thank you for your prayer support. We will update you for sure by Sunday once we hit Atlanta, maybe sooner! :)