Merry Christmas! :)

Hello Everyone!

Brian and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! We have learned a lot over the last 6 years of my health journey, but the biggest lessons learned would be to cherish every moment you have with your friends and family and to be thankful for every blessing no matter what type of package it arrives in. No matter how many times, I hear the Christmas story, I am still in awe that my loving heavenly Father would humble himself to come down to earth as a baby. I can imagine the overwhelming joy that Mary and Joseph felt as they held their precious son for the first time that night. Little did they know that this gift of joy would later make the greatest sacrifice for each one of us. It is our prayer that you experience God's gift in a new way this season. Seek God, and you won't be disappointed!

I found the song by Mercy Me called "Joseph's Lullaby". It's been out awhile, but I just heard it on the radio this week. It's such a sweet reminder of God's love and constant provision. He cares about each and every little detail in our lives. Remember, to listen to the song you will need to push pause on my music player at the bottom of my blog.



This isn't going to be too long because it's 5am in the morning, and I need to work in about 10 minutes. It's early, but I praise God for the opportunity to teach virtually. :) In my last blog post, I requested prayer for Brian and I as we were going to be making some big decisions about treatment. We are excited to say that God definitely made it clear the path we should take for the time being.

We have decided to stop all antibiotic therapy at this point in time. We are going to be doing acupuncture more often. For me, acupuncture seems to be helping the most. I can literally feel it working during my appointment. Afterwards, we see nothing but positive changes. This was a difficult decision to make after 2 1/2 years of therapy and stopping before I have reached a state of wellness. However, the drugs were doing more harm than good, and we felt God leading us in a different direction which was affirmed by many Godly individuals.

Two Saturdays ago, we went to our church's healing prayer rooms and sought prayer for my health. It was a wonderful experience, but we didn't notice a miraculous healing. That was okay because we are trusting God that he will heal me in His time. Over the last two weeks, God has guided and directed us down the path we have chosen. We feel at peace with our decision, and it seems like God is really working. I have been off antibiotics for about 3 weeks now, and I am still doing good. This was the first mile stone that we had to get past. The second one is the six-week mark. That is when I crashed the last time. That should be about the time we are traveling to San Francisco to see my Lyme doctor. So, we are hoping and praying we can walk into that appointment with an amazing testimony of what the Lord has done in my body. My doctor is not a believer, so it would be such an incredible opportunity for him to see what kind of God we serve!

In some ways, it's been kind of nice to let go and just let God work. However, in other ways, it's been a battle dealing with the unknowns of what will happen if I don't take the medication. I am learning that it's a minute by minute surrender. Just about the time I start to fear, I remember God's truths and His promises drown out the uncertainty. It's been challenging, but I have to say I am happier than I have been in a long time. It has taken me a long time to learn not to base my joy and happiness on my circumstances, but now that I have learned that lesson, I wouldn't want it to be any other way.

So, we would just ask that you would really be praying for us over the next few weeks. Please pray specifically that I can stay off antibiotics and other meds, and that I will keep improving. Of course, we would gladly welcome a miraculous healing too! :) We are believing God that He can help us have victory over this disease! We treasure all of the support we have received. Please know you are such a blessing to us. Merry Christmas friends!

Christmas is getting closer... :)

Hello folks! I didn't realize it's been so long since I updated this blog. We have experienced kind of a bumpy ride lately, so time seems to even fly by faster than it normally does. Christmas is coming soon! Are you so excited??!! Brian and I finished all of our Christmas shopping and mailed all of the packages. By the time we paid all the postage, we decided that was yet another reason to move closer to family. :) No, we are not looking at moving anytime soon, but it is a long term goal of ours to get back to the Midwest. We actually miss the snow! :) For now though, God is working on our contentment. Brian has an amazing job and the allergy level is very low in the desert. Plus, my doctor is in CA, and at this point, I am too sick to fly. So, we are in Tucson for the time being. We will miss all of our family and friends this Christmas. So, please know you will be in our thoughts and prayers! We pray that God would bless each one of you this holiday season.

We have had a big praise! We found a local amazing Physician Assistant who is willing to work with my Lyme doctor. She is very attentive, brilliant and believes in Chronic Lyme. We are SO thankful! She didn't freak out or question our judgement when we told her about my health journey. God is SO good! We are praising him for this blessing as we really needed someone locally that we could trust and rely on for emergencies and other issues not directly related to Lyme. We have been praying for someone like this for so long. Yay God! :)

Okay, now onto our update. Let's see...I am actually currently off antibiotics. I have been off for two weeks. I am doing pretty good Lyme infection-wise. We haven't noticed any of those types of symptoms pop up. The reason why we had to get off antibiotics is that my stomach and intestines just couldn't take it anymore. I was having constant pain in those two areas, and struggling a lot with Candida. So, we took a break. During this break, Brian and I have talked a lot about where we want to go from here. It seems that we are at a progress stand-still with the antibiotics. We have a new one to try, so that could help us move forward, but we are not sure. At the same time, the drugs seem to be reaping havoc on my system. My kidneys and liver are starting to show signs of not being happy, and obviously, we now have a big digestive tract issue. My Lyme doctor has advised us to only stay off antibiotics about a couple more days just long enough to get some supplements in me to help heal my digestive tract (which I will probably be allergic to), and to start a new antifungal (we think the last one really set my stomach issues off). However, Brian and I are really seeking the Lord about what to do.

Awhile back, I was reading 2 Chronicles 16 because it was a part of my daily devotional. At this time, Brian and I were just starting to talk about what we wanted to do for treatment. As I was reading, verse 12 seemed to pop out at me. It was talking about a king who was very ill with a serious disease. It said "Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord’s help but turned only to his physicians." Boy did that give me a "spiritual slap". Over the years, I have asked for prayer for my healing, but I can't say I have honestly prayed myself. I pray for other people and believe God for their healing, but personally, I never sought God in prayer for my own healing. Sad isn't it? I guess I just felts selfish doing so. During these years, I have done what this king did. I have sought a TON of different doctors, done research on the best treatment protocols etc. I never actually just stopped and relied upon my Savior as my only source of help.

As a result, Brian and I have been really seeking God what our next step should be. This past Saturday, we went to the "healing rooms" for prayer at our local church. It was wonderful to be prayed over, and even though we didn't experience a miraculous healing, we aren't going to give up! We believe God has the power to heal, and that He will do it in His time. We are going to be persistent!

So, I guess that is where we are. We could really use your prayer to decide what to do next. We are highly suspicious that my stomach and body just won't tolerate antibiotics anymore. One of my doctors suggested getting a picc to do the IV route (to bypass the digestive tract), but if insurance won't pay for it, that is not an option for us. We just don't have that kind of cash flow. We have some major decisions to make. Our big one is do we just stay off antibiotics until we see signs of me crashing to let my gut heal and to give God a chance to work or do we get back on in a couple of days? We have discussed about just seeing what acupuncture will do to help my body since I usually make so much progress via that treatment method. However, we are concerned that I will crash and we will undo the headway we have made so far. Ugh! So many decisions! :P Please just be praying that God would make everything so clear.

Also, if you could please be praying for my stomach. I am in a lot of pain, and we are not totally sure of the cause. I ended up in the ER last Friday evening, but they weren't sure what the cause was without doing more in-depth outpatient testing. My local PA has suggested we might need to investigate this further with an ultrasound and a GI scope, but we are going to see what happens in the next week or so. Please pray for complete healing in this area.

Well that's it for now! We have an appointment in San Francisco with my Lyme doctor on January 13th, but I will try to update before then. Have a blessed holiday season!