A Praise

    About four and a half weeks ago, we were down at my in-laws, spending the day together. We had just gotten home a week or two before from our trip to Pennsylvania, and the kids wanted to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma. Towards evening, the guys came in from work to eat supper. They had been welding all day. Nate sat down to eat some pizza. After he finished eating, he suddenly got a headache and started feeling really bad. In fact, so bad that I had to drive him home. He had to walk real slow and felt very dizzy. My sister drove my vehicle home.     We get home, and Nate goes back to take a shower. He ends up getting very sick. He threw up a few times and just kept saying how the room was spinning. This lasted for a few days. I had a suspicion he had vertigo and looked it up and sure enough, all his symptoms matched. He called and got an appointment with the doctor.
    We went into the doctor and got a prescription which was to help with the dizziness. Over the weekend, Nate slowly started to feel better.  He was in the house a whole week before he felt well enough to venture outside and check any fields. The world had stopped spinning, but he still couldn't turn his head quickly from side to side. For any of you who know my husband, it was very hard for him to be down that long. There is ground to be worked and barley to be planted, so he was chomping at the bit to get back to work.
    Life went on for another two weeks or so. One a week ago, Tuesday, he was down at the shop, talking to our fertilizer rep when his vision went spotty. This last for about an hour. For fifteen minutes of this hour, he also had difficulty speaking. In his mind, he knew exactly what he wanted to say, but when he would try to verbalize it, something different would come out. This, of course, greatly concerned us, so he called the doctor again, and the doctor told Nate that he was going to request an MRI to be done.
   At the thought of having an MRI done, my thoughts when to all kinds of places. The doctor had told Nate that he would be looking for lesions or aneurysms. When I heard the "A" word, I felt very worried. They kill people suddenly, without warning.  When we went to bed that night, I asked Nate if he was worried, and he said no. Then he asked me if I was worried and I said yes.
   I think it's human nature to have your mind go over all the possibilities. Especially the potential of raising your four young children alone. And I must confess, I have a VERY overactive imagination to begin with. So, on my drive over to Sierra Vista on Wednesday to pick up the request for the MRI, I had it out with myself.  
   One thing I have learned is that we have to take every thought captive. By allowing my thoughts to run wild, I was giving in to fear. But God has said that He hasn't given us a spirit of fear. I needed to say out loud, "No matter what happens, I WILL TRUST YOU." And I said it out loud. A lot.
    I picked up the paperwork and ran over to the clinic to schedule Nate's MRI for Friday. That was last Friday, at 3:30. He and I, and Landon went for the appointment. It lasted about 45 minutes. Because it was so late in the day, the doctor said the results probably wouldn't be faxed over to our doctor until Monday morning.
    The body of Christ is an amazing thing. We had so many people praying for us. It was awesome. In our Sunday morning service, we had a special time of prayer and some of the elders and deacons prayed for Nate. And a sweet lady, who has had her own share of trials and tribulations health wise, came over to pray with me. While she prayed for me, the one thing I heard her say a few times was, "Oh that we would be careful to praise you." Yes, we need to praise God when times are good, when they are falling apart, even when we don't know the next step. We must always have an attitude of praise and thankfulness.
    Monday went by and by 4:30 that afternoon we still hadn't heard anything. Nate and I had figured that if we didn't hear anything first thing, there must not be anything too serious going on. So I called the office late that afternoon and talked to a nurse. She said Nate's MRI came back normal. I felt an immediate sense of relief. She said that what Nate has is called vestibular migraines. We needed to schedule a follow up appointment to discuss what that is and what can be done about it.
    So, that is where we are. I feel incredibly humbled and blessed by God's faithfulness and love. I felt His love so much through our friends and family, and their prayers, emails, texts and phone calls. I know there are many who hope for a good report and, instead, are given a much different one. But that doesn't mean that God isn't faithful or loving. He supplies us for each day, whatever comes our way. He will never leave or forsake us. His mercies are new every morning. And He will give us the strength to make it through.