An Omaha Journey

As many of you know Steven was blind for three years. It has been a long exhausting journey ripe with blessings and miracles as the years since his sight in one eye was restored.


In December of 2012 his, what I deemed, bad eye had a severe infection, so severe the eye had to be removed. Four visits to the doctor in two weeks, all before Christmas was painful yet rewarding at the same time. He was devastated that the eye had to be removed and that a miracle wouldn’t happen in that eye, but it was not to be so, his eye was removed and we celebrated Christmas joyfully and appreciative of all the many blessings that we had been given.

Fast forward to April 2, 2013.

Yesterday we were scheduled for his appointment to get a prosthetic eye in place of just a clear lens he’s had in place since the removal surgery. What a blessed journey it turned out to be. The sun was shining, nary any wind, and we had a safe journey both ways. It sure takes off a lot of stress on my back with him being able to drive half the journey!

We spent three hours in the office. Steven had thought that we’d have to kill three hours time while his eye was being made, but no, we had to remain at the office, and we got to experience the making of a prosthetic eye. We watched as the eye, step-by-step was being made! It was an awesome experience to say the least.

We had thirty-minute intervals in the office then the waiting room while the doctor made, and gently painted the eye to look amazingly like his ‘good’ eye. As we waited in the waiting room, we had a God moment while there. A woman who was having her (prosthetic) eye cleaned, smiled softly and announced, “It’s my turn.”

Her husband sat and told us of her story, telling us how she had come to have a prosthetic eye and he went on to ask us questions. When she came out of the docs, she too sat and told us of her journey. Strangely, (God working?) the man had been born and raised in Minden! That is where we live, coincidentally. They now lived twenty minutes from the Omaha office but it felt like such a connecting moment to God. He went on to say, “Sometimes people need to hear another's story so they can understand they’re not alone.”

The woman surprisingly has no restrictions on her license (like Steven has) except she must wear her glasses. She can even drive at night (but she says she don’t like to, like many of us.) I found that interesting. She also noted that she would be 80 years old next month! We shook hands and parted and I think we all felt blessed by the meeting.

Now keep in mind, this is an eye care facility. Most people were there getting eye check-ups and what not. The Ocularists is only there once a month because they reside in Missouri.

We went back into the office for her to finish painting the eye. The practice is a father daughter team, and today the daughter Corinne was making Stevens eye. The whole process took every ounce of three hours time.

The father came in to watch also at times and we chatted and he immediately picked up on my East coast ‘accent’ which had us talking about seafood and his visiting a fine restaurant right down the street from where I grew up. A very personable duo these two.

The moment came where the placement of the eye was at hand. She gently placed it in the socket and voila, Steven’s eye is so beautiful! For years that eye had been losing color so I haven’t really seen both his eyes in sync for far too long. When she placed his eye in, I cried; tears of joy began streaming down my face as this mans face now came alive! It was amazing to see two eyes, exactly the same color and it felt like he was seeing me for the first time.

I am in awe of such a wonderful, spirit-filled journey. If you did not know of our story, you would not ever know that Steven has a prosthetic eye.

We are so blessed. Even our truck, whose transmission has been puttering along and giving us trouble, held out for the long six and a half hour journey. Maybe it was the awesome audiobook we listened to “What we talk about when we talk about God”. It was a breathtaking book by minister Rob Bell who clarified an awful lot for me.

And today as a bonus, my back doesn’t even feel like it had been on a long journey.

What an amazing God we have. He listens, hears our prayers, and answers. Praise Be to God!!!

A Good Report

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward

THANK YOU!

Well Sunday was a morning of praise then the usual coming home to make a nice breakfast for us to share, then football.

I’ve been so busy and lost in thoughts these past few weeks I find myself on a path in the woods, trying to find my way back and I feel that only a night under the stars will bring me back home where I need to be.

Monday I rose and took Adam to school where he had a power-point presentation for his art class. He wants to be a graphic designer and this year is about honing that talent he has. I support him all the way because I don’t believe that it’s all about sports, or taking the trash out and all the mundane things Adam does do, it’s about ART, and that is where I need to focus on him at.

Tuesday was the Lions Club attendance. They got to see where their dollars went in bringing about this miracle. Yes, all glory was given to God, but when people shell out money, they want to see where it has gone and the fruits of their labor. All were pleased to see a walking, talking man that could now SEE them and shake their hands. We left at six and arrived home close to ten. They had a meal and then the meeting, so we stayed for it all, and afterward pictures for the newspaper. They deserve bragging rights because they were pivotal in seeing this through.

Wednesday we found ourselves on another trip into Omaha. We had all our help to get us to the operation but we’re on our own now that we’ve had four trips since then. It does cost gas money and we do need to eat. We made it in good time even with the wind knocking us around a bit, and it was supposed to be rainy but we just had clouds the entire seven hour trip, except for the last ten miles as we neared home.

The doctors words were, “Remarkable healing.” I even heard him say, “Amazing!” once, so that is all good! Those words mean we won’t see him until November 18 th and that will be right here in Kearney. :)

Then there’s me. Yeah I am in here somewhere. My mouth is still sore, I have a hard time eating, I think I have a pinched nerve somewhere causing my limbs to feel numb, and Sunday’s church visit found me stumbling to the ground because my ankle just gave out on me completely.

All this has taken its toll on me and I just need some rest. Sitting out there reading this is the easy part, living it and going through all these changes is another thing. A struggle to find your place in it all, and I know...I’m in here somewhere.

Thank you Mrs. Carol, Mrs. Sue and Jess who all have been a rock solid supporting shoulder. And to everyone else who has supported ME, through this. I send big hugs and thankful prayers. THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Angel always...Godspeed...

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

An Exhausting Week

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
~Johann von Goethe
***

I will get back into my writing blog that you all signed up for but this has been an amazing and an exhaustive week, and my way of relaxing is through writing. My way of releasing tension is through expression of the written word.

The trip into Omaha was over a week ago on Sunday. Little did I know that three trips into Omaha in a week were in store. I know a lot of people like traveling and driving but I’ve never really cared for it that much.

It’s bad enough to face ignorance in town but when you’re driving on the highway, and you’re almost crushed between the car to your left, who isn’t going to budge out of your way because they might miss something life altering wherever it is they are going that two seconds might take that away from them, and the truck to my right barreling from the on ramp plowing almost right into my lap in the drivers seat!

I love Nebraska and am always saying how the people here actually USE their blinkers, because back in Texas as I drove the crazy highway into Dallas, rarely did anyone ever use their blinker. It was always a guessing game as to what the person in the car ahead of you was going to do next. Either cut you off, stay in their lane, or jump four lanes. Texas was a maze of highway!

Here in Nebraska, to get to Omaha, it is a two lane highway until you reach Lincoln where, get this, it has THREE lanes! The speed limit is 75 mph and as much of a speed demon as I can be, on a two lane highway, 75 feels like 120 in a wind tunnel.

Last year when I had an accident and it threw me into a ditch, I had quite the hard time jumping right back into a car the next day and in the succeeding weeks. Every dirt road looked like a monstrous furry caterpillar about to attack, but as the weeks and months passed the caterpillar shrunk and became a tiny snake slithering across the road.

In October of last year, six months after the accident, I barely hit sixty on the highway to Omaha, which made the trip a four hour journey one way, to only be seen by the doctor for five minutes and have to turn around and do the wind-whipped four hours all over again.

This time, since everything worked in God’s time, I was able to make the Omaha trip in 2 hrs. and forty minutes, if we went straight through without stopping to eat! I hit 75 on occasion (to pass) but I was mainly on cruise control at 72 mph and we made excellent timing!

So yeah, three trips into Omaha, an amazing miracle of sight, driving through the pounding rain, chilled to the core of my bones, and then I rise this morning where I can just rest via my writing.

Rest? Me? Darned tootin’!

The Prologue to the Journey ~ Part I

 Ps. 25:3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
***

It all began in the early months of 2008 when I received a call, “Can you drive me to work.” A straight-line wind storm had barreled through north Texas the night before, toppling trees, ripping off rooftop's and making the normal route to work impossible.

Steven had been driving the same route every day but when the route changed, due to the storm he realized, he couldn’t see well enough to get to work by reading the signs. That was the day my world shifted from every day mundane, to you never know what to expect.

Then on September 3 rd, 2008 my life took a big tumble when Steven lost his job, all insurance and any of the benefits that went along with the company. You never realize how important a job is until you walk in and one day, the boss tells you your fired.

Was it because of his sight? Was it because his production had changed due to his sight? I guess we’ll never know and I’m done questioning, “What happened?” All I do know is our world took a topple down the dryer chute, and we got tossed around at the welfare office, the food pantry, and many different and unaccustomed places of necessity.

We were not above asking for help, pride was not our friend and people were not selfish in helping. Actually the response was amazing and could only be attributed by the Supernatural God that we serve. Around every corner as bad news came in, we were one step closer to good news coming in. Days, led into weeks, weeks, months, and not a day went by that a struggle wasn’t like a peeling away of layers of skin, only to find that God was our natural ointment against dryness. 

As the issue of seeing again seemed forced upon our first attempts, as I expected, nothing went right. From the trip into Omaha on a gusty 45 mph windy day, to the doctor giving us a 50/50 prognosis of seeing again, all the way to the trip back to Minden where we met with disappointed faces, and it only served to bring us down more. We sought good news, good everything and the prayer was there but what was missing?

I’ll tell you bluntly. As everyone wanted sight to return, pushed for a positive outcome, prayed for a miracle, I saw around me people taking God out of the equation and putting their wants before His.

God isn’t about praying for what YOU want, He is about humbling yourself to the point of dropping on your knees and begging for mercy all the while praising and rejoicing in, what you might deem, minor steps towards His final goal.

It is never about you, or me it is all about God. Thinking otherwise makes you narrow-minded in your pursuit. When you truly give it all to God, and that means stripping yourself of your wants and needs and sincerely giving it all to God, then and only then will you witness the miracle of the Lord and His blessings!

The wait is over and the new day has literally dawned.

Pss 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

On a personal note...

If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. ~~ Ps 139:9-10 (NLT)

***

Well I know you all are waiting for me to give a little update on me, on a personal note. Tell me you all look forward to it, please?

Well, here I go, dramatics and all! It was a quiet morning just like any other day, I go get myself showered and cleaned before I can get anything done for the day. I step out of the shower to hear voices, off in the distance. I always look skyward, because I think “Wow, God has gotten bold.”

I open the door and creep into the living room, to hear my beau on the phone, saying his thank you and goodbye. “Who was that?” I ask. “Eleanor, says there’s a cornea.” Mr. Smarty pants says as a matter-of -factly, as he goes to sit at the desk. A shock look washed over his face.

My eyes nearly bulged outta my head, thoughts crowded around and began spinning like a carousel on some kind of hyper drug. I felt like shaking my beau and screaming “Tell me more! Tell me more.” But instead I just said, “How do you feel about that?” With him being blind, I can read his facial expressions pretty well, and I could see that this was not the moment to get all aflutter and start babbling. He needed calm and that is what I gave him.

His face said, ‘I’m confused’ but his mouth said, “I don’t know how I feel.” Wow I can read him pretty well, eh? I was about to go dry my hair when a compulsion came over me. ‘We need prayer’. He was sending out emails to our pastors at church and his family, I was busying myself with sending out to my prayer warriors the call for prayer.

By the end of both of our tapping keys, we had reached hundreds of people all gathered to pray for us. The prayers were felt as my body tingled with delight.

Here’s the deal. She (Eleanor) called. Said they had a cornea, but it was in Colorado being tested to see if it was a good cornea. If so, surgery is on Monday. We’ll head to Omaha on Sunday, be at the hospital 5 a.m. Monday, have a follow-up visit Tuesday, and if everything looks good. We may come right home or stay and leave early Wednesday morning. Too early to tell.

But the prayers are strongly needed. Now the confusion begins, chaos ensues. Beau has been so patient throughout these two years. He’s has his bad days, as I think it is understandable if your sight is taken away and you never got a chance to see the very house that you’ve lived in for two years, or the town that you grew up in, or so many other things I can’t even begin to mention.

All I know is this, I’m driving to Omaha. Everything is already taken care of money-wise. The surgery: medicare/medicaid/Lions Club all paid for in advance!! I worry about nothing else because as the day draws near, our food, gas and lodgings will all be paid for too!

God is good...Great even! God bless you all and thank you for your continued prayer. It isn’t over by a long shot, so keep our family in your prayers. 

9:57 a.m.UPDATE NECESSARY: My friends, WE ARE GOING TO OMAHA!!!

Keep the prayers coming!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!

Omaha on hold...

"Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that
weep."Romans 12:15

***

My friends and followers have all been following the story of my beau’s blindness. As you may know, he was scheduled to go back to Omaha again today, but  he canceled the appointment yesterday.

Back in September, we were really excited to find out that the Lion’s Club was willing to pick up the tab. Lion lady told us that they would pay for the visits leading up to and follow-up visits. Excitement gathered as everyone couldn’t wait to hear the good news, that beau would see again!

That September visit didn’t go as planned. We got the news that one eye had shut down completely with no chance of seeing from again. The retina had begun to detach. The right eye, possibilities. The doctor didn’t look too optimistic to me as I sat across the room watching as he studied intently the two eyes. An ultrasound was needed. He said, “If we do the right eye, there’s about a fifty percent chance of success, which isn’t bad, but there are other factors, like this eczema, and your allergies.  I can’t guarantee the transplant will be 100% success or even 60%. Let’s get the ultrasound and I’ll know more.”

We both left the office in silence. My heart ached, and beau said nothing all the way home, except, “Lets eat.” We ate in silence. I could feel the cloud of disappointment lingering, and I had to drive and get us home. Tears kept filling my eyes, but we made it.
Silence.

A month passed and we had the appointment in October for the ultrasound. Hope clutched in our hands! We were in the office ten minutes after a four hour drive, only to turn right back around to go back home. We never saw the doctor, we just saw the lady who does the ultrasound.

Not much time passed and someone from the office called and said that they could operate on the right eye. With the success rate that the doctor had pointed out. Okay, now hope is back. One eye is better than none, even if it’s for one day of sight, this is a go! We were a little excited, but I still felt some form of apprehension on beau’s part. More tests need to be done.

A few days later lion lady called and said, “I hear you’re getting the operation, just let me know the day you go in so I can let my people know.” We hadn’t been given a date to ‘go in’, we were not even told anything to that affect. He was told, “More test are needed but there is potential.”

Mixed communication. Lion lady is saying one thing(we’ll pay it all) others are saying other things (they’ll pay for the op and that’s all) and all this info is rendering beau apprehensive to the point where he just doesn’t even care if he gets this operation. What started off as feeling right, now feels as if everything is going wrong. He's like a pressure cooker about to explode. Too much pressure and *KABOOM*.

Does he want to see again? YES! We all want him to see again. But it is not up to me or anyone else. He’s a grown man and can make his own decisions. I NEVER give my opinion, this is for HIM and him alone to decide. Does he want all this confusion? NO! So he has decided to take matters into his own hands! HE will choose a doctor, go and get their opinion, in April he will have medicare and if this is meant to be, he will have this done.

Is time of the essence? I don’t know what that means. It has been a year and a half, so what is five more months? Will his eye be any healthier in April? Well, there should be as much percentage of success in April as there is today. No one knows! Only the Man Upstairs.

This is a bag of mixed emotions I just wanted to toss out to those who have followed, prayed and stood by in support of us.
 
I Thank You!

It is important to distinguish between opinion and judgment. Opinions open us up, judgments close us down.