December 20

Greetings,

The weather outside is frightful but staying inside is so delightful. One benefit of having the surgery is that I can not shovel or snow blow...oh the poor family...who have to do it now. Not bad for me as I am inside with a cup of hot tea watching them work at clearing the drive and front parking spots.

I way over did it last week and have been paying for it since Thursday. Yea, I know everyone said to take it easy but that is not an easy thing to do when there is so much to be done and so little time to complete it all. Today I went grocery shopping, why do they make stores so HUGE. It seemed to take me forever to get the few items that were needed and John thought that he needed to run in the stores. After slowing him down with the cart, it was a bit better but I needed to take a 2 hour nap when we got home. Next week it will be Brianna and John doing the grocery store dash not me.

The family should be in church tomorrow....if the weather allows for church to be held. I am still wondering why we live here in Michigan...oh yea its the summers right.

The pain is a little better right now. Who would have thought that taking a kidney out of you would cause this much pain. I was not warned about it, but even if I was , nothing would have deterred me from giving Rich the chance for a new life, and I keep thinking that God has led me on this journey so maybe the pain will just make me stronger or ????.

Speaking of Rich, he called me last night and said he had "clinicals" yesterday morning at 8:00. He and Rita left for Grand Rapids at 6:30 a.m. and then it took them 2 plus hours to get back home to Spring Lake, maximum highway speed was 20 mph. I asked him if they listened to and sang along with Christmas carols as they cruised the 96 gateway. He laughed and said no but there were some white knuckles on the way home. He has more clinicals on Monday, pray for good weather and save travel as they make reoccurring tracks to GR a couple of times a week for a while. Other than that the kidney is still doing its wonderful thing and he is looking forward to a full recovery and a more adventurous life.

Please continue to pray for our recoveries and no rejection of the kidney or other bad side effects, we so appreciate and covet all of you.

Blessings
Ingrid