The month of February has flown by and brought to our home the feeling of an airport terminal. Rucksacks, duffel bags, and carry-ons crowd floor space; misty-eyed hugs goodbye and joyful bear-hug reunions.
Son Ramsey left on the 2nd of February for 2+ weeks of IRT (Innovative Readiness Training in Army lingo) down in Yuma, Arizona. Task Force Diamondback is the building of the border fence (more like a wall) on the Arizona/Mexico border. Ramsey spent his 12-hour shifts welding together steel panels that make up the 18.5' x 9' sections of the fence.
He came back to us Saturday, the 18th, tanned, peeling, and freezing. Two weeks in the desert was enough to thin his blood -- 'course, the fact that it was -25* with windchill ten degrees colder didn't help. Ramsey wasn't the only one shivering around here!
While he was gone, his dad left on the 17th to fly to New Orleans a part of a short-term missions group sent by our church to help victims of Katrina. Mark and the rest of the group will be there for eight days, returning home in the wee morning hours on the 26th. The group is spending their days mucking out houses; tearing out rotten, molded wood, drywall, carpet, etc.; re-roofing; and cleaning up all the debris in people's yards.
We tend to think of floods as water. Not so. We are talking sludge, folks. Nasty, black, and stinking. Seven months after Katrina, the devastation is still mind boggling. The mission team has set up a blog site, complete with photos: http://conovermissions.blog.com Check it out. Seeing this kind of suffering sure puts our own problems in perspective.
We are thankful Mark was still able to go on this trip after separating his shoulder in a snowmobile accident last month. God has been so good. I was somewhat dismayed though, to learn Mark is roofing down there. (see Wednesday's photos on missions blog -- white T-shirt & camo hat, for readers who wouldn't recognize him). He's supposed to be doing something like supervising or running a Bobcat. But that's typical of Mark -- expects no special treatment; gonna do whatever needs to be done. We're praying daily for the team's safety, health, rest, and opportunities to share the love of Christ with people they come in contact with.
So anyway, it's been kind of different for our household with all the coming and going. Mark and Ramsey will not have seen each other for almost a month by the time Mark gets back from Louisiana. I am looking forward to having both my guys back home and underfoot again.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
"SHOULDER BONE CONNECTED TO THE..."
I've been meaning to blog for quite some time but, circumstances being what they are, I just have not found the right time. Ideally, time without interruption is best for me to write and there has been scarce little of that lately. Let me briefly explain:
January 19th, my husband, Mark, was injured in a snowmobile accident. He wasn't going fast or doing anything foolish...it was a freak thing. He was turning off the road into a driveway and the carbide on the bottom of a ski caught as he hit the brake to swing the rear of the machine, flipping the sled and throwing Mark off. He landed on the hard, icy road taking the full impact on his left shoulder and suffering a 3rd degree AC shoulder separation. In layman's terms, he tore all the ligaments holding the main shoulder bones in place -- the collarbone was shoved up and displaced by the top of the humerous being driven up into the shoulder socket. If this had happened in soft snow he wouldn't have been injured, but he hit hard on the ice and that did it.
We saw two orthopedic specialists. Neither recommended surgery and that was alright with us. Mark began physical therapy last week, is doing pretty well, but is unable to work. Being that the accident was not work-related, there was no workmans' compensation. His employer has subsequently laid him off, as they have no work he is able to do in his present condition. So we are collecting unemployment. It is about half of what he used to bring home, but we are thankful to have something steady to work with...I like a challenge.
Good thing I do, because there have been more challenges in this than just the financial aspect. It is a challenge to not worry, to be patient with a man sitting on the couch in pain and micro-managing my every move, to not get my feelings hurt when he doesn't listen to my advice or admonitions, to help our kids deal with their feelings of stress and anxiety, to find time for myself to be refreshed and renewed...to remember that our names are written on the palms of God's hands.
Through it all we have been amazed at how God is working in our lives: growing us in our faith, giving us opportunities to see His provision for our family, and proving His faithfulness. God is good -- ALL THE TIME.
January 19th, my husband, Mark, was injured in a snowmobile accident. He wasn't going fast or doing anything foolish...it was a freak thing. He was turning off the road into a driveway and the carbide on the bottom of a ski caught as he hit the brake to swing the rear of the machine, flipping the sled and throwing Mark off. He landed on the hard, icy road taking the full impact on his left shoulder and suffering a 3rd degree AC shoulder separation. In layman's terms, he tore all the ligaments holding the main shoulder bones in place -- the collarbone was shoved up and displaced by the top of the humerous being driven up into the shoulder socket. If this had happened in soft snow he wouldn't have been injured, but he hit hard on the ice and that did it.
We saw two orthopedic specialists. Neither recommended surgery and that was alright with us. Mark began physical therapy last week, is doing pretty well, but is unable to work. Being that the accident was not work-related, there was no workmans' compensation. His employer has subsequently laid him off, as they have no work he is able to do in his present condition. So we are collecting unemployment. It is about half of what he used to bring home, but we are thankful to have something steady to work with...I like a challenge.
Good thing I do, because there have been more challenges in this than just the financial aspect. It is a challenge to not worry, to be patient with a man sitting on the couch in pain and micro-managing my every move, to not get my feelings hurt when he doesn't listen to my advice or admonitions, to help our kids deal with their feelings of stress and anxiety, to find time for myself to be refreshed and renewed...to remember that our names are written on the palms of God's hands.
Through it all we have been amazed at how God is working in our lives: growing us in our faith, giving us opportunities to see His provision for our family, and proving His faithfulness. God is good -- ALL THE TIME.
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