David Update

This past Thursday, David had his follow up appointment with the surgeon. They ran a CAT Scan and did an X-Ray, and David's still waiting on those results.

Apparantly, David has some little blister-like things inside his lungs. He called them "blebs". What happened with the lung collapse, is that one of these blebs burst, creating a small hole in his lung. The oxygen escaped into the area just outside his lung, which eventually created more pressure outside his lung than inside, causing his lung to collapse. We don't know how many of these blebs he has, nor whether or not he has them in both lungs, and we won't know that until the test results come back. The surgeon told David that he has the option to have a procedure done that would prevent this sort of thing from happening again. What they would do, is somehow make three small incisions on each side of his body, going in to staple each of these blebs. It's an optional surgery, but if he doesn't have it done, there's a 30% chance this could happen again.

David wants to take his chances.

After I spoke with David, I thought about his options. What if he does have these blebs in both lungs? What if one burst in each lung at the same time? 30%? That's a high chance that this could re-occur. I called my parents to let them know what David had said. I asked them to try to convince him to have the surgery. My dad also told me that this isn't the first time David had had these chest pains. Just a few weeks prior, while on a trip to Utah with his youth group, David had opted to stay the day in his hotel room due to similar chest pains.

Please pray for David as he faces this decision.

David

Yesterday, my parents brought my 18 year old brother David to college to begin what will be his junior year. They attended a welcome barbeque, got David settled, and left for home. Some time after they left, David began texting them about some chest pains he was having. Mom told David to go and see the campus nurse. David went to the campus med. services only to find no one there. Since my other brother Paul and his wife Amy live near campus, my mom tried to reach them to take David to the hospital, but both were working. David had to wait until they were done working to get him to the ER, where they discovered that he had a collapsed lung.

My mom dropped my Dad off at home, and headed 2 1/2 hours back to David. As far as I know now, David's been discharged, and Mom and Brittany crashed at Paul and Amy's to wait for the pharmacy to open.

Please pray for David. I know God allowed this to happen for a reason, but your prayers are coveted for a quick and total recovery.

I've Been Tagged!

My good friend Jeannie, whom I love and who's always got good child-rearing advice for me, has tagged me for some random info.

Here are the tagging rules:

1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag

Here goes:

1. I bit my nails from the time I cut my first tooth (not literally) until 4th grade, when I realized that if I didn't bite them, I could drum my long nails on the desk and it sounded cool.

2. My parents were originally going to name me Helene Clarice. (Blech!) Helene after my dad's maternal grandmother, and Clarice after my mom's mother. But, fortunately my dad came up with my given name before I was born. Rachel is just a name they liked, and since my dad's middle name is Louis (after his paternal grandfather), he just decided to give me a more feminine version of that: hence, Rachel Louise.

3. I HATE scary movies. Hate.

4. I have a stupid human trick. I can lick my chin. My tongue is freakishly long. But for some reason, I can't lick my nose. The talent is picky.

5. I took eight years of piano lessons, from four different teachers, but I'm still extremely nervous to play in front of people without a band or something to take the attention away from the piano.

6. I put my tongue in front of my top teeth, under my upper lip when I'm concentrating. I think it's hideous, but Seth thinks it's cute.

You're it:
Amy- There's still a lot I don't know about you
Jackie Sue- I've read your "101 things about me" post and think you can probably dig up some of those for your post. You're very interesting and very entertaining ;D
Becca R.- Is there anything I don't know about you?
Teresa- I miss you!
Anne W. and Alison W.- I know Jeannie tagged you, but I'm really not sure there are many more people who read my blog!

The Journey

Next Sunday, as the whole of both of our Worship Services, we all will be taken on The Journey.
This is a musical interpretation of the journey one would take traveling through the Tabernacle in the Wilderness into the Holy of Holies, as the Priests would have done. Our Music Pastor has arranged several familiar musical pieces to depict the experience through each "Station" of the Tabernacle.

These include: The Outer Court, The Bronze Altar, The Bronze Laver, The Inner Court, The Lapstand and Shrewbread, The Altar of Incense, The Veil and finally The Holy of Holies. Pastor Mark will have MultiMedia to explain each of these stations.

I'm excited. I think this will be an awesome experience, not only for me, but for my children as well. We may have to whip out some Exodus a couple of times this week to get them prepared!

"Get Out Of Cleaning Free"

Between preparing for our upcoming garage sale this past Saturday, spending three days in the Cities, and the garage sale itself this weekend, Seth and I, as parents of students attending our local Christian School, were supposedly required to clean the school last night. But upon arriving, (rather bitterly on the part of one of us, I won't say who,) we were told we needn't be there as our oldest wasn't going to be a full time student yet this year. It was our one-time-only "get out of cleaning free" card and this was our only chance to use it!

Hmm, what to do with our "free" time... oh wait, there's still plenty to do... how about those garage sale signs?