Arkansas to Africa {Part 2}

I have had several people ask me, "how in the world did y'all wind up in Africa"?

Most of the time that ends with me stuttering around and giving some kind of a lame answer.

Not because there isn't a really good (non-lame) answer,
but because it is hard to know where to get started.

Sooo, I thought I would begin to share the story that God wrote for us.
It is a looonng story that spans many years.
But don't worry, no chapter book today!
I will give it to you a bit at a time!

If you want to catch up to speed you can find: 
{Part 1 here}

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So, this is where I can look back and see where my theology was a bit off, because after the events I shared last week,  I found myself dialoguing with myself (do you ever do that?),
"surely God won't allow more hard things to happen to me, at least not for awhile."
"right?!"
"right, you're totally in the clear."

I guess I conveniently forgot the stories in the Bible of:

Job

Sarah

Paul

Stephen

the disciples...

.....and pretty much every other follower of Jesus

You know, the men and women who have gone before us who followed the Lord and had peachy keen lives full of gumdrops and butterflies [insert sarcasm].

Three short months later, we learned we were expecting again. 

I nervously and thankfully embraced this new life that God had allowed to grow inside me. 

Except one night, (a few short weeks into the pregnancy) I began to get sick, really sick.

Intense stomach pain coupled with not being able to keep anything down.

I was really nervous about losing this baby, so we didn't let the pain go on for too long before we loaded up and headed to the ER.

I spent the night in the ER, severe, violent, stomach pain; worst pain in my life.

Eventually by morning a Dr. saw me, ordered an ultrasound, verified I was pregnant, concluded I had food poisoning and sent me on my way with some pain meds. 

That was Monday morning.

By Wednesday, I couldn't get out of my bed. I had spent the last 3 days counting down minutes until I could pop a pain pill. I couldn't take care of the boys, so I called my mom to come over and watch our kids, and we headed  to the Women's Hospital [where my obgyn was] to see if they could figure out what was wrong with me.

Tests results came back that my white blood cell count was really high, something was going on, but we couldn't pinpoint what.

A surgeon was called to go in and do some exploring.....

{@graceforgrace on etsy, listing here}

Stay tuned for Part 3..............


{Linking up with Casey Wiegand Blog}