I met with my surgeon once again today. He’s given me clearance to start therapy to recover movement and function of my wrist and hand. The highlight of the visit was learning that my doc is pleased with my progress — I was reassured that I’m at a ‘normal’ part of healing and am not woefully far behind or unfixable. (More on that in a later post!)
Because I’m using our blog as a sort of ’scrapbook’ for our family, and because what’s been going on with my arm has pretty much consumed our January, please forgive me as I retell the story up to this point. I’ll warn any who are weak in the tummy — skip the pictures below! The last picture shows what my arm looks like right now. So much better!!!
Two days after Christmas I broke my right arm at the wrist The break was complete through the radius and also fractured the ulna. The bones compressed so that I needed surgery two days later where the surgeon inserted a metal plate to hold my bones in place. ouch.
I love how Rick tells the story, so here it is!
While leading a kids ministry class at CityView this past Sunday (11am service), Steph needed to go to the kitchen down the hall to retrieve something. Our second daughter was going with her and Steph thought it would be a great idea to challenge the weaker, younger family female to a race down the hall. I of course approve of such challenges so that our girls understand who the alpha-female in the household is…but I digress.
About halfway down the hall–while running in her mid-healed (and I might add…sexy) boots– Steph tripped over our daughter and heroically chose not to fall on top of the young and fragile Anna Beth. Instead she flailed the other direction, where her body was met by a wall that apparently did not “give” way to her body…thereby ricocheting her the other direction while gravity did its work–promptly sending her to the tile floor where her hand attempted to stop her fall.
Apparently the violent nature of the ricochet, her own weight (I’m going mainly with the ricochet, since she’s obviously light as a bird–;) ), and her feminine-like bone-structure coincided to create the break/s. Upon realizing what just happened she exclaimed matter-of-factly to anyone in ear’s distance…”I broke my arm”. Of course, she was already delirious at this point, because she had not-in fact-broke her arm…but her wrist (silly wife).
That’s the story…so for anyone looking for a moral to this true story, here are a few:
1. From Anna Beth’s mouth–”Momma…you shouldn’t run in the halls…that’ why our teachers at school tell us to not run in the halls. You could get hurt.”
2. Never challenge a 6 year old to a race in a narrow hallway while wearing boots. The six year old is probably going to be the hallway equivalent of a deer in the road to a car. A raccoon can be run over…but a deer is gonna’ hurt the car.
3. My personal favorite: Kids Ministry Workers cannot be a weak bunch. Their calling is a heroic one and the dangers are real. Therefore, all Kids ministry workers are to have your love and respect for going out, doing battle week after week with the like of 6 year olds.
I’m sure there’s more, but my creative juices are running out. Feel free to embellish this story and make much more of it if you wish. Rabid dolphins with lasers on their foreheads would be a nice touch…but I’ll leave that up to the reader .
Prior to surgery. Smiling for the camera because I’m too doped up and in too much pain to worry about anything. Ready to get on the road to healing!
Post surgery. I wore this & then later a hard splint for the first couple of weeks. The fall caused numbness in my fingers so the doc decided to open up my carpel tunnel. At this point in my recovery I couldn’t feel my part of my thumb or my three middle fingers. Feeling slowly returned over the next weeks.
One week post op I get a view of what my arm looks like. It was SHOCKING to say the least!
As was this. It was at this point that the nurse said that I needed to start wiggling my fingers, which I could just barely do.
Taken after I’d gotten a glimpse of my arm. Somehow it was much less painful when it was safely tucked away!
One week later and out come the stitches. Let me just say that it HURT like crazy. Some of the skin had grown and attached itself to the stitches, so I needed all of my natural childbirth training to manage the pain. See the redness? That’s my skin saying ‘NO!’ I waited to cry until after we left the office. Poor, poor Stephanie and her Franken-arm. Dogs will bark! Women will shield their eyes! Children will run screaming! Rick bought me a Starbucks coffee and all was right again in the world.
Which leads to today: 5 weeks after surgery. I’m titling this picture, “Recovering.”
Much good has come through the pain of this process. I’m expecting more pain and more good. In my arm. In my life.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. — Romans 12:12
How does the expression go? A woman’s work is never done. Well, what happens when the woman who does most all the cooking, household cleaning, and caring for the kids goes down? (Literally!)
She calls in another trusty gal. The woman she learned it all from — her Momma.
But what happens when the unthinkable occurs, and the only woman with two working arms is knocked out of the game by a vicious bout of pneumonia?
We call in . . . .the Supermen!
I love and am so thankful for Rick and my Dad. They’ve cooked, done dishes, changed poopy diapers, and packed lots of lunchboxes over the past month!
And today, I got some action shots of my Little Superman in Training……..
Raegan participated in her school’s spelling bee (for the 3rd and 4th graders) last week. She did a terrific job!
She was a little nervous — Her momma was very nervous!
She’d studied really hard for weeks. She learned to spell words like ‘pharmacy’, ’successful’, and ‘photosynthesis.’ 
She went down in round three. 
Mom and Dad are so proud of you, babe!
My littlest one is already becoming quite the little princess. Just this week I’ve caught her three times putting on my makeup! (How does she immediately know when the door is open? Does the lipstick call out to her?)
She also loves having her hair fixed — with a bow. The bigger the better. I foresee Big Hair in this Native Texan’s future!
See the bow? Aren’t they sweet?
But Aidan, who all Boy, doesn’t appreciate the Bow. To him, the Bow is just something that’s in his way. It’s blocking his time in front of the camera.
No!! Not my Bow!!!!!
What do you mean get my hands off her bow? It was in the way. I’m problem solving. Such a boy!
Boys just don’t get what it means to be fashionable!
rae is playing upward basketball this winter. her first game was this past saturday. living so far away from both sets of grandparents means that they don’t often get to see the kids games/performances, etc. so we were all so glad that Meme was able to be there! she acted as official photographer too.
rae did a terrific job — even scoring a couple baskets (so what if one of those was on the opponent’s side?) she earned stars for being an excellent rebounder. so proud of her!!
are we done yet?
My fellow pastors wives at CityView, Taber and Angela. we pray & do life together. we laugh and cry together. we celebrate and struggle together. so blessed because of them. love these girls!!!!!
rick noticed recently that he and i seemed to be pretty much in synch in what was changing about us. was i folowing his unspoken leadership or was the Lord just nudging us both in the same direction? Doesn’t matter, really, how it was happening, it just matters that we were moving in the same direction. *love this man i get to go through life with!*
and then as i sat in service this morning, i realized that it was happening again. the Lord was teaching us the same thing — only with a slightly different context. today’s text: matthew 19, the rich young ruler. the guy knows something is lacking. Jesus asks him to give it all away — hold on to nothing except your love and worship of the One True God. rick’s call: don’t leave any chips on the table — go “all in” — pour your life out. (except he said it much better. have i mentioned that i’m crazy about my pastor?)
i mentioned in my last post that i knew the Lord was teaching me some things through this whole broken body thing. something that’s been on my heart for a while now overwhelmed me last night: i have been so busy for God that i’ve forgotten what it means to be content to sit at the feet of my Savior. church planting is alot of work. i like to work. but i’ve been much too much of a martha and not a mary. mary sat at jesus’ feet. martha was a busy gal. she was doing good things, but missed the best thing. luke 10:41-42, “But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.” that one thing is Christ Himself!
as my fellow pastor wives can tell you, i’ve known this is what i needed to do for quite a while. i am so grateful that the Lord has forced my hand (pun intended.) Rick’s challenge was to lay it all on the table. so i’m laying it all out there — all my ‘things’ that i do in the church, trusting that even if He chooses not to fill positions, or if things aren’t done quite like i’d have done them, it doesn’t matter. HE matters. HE will accomplish His purposes and His name will be made Great no matter what i do or don’t do. in this season i will be obiedient and let go.
i trust Him to work this out to His glory!
what about you? anything getting in the way of you and jesus? is there anything you are holding back? is He also calling you into an area of obedience?
this is the day that really marks the end of the holiday season for us. kids go back to school. rick returns to his normal sermon prep/work schedule, practices resume, life rolls forward into 2010.
although, life really doesn’t return to normal for us, not yet anyway. my lack of a right arm has turned our little world on its head. fortunately i have amazing, wonderful parents (with a farmer’s schedule) that are here caring for my family in all the ways i can’t: laundry, baths, making meals, cleaning bathrooms. what a blessing they are to me and to us!
so isn’t it strange that i feel bad for not doing my jobs? isnt it odd that im anxious to ‘get back at it?’
when i discover an odd behavior in one area, i wonder if thats also what i do within the spiritual realm? am i working so hard that i forget to be grateful to the One who has done all the work? do i enjoy being busy for Him more than resting in Him?
i pray that i take the blessings of a broken arm to make my heart know and love the One who holds all my bones together more intimately. heres to 2010!
Slowly Im weaning myself off the larger doses of pain medication. Slowly, Im re-entering the land of the lucid. And slwly. oh so slowly, Im typing this with my left hand. I stil have a long road to haul to get anywhere back to normal. This will be brief, but i just coulnt stand to start the new year off without declaring to my little world how Good and Great our Lord is and how He has blessed me above and beyond all I could hope or imagine! eVEN IN TIMES OF TRIAL, PAIN AND UNCERTAINTY he is more than worthy of worship’ more than worthy of my trust, more than worthy of all glory! he is good and even a hurting arm cant stop me from saying so!
so in light of counting all the ways the lord is good — here;s how we celebrated his goodness christmas day:
cooking show barbie, complete with lights cameras and kitchen utensils; for my baby girl who shares my love of the food network. she and rae made homemade mac n cheese tonight with just a liitle help and supervision from me.
it didnt take her long at all to get the hang of unwrapping, and then she wanted to unwrap everything — whether it was her gift or not!
i love that happy-surprised look!
the girls really had fun shopping for other people. they were so excited to give rick and i the gifts they’d given us — matching snowglobe ornaments with our names on them. meme and papaw had taken them shopping at ace hardware! 
so more evil can be defeated . . . . .
for a couple of hours this is where they were
while raegan was making this. her snowman named LARRY. (correction from my earlier post. you can see why i might be confused!)
juliet and meme watched on
until finally the ship looked like this! aidan is providing sound effects by the way. (for those of you who arent star wars fans, this is the millenium falcon, han solo’s ship)
mom, dad and i spent most of our morning getting all this ready
so blessed! thank you jesus!!!
we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the father full of grace and truth. john 1.14
here i am earlier today — thankful for drugs!
Since I have broken my arm, this post wll contatain few words. Christmas eve we received a once in lifetime blessing of SNOW.
Christmas Day, Raegan made a mini snowman named Bob!
