It wasn't supposed to be this way....

Last night,  Aaron's birthmother, Deborah, his half-sister, Calys and I all pulled up to the house on 1st street in Lubbock. I got out and snapped some pictures. This little house on the corner is Deborah's mother's house....the house Deborah lived in when she was pregnant with Aaron.

In my mind's eye, I had pictured this house many times.  However, the house was different and the scenario in my mind had read something  like this...Aaron was 18 and he alone (or possibly he and I together)  approach this house in an effort to locate his birthmother. The address of this house is the only relevant information I can give him to assist him in locating her.  Just hoping that perhaps her mother still lives there. In real life, Deborah's mother was indeed reluctant to ever move from that house in case Aaron did one day return.

But life doesn't always conform to the script we write for it. And in this case, it didn't.  Aaron died at age 16 ...twelve years ago on this date~~ July 7.  Aaron's mother searched for him and us about a year and a half ago. We are blessed  now to know her and the entire Jimenez family. In fact, we have visited then this week-end and met some more of the Jimenez family including Aaron's grandmother, great grandmother and two of Deborah's step-children, Celeste and Samuel. It has been a sweet time. The Jimenez family is an awesome family but...it just wasn't supposed to be this way...at least not according to the way I wrote the story.

This unscripted plot twist has been excruciatingly painful to say the least, for all involved, for everyone who loved Aaron, ...and there were many. I never would have written the story this way. Never. However, I  have learned that the things we don't understand can only be left with the Lord as we learn to trust Him at a deeper level. I think this was the lesson of the book of Job. We see through a glass darkly.

Surgical Newbie

Well, the last time I had surgery, I was about two years old, and I had a tonsillectomy.  Had my consent been necessary then, it probably wouldn't have happened.  So a couple of months ago, when my doctor's office called and said that the sonogram report showed stones and my gallbladder needed to come out, I took it under advisement but wasn't  totally sold on the idea. Not counting the tonsillectomy, as I said, I had never had surgery ....so why start now??!!  They even mentioned that the surgeon to whom they were referring me was "good-looking."  (Which of course, is ALWAYS important when choosing a surgeon, right?) But since I am an old married lady married to my very good-looking hubs, even that didn't sway me.

I finally did, however, make an appointment and a surgery date was scheduled.  At the surgical consult, I was to learn that a robot named DaVinci was to be performing the surgery! Hmmmmm!!! Well, my surgeon, Dr. Cione, informed me that this did not mean that he could go out and drink a cup of coffee while the robot did his thing!  He assured me that he would be at the helm controlling the robot.Whew. At least that.

So after much second-guessing, and some prayer, I decided to go through with it. And so I did and I survived. One notable thing which we loved was that my surgeon asked if he could pray for me before the surgery. He said he liked to pray over all his patients before going into surgery.

I was able to return to work after about 5 days and now three weeks out, I would say I am pretty much totally recovered.  So all in all, it wasn't too bad, but I don't care to repeat this sort of thing with any regularity....even if the surgeon IS a Christian ....and good-looking to boot.