The Great Divide

Over the last several weeks I have been in constant communication with my folks back in Ohio, and my only sister. I found out that my mom's health is not well, and my sister has some health concerns as well. My mom has had a lot of tests done over the last month to determine what is going on. The list of things is quite long, so I won't list out all the details, as I can't remember them all anyways. The main thing is that her iron levels are very high. Having high iron causes your blood to become very thick, and difficult for the heart to pump. This in turn causes low oxygen levels in the body since the blood can't be pumped as quickly as needed to all parts of your body. So, with this condition and the fact that she has several other heart issues going on, she has jumped to a really high category of possibly having a heart attack or stroke. So why am I telling you all of this... to first ask for your prayers, and to tell you that I have been dealing with the fact of being so far away from my family.

Now, comes my sister. She is about 7 months pregnant, and recently found out that that the baby (a girl) is underweight, and the doctors belive that her umbilical cord is constricted by something. So, my sister has been on bed rest for about 2 weeks.

Finding out all of these things has really made me think about living so far away from my family. I have realized that once Josh and I have children, I don't want to be so far from our families that they won't have a chance to be a part of our kids' lives. Which brings me to the next thought of moving home. I don't know that I want to move back to Ohio. Josh and I really like Northwest Arkansas and we are part of such a wonderful church, all of which I don't know that I could leave. So, I was thinking that maybe we could get our families to move here. I know that it would be a sacrifice for my parents, but Josh's mom is retired and his stepdad is pretty close to retiring. His dad is retired and his stepmom has several years left of working. So, it may not be as easy for them. But I have such hope that this could be an option. Northwest Arkansas has so much to offer that Ohio does not.

As for now, I will continue to pray for complete healing for my mom and sister (and baby Lily), and that realationships would be healed (that's a whole other post). If anything should come up I will buy plane tickets and fly home... across "The Great Divide".