Gallbladder Woes

I'm still recovering from surgery on Tuesday. I'm doped up on pain medicine because it hurts pretty bad considering I have three incisions in my belly.  The trade-off, however, is that I'm probably not going to have all of these stomach issues anymore!! YAY!!


You see, I've been dealing with abdominal pain, nausea, and other stuff since Halloween. After a very wide gamut of tests that came back clear, they concluded that it was probably my gallbladder. The digestive center doctor was not a great one ... until he saw that I went for a second opinion ... they he became a very proactive doctor. Man I wish they could be helpful before you light a fire under their butt! Anyway, he referred me to a surgeon (who happened to be the father of a girl I grew up with). The surgeon said that he would do an exploratory laparoscopy and if he sees nothing else wrong, he would take my gallbladder out. Well, nothing else was wrong  so he did, in fact, take my gall bladder out.


He said that my gallbladder was covered with adhesions. From what I can tell (with my simple Google searching) is that adhesions are like little blisters that make your gallbladder stick to surrounding organs - like stomach and liver. When this happens, it not only causes pain, but it also could lead to infection. My gallbladder was very inflamed and if left in much longer would have probably become infected. So, timing was just right.


I'm in recovery mode now and boy do I feel loved! I had a wonderful group of people come stay with me and visit me in the hospital. I have gotten some great goodies, and I've been pampered by my wonderful husband (maybe I should fake it a little longer to keep getting his pampering ;). Anyway, I'm writing all of this in hopes to say thank you for all the prayers and gifts. Thank you for dealing with all of my complaining since October. Thank you for being there for me when I needed you!


What a great time of year to be reminded that we should be there for each other ... like Jesus was there for us on the cross! I pray that all of you out there can know that wonderful gift and appreciate it a little more like I have this week.


With love,
Kristen

I love ...

to watch the sunrise! Here it is on the Isle of Palms!

Reminds me of our Father's faithfulness ... day after day, He will be there because he has already risen!

(http://bible.cc/matthew/28-6.htm)

I have another site

It's called:

Kristen's Cookies

Go check it out! I'm now baking on the side and I'd LOVE to bake for you. I can also ship them, so don't worry if you live far away! 

Hey Family & Friends,

                We know you’re probably wondering why we are writing you a letter. Well here it is: God has called us to Guatemala. Yes, that’s a pretty big statement, so please keep reading while we explain our story. We just can’t hold it in!

                About five months ago we felt an “itch” for something new. We weren’t sure if this meant we should start a family, maybe move somewhere, or just get over the fact that our four year intervals are over. You know, four years of high school, four years of college, first four years of work; all over. So we started praying fervently for “God’s Will” in our lives. As many of you know, we’ve grown up in the church. We’ve been taught to love people no matter what, pray without ceasing, go to church every Sunday, and seek out God’s desires for our life. We aren’t claiming to be perfect, in fact we know we aren’t, but these values are what we try to live by. Recently we’ve become very involved at our church’s second campus Life Park. We’ve served in technology ministry (David of course) and with the Kids Park program (obviously Kristen). We have been involved together with youth and yet we still felt this desire for more. We asked some people to pray for us while we were doing the same. A few months later God showed us that missions might be part of His plan for our life.

“Missions” is a big word and we got nervous almost immediately! We thought that surely we’d heard wrong. We felt sure God was just trying to teach us not to take what we have for granted. So, we just reassessed our many blessings. Here we are 26/27 years old and well on our way to the “American Dream.” We have two great and stable jobs. We have two reliable cars and a perfect house. Both of which we can afford. We have two great families right around the corner. We both have a college degree & David has a masters. We have a great network of friends. What more could we want? A family of course, but the door is closed right now in that area. You know what they say: When one door closes another one opens. Well, that “itch” for more didn’t go away. It actually began to grow. We couldn’t get away from the idea of missions. So, we started looking into it. We toyed with the thought of long-term missions. You know things that would involve job changes and possible relocations to foreign countries. We found quickly that doors were closed in that area as well. We aren’t ready for that right now and don’t really know if that’s exactly what God is trying to tell us. Here, however, is the open door: a short term (one week) trip to Guatemala with our church this summer. Almost immediately we knew that this was it. This is where God is leading us. This is how we can get our feet wet to see how this word “missions” fits into God’s plan for our life together.

                We are very excited to see what God has in store for us on this trip. We are confident that there is a purpose for our taking this journey and we can’t wait to keep hearing from Him. We’ve learned that God is faithful to answer prayers. He sometimes answers “out of left field” and that’s ok. We never thought an answer to our prayers would lead to a foreign country, ever! We do, however, feel confident that this is his direction. How can we say no? We heard it explained like this: Christians have been given the command to “Go and make disciples of all nations. Matt28:19.” So what we have to figure out is whether we should support from home or actually go. In our case, we’re going.

So here’s the real reason you got a letter. We aren’t in the practice of randomly writing letters to family and friends out of the blue. Actually, we need something. We need support. First, we want to thank you for being the people in our lives that we are comfortable enough with to send this kind of letter to. In some capacity you have made an impact on us. Out of obedience to God’s calling we are hoping to make in impact on the people of Guatemala. Please consider helping us this summer. The most important way of helping is prayer. You can pray for our safety and for us to know exactly how to help out in a third world country. You can pray for the language barrier and the food differences. The second way you can support us is financially.  As you can imagine, a trip this far away will be expensive. Our trip will cost roughly $4,000.00 together. We will be taking this trip July 15-23, 2011. All monetary donations can be sent to our church and will be tax deductible. See details below.  

                Again, thanks for being someone that we feel we can share this kind of story with. Thank you for having a positive impact on our lives. And, thank you for reading all the way to the end! We love you!

                                          God Bless,

                                          David & Kristen Patrick

                            

 First Baptist Church

281 McCants Boulevard

Mount Pleasant, SC 29464

Memo Line of Check: Acts 1:8 Fund for Patrick’s

God's Blessings

Extra income ... that's not a normal term these days. We've been blessed to have some though! Here's what I think:

 I'm about as busy with cookies as David is with softball! I'm loving this hobby & my wallet is too! I've made some great 'fun-money!' God is so gracious! You see, David & I were worried about spending money (and even funding our trip) in Guatemala and how everything was going to work out. We also were a little worried about what to do when we do (eventually...) have kids. I would like to stay at home with them, but only one income is definitely going to be difficult! Don't get me wrong ... I'm not pregnant nor am I going to quit my job ... we're just glad that the Lord has blessed us with options! I've been successful with this "Cookie Thing" to the tune of great moo-lah! Don't get me wrong again ... I'm not rolling in the dough, but the cookie business is funding our fun & we are able to put great savings in the bank monthly! After stressing over buying a house, setting a "Real-People-Grown-Up" budget for the first time and facing bills, God came through! We didn't think he wouldn't, but man did he come through above what we thought might happen! We followed his direction to Guatemala. We followed his direction to set a budget. We've followed his direction with our free time. As a result ... BLESSINGS! He has a way of doing that ... blessing us beyond what we imagined. 

So, my question/challenge to you today?

What have you let go of? How did God bless you in that? If you haven't let go, are you willing to?

PS - If you've bought cookies THANK YOU! If you haven't, check it out here! Kristen's Cookies

*Disclaimer: This was in no way of guilting you into buying my cookies ... just a simple shout out to the One who is faithful to take care of me ... in more ways than you know!

Guatemala

David & I have answered God's call to spend a week in Guatemala lovign on the people there ...


we're nervous, but excited at the same time ...


please pray for us!


Some pictures from last year's trip: (courtesy of www.elizabethervinphotography.blgospot.com )