What happened to April??

One day I'm going to look back at April 2011 and think that nothing exciting happened in that month to blog about. The opposite is true. In fact we were so crazy here that in the moments I sat down I really just wanted to do mindless TV watching and book reading, not blog. So I want to do a quick review of the month so that I remember everything that happened and so I know why it is we feel so physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted right now, and why it has taken us half the month of May to recover. Don't feel as though you have to read this mini-novel. I wrote is for me.

March 28 - April 1: Kids have a week off school, despite all the snow left on the ground we have a great week of playing and hanging out.

March 30 - My wallet is stolen. From the van. In front of my house. NOT IMPRESSED!!

April 1 - Rita & Al Chretian go missing. I understand that we don't know the Chretian's very well but in Bible College we were friends with their son Dale. Their going missing seemed to really effect us, we spent a lot of time praying over them and it should be noted because it effected our mental and spiritual attitude a lot during the month.

April 2 - We manage to get out on Mark's birthday date. 20 days late. We went for supper at Chili's and then to a concert where one of our 'kid's' from the College and Career was singing. Everett and Shera were suppose to go with us but she had just returned from Banff and they needed a evening home by themselves. Everett is one of our Youth group volunteers and him and his wife were becoming good friends to us.

April 3 - College and Career here.

April 4-7 - Preparing house for company.
                 Preparing Chinese food.
April 5 - Spent a good part of the morning running around town cancelling and getting new wallet items and making an official report at the police station.

April 6 - Shera went in for a doctor's appointment she was feeling flu like symptoms and wanted to get checked out. The doctor did a quick check and saw some spots on her liver they told her it might be cancer and sent her for a more detailed ultrasound.

April 7 -Janice and Brian arrive. Mark spend 16 hours at the church.

April 8 - Mark has worship practice.

April 10 - We go to Church then head to the lake for the ice dive for the youth group mission trip to raise money to go to Peru. After the ice dive we have  BBQ to celebrate a birthday of one the College and Career kids come home where we have a quick supper before Mark leaves again for a worship night at the church
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April 11 - We actual take a day off, spend some time with Brian and Janice, and I make Chinese food supper. Which was late because when I went to the church early to cook it a I realized that I didn't have a key and was locked out of the church and had to wait for Mark to come and open the door. Supper is late. but we had a great visit with the Westnedge's and the Puddicombe's

April 13 - Shera goes back to the Doctor for Ultrasound and finds out that her cancer is through her liver with extra spot in her abdomen and kidneys.
Mark takes the kids to AWANA and heads to his worship committee meeting. I watch the Westnedge girls because we have sent their mom and dad out on a date. The I head to the church to pick up our kids and come home to get 6 kids into bed for the night.

April 14 - Youth group.

April 17 - Brian and Janice leave. 
                College and Career.

April 18 - I spend the day cleaning  house and doing laundry. Shera admitted to hospital because she is in to much pain at home and is having a hard time breathing.

April 19 - I finish the laundry and pack our stuff for the trip to Caronport. Mark goes to the hospital to see Shera. She is not doing good and we realize that she is going to probably die within the next few days. We were going to leave for Caronport the next morning, but decide that we don't want to sit around depressed all evening. We can do that in the van quite well, so we throw everything in the van and head out. We make is to Saskatoon before we find a hotel room and sleep for the night. We are feeling very overwhelmed with bad news right now and the only things that helps is remembering the good news that one of our friends just found out she is pregnant after four years of trying. We caution our excitement a little knowing that she has miscarried before.

April 20 - Because we get to Caronport in the morning we are able to spend a lot of time with friends during the day and I get to help Janice get her house and food ready for all the company she has coming.

April 21 - Grad for Brain Westnedge.

April 22 - Good Friday, we go to our church in Moose Jaw and the out for lunch with 'Auntie' Gwen and 'Uncle' Tony. While we are eating at McDonald's we get a phone call from Everett, Shera passed away. Mark spend much of the rest of the day sending out e-mails to church people letting them know and planning for leading worship at the funeral. We have a Easter supper with our Caronport family.

April 23 - We drive to Calgary, have supper then Mark drivesCaronport with his friends. I spend the same time being sad about everything that has happened. I keep hoping that we will get some good news soon because we need the hope, and something good to look forward to. Because my parents are moving at the end of May we decide that is is important for the kids to have one last sleepover @ Grandma's in Calgary.

April 24 - Easter Sunday - Mark is at our church then drives back to have Easter supper with us in Calgary.

April 25 - We drive home. When we get here Mark goes into the church right away to help with funeral arrangements. In the evening he has worship practice.

April 26 - Clean house, unpack, laundry, prepare salads and desserts for AWANA and funeral.

April 27 - We head out the door first thing for another worship practice at the church for the funeral. Micah is at school and Aslynn and Judah get sent to the nursery to play with toys and watch movies while we practice.  I leave the practice early to take the kids to the only person in the church we could find who was not busy, or going to the funeral to watch the kids for us. The Funeral is at 11:00am. Around 1:30 Mark heads out to pick up the kids and bring them back to the church where we are helping to clean up from the funeral and get ready for the last AWANA night and BBQ. When Mark returns to the church he tells me he has not been feeling very well and lays down in his office. When we head out to pick Micah up from school he is still not feeling good. He is now experiencing severe pains in his stomach. We spend a few hours at home before we head back to church for the AWANA BBQ and the whole time Mark is in severe pain. We decide to still go to the church though and see what happens. (We also begin to wonder if he is going to have to have his appendix out.) Near the end of the evening Mark is still in intense pain and we decide that we should take him to the Walk in clinic that is in the hospital. So the kids finish AWANA, and we load them in the van and head to the hospital at 8:30 at night. Then we sit in the clinic for 30 minutes while I try to keep three children entertained and quiet. The doctor in the clinic decides Mark needs more testing and send him down the hall to the labs. I decide to take the kids home to bed and tell Mark to call me when he knows more. Mark calls one of the men in our church to come in and sit with him and then drive him home. He arrives home after midnight still in pain and none the wiser as to what is wrong with him.

April 28 - The hospital phones us at 7:30am telling us that they have Mark scheduled for a ultrasound and he needs to be at the hospital in 45 min. So we find a ride to the hospital for Mark and I begin to think about needing to run youth group that night. After 4 more hours in the hospital they find nothing more then some weird fluid floating around Mark's abdomen and as he is no longer in intense pain they send him home. The doctor told him that if he was a female he would have assumed that an ovarian cyst had ruptured causing the pain and the fluid. I choose to think it was a cyst somewhere. Mark goes back to work, zips home to see the kids and assure them that he is alright and then heads to youth group.

April 30 - There is a church work day that was scheduled before we knew about the rest of the craziness that would occur, so to the church Mark goes to help do some jobs. While he is gone Dallas and Karen Derksen and their family arrive. They are raising money to go out as missionaries with Missionary Aviation and are in Edmonton for the week to meet with churches and individuals to raise some support. We offered our home for them to stay in.

May 1 - Church. We had planned a  lunch BBQ here for Dallas and Karen to meet some people from church. Dallas and Karen actually ended up going to a different church in the morning and then having lunch with some relatives in the city. We still have 17 people here for lunch though and College and Career in the evening.

May 2 - Laundry day. Then we finally connect Dallas with the youth group guy that we wanted him to visit with. I make supper here for 12 people. Mark heads out to a board meeting. Did I mention that somewhere in this day we also voted and I decided it would be fun to hand roll 50 taco shells, and make cookies.

May 5 - I had planned to have cofee with Sharon, a lady in the church in the morning so that Dallas and Karen would have an empty home to do school in. I still have coffee, but Dallas and Karen end up leaving that morning.

May 6 - Day off - crash

May 7 - We have friend who are missionaries in Mexico and they and in Canada for the week so we head down to River's Edge Camp to see the Chapple's. What can I say, their friends, they brought real vanilla. Totally makes the  6hr round trip worth it.

May 8 - Mother's day. Mark leaves for church early as he is leading worship. We do go out for lunch though and I get a nap before he heads out again for College and Career in the evening.

What can I say....
If you made it through reading that good for you. I'm sure you are exhausted as we are. And that explains why we have been exhausted and have needed this last week to rest and recuperate. Life should return to it's normal craziness now.

The month was long.... But it ended well. We spent much of the month in grief and mourning wondering why and asking for hope. In a round about way we were granted that request on Friday May 6th. Rita Chretian was found in the northern Nevada dessert. Alive. After 49 days of surviving on a small amount of trail mix and melted snow. Although her husband is still missing, having hiked out to try and find help. Rita was found alive. And her family rejoices. But we rejoice too. Because that was such a huge miracle, there was no denying that God did that. And after the month we had it felt like God had lifted us up and gave us hope. It's been hard to see Him working and moving this month, and we haven't been able to see Him in the little things. But Rita being alive is not a little thing. It's a huge thing. And for me, this month it's great to have something to look back to to see what God did. It gives me hope to go on. And we needed that. Sometimes you pray and pray for something, and God doesn't seem to answer. Your plans get changed and life comes crashing down on you. In those moments you need something to look back at that is an obvious God thing, and obvious miracle. I'm glad that he gave us that this month.