Where Am I...

That is the kind of question you ask when you come out of a fog. I think I’m just coming out of one. Ha, ha, ha, ha! Life has been quite the journey since returning from Dominican Republic (DR). I got to my house about 12:30 Monday morning after the drive from the airport to Lisa and David’s where my car was and then home. On Monday (like most of the team members) I slept most of the day off and on. (Praise God it was a holiday!) Tuesday I got up and made my drive to Ft. Smith, AR where I put in a full day of counseling each week. I felt fine. Then about half way through my 5 o’clock session I started getting this cough. (I know my clients loved that!) Then by later that evening my throat was feeling pretty raw along with the cough. By the time I got home around 12:45 a.m. I was really sick. I didn’t sleep well, contacted my doctor on Wednesday and started on Z-Pac. I ran a fever off and on during the week and felt terrible, like I had an elephant sitting on my chest most of the week. Monday I still wasn’t feeling well and went back to my doctor. He said my lungs were clear, my chest was clear, etc. Doesn’t that just thrill you when you feel like you have been hit by freight train but they tell you that you are ok! (I wonder how many people have died after being told they were ok!?!) Anyway, I went home and he told me to come back on Thursday. Well, Wednesday morning I woke up at 4:30 with a tooth ache. Not good at all. I had actually felt a little tooth discomfort on the day before and had called my dentist to get in the following week (which would be the week of this blog). By late morning Wednesday it was obvious I would not be waiting until this week to see the dentist, so I called and told him what was going on. He put me on a high powered antibiotic and told me to take pain pills when needed and to come in the next day (this past Thursday). Wednesday night I did not sleep at all due to pain. When I got up Thursday the left side of my face looked like someone had lodged two golf balls in my lower cheek. My niece has lovingly been calling me Alvin (the chipmunk) and gets great joy in doing so! She loves to kiss me on the forehead and walk off saying, “See ya, Alvin.” When we got to the dentist office he could not believe it. He and his nurse did give me a good laugh when they said, “We walked past the waiting room a few times because we knew you were walking in, but we realize now we saw you but didn’t know it was you. So, we were still waiting.” (Thanks for the encouragement! Ha, ha, ha.) I don’t know if you have ever seen the app on the web called “FatBooth”. That is what my face looked like but about three times its size on that one side. My dentist was able to drill a hole through the crown which let pressure off. I continued the high powered antibiotic, and he gave me some pills with a pain ingredient and Advil built into them. Obviously, he can’t work on anything until the infection and swelling are out. So, today (Sunday) I am down to half a golf ball instead of two. The pain is much less but does kick in to some good throbbing if I’m up and around much. I have mastered a shower the past two days (my family appreciates that!). Now here is the totally cool part in all this: As crummy as I feel, as painful as that throbbing can get at times, my heart and spirit for lack of a better word are HAPPY! I think I’m still riding the waves of the glorious time we had in DR with those precious missionary women. And I am thankful!!!
I love it that we constantly hear from our women from retreats from the past 12 years. This past week one of our ladies from Peru caught something that she thought we should be aware of regarding some information. We can’t thank her enough for sending us an email so we could correct a potential problem. It is so cool to watch Pure Joy and missionaries from around the world becoming this awesome family of women encouraging each other!

Please pray as we continue to work out new things on our website to provide our missionary women and supporters with more information that will keep us united in Christ. Excuse the long length of this email but remember I have not been able to really talk for almost five days now without it being uncomfortable. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Also, to our missionary sisters from all the past Pure Joy retreats: This is your opportunity to pay it forward. We will be traveling to Prague Czech Republic in October. Please let any of your missionary friends in that area or the surrounding area who can get there know about the retreat. We will open up registration the middle of July.

Love you all much!

His,

Vickie (a.k.a. Alvin)