Friday, March 30, 2012

Ripple Effect


Jeremy’s recovery is coming along beautifully.  Every day he looks and feels better.  I swear that each time I look at his scar it looks different.  He is getting stronger too – just the other night he went and played tennis with a friend.  And he even went back to work yesterday; and was able to stay the whole day.  So on the recovery front, everything is progressing nicely. 
   
It is does not feel quite the same on the home front.  We have been home for 2 weeks now and we are still feeling the effects of the transplant!  Leaving your house, life and job for a month has some long term effects.  And every day we seem to discover a new one.  

The house is not all together back to normal.  There is a towering pile of mail (which Jeremy started to tackle yesterday).  There was a load of laundry that sat in the dryer for a week.  The yard needs tons of attention.  Don’t even get me started on dusting and vacuuming (because I wish it could be done on a daily basis but that is not realistic in anyone’s life).  And a full time jobs worth of thank you notes, phone calls and emails to follow up on.  It is basically life that has piled up and yet to be sorted through.
Since this blog was our way of giving the realistic picture of donating a kidney – this long term effect is a true reflection.  Not only have we had to reenter our life and get back into something called normal, but we have also had to evaluate what our lives look like moving forward.  This week has been full of travel discussions.  My big 3-0 birthday is coming up in 2 months.  This birthday has been talked about for some time – big parties, exotic trips, lavish gifts, etc.  But now those ideas have to be filtered through reality and knowing that most of them can’t really happen.  Jeremy is not in the position to take any more time off of work.  So trips are out.  Neither one of us has the energy, time or money to plan a big party.  So now it is entering into changing our expectations…. This is never fun or easy, but necessary in life.  

The other travel talks have been about Peru.  Both Jeremy and I feel called to minister in Peru.  This year Christ Fellowship has set our dates for September 20th – 30th.  In the past we have taken the trip in June.  So Jeremy and I have tossed the idea around to still go in June and make two trips this year.  Something we have always wanted to do.  Going alone in June will give us more time to focus on learning about the ministry in Pucallpa.  When you are leading a large mission team, there is little time to focus on anything besides the team members.  So this will be a time for us as a couple to dive into the ministry and culture of Pucallpa.  But again, what does that trip look like now that we have returned from the transplant.  The time and money issue is front and center again.

All of these things are not meant to be complaints.  But rather, recognition that with every major decision you make in life, there are side effects and additional decisions to make.  Jeremy and I just went through a major thing in our life.  Probably one of the biggest things we have done or will ever do.  Because of that we are faced with evaluating our life according to where we now stand.  We no longer see the kidney donation as a big decision for one day, but a decision we continue to make every day.        

No comments:

Post a Comment