Fast track / slow track

So sorry it's been ages since my last blog entry. Our lives have been crazy as you will hear in just a minute. I had a wonderful visit with a dear friend yesterday and as I poured out my heart and our story to her she kept saying that God's timing is perfect.... something I must remind myself about several times over in the next few months.

Here is the latest. I have hesitated sharing much of this online because we hadn't told all the people here of our pending plans, but now that the "cat is out of the bag" so to speak it won't be a problem. 

About the beginning of October the Lord began speaking to Daniel and I about moving.... something we didn't think would ever happen. We have been living here in Santa Ynez for 9 years now and had always planned that we would live here forever because it was where the Lord has called us and the things he called us here to do didn't seem to be happening very quickly. We assumed it might take the rest of our lives to truly see all that He had put in our hearts to see here in the SY valley. However, the Lord has been stirring our hearts. When Daniel heard from the Lord that He is moving us it took him some time to process that, mostly because we are in the midst of so many other life changing things right now, it didn't seem possible that He would move us right now. As we prayed and prayed and prayed and asked Him over a few weeks time it became clear to both of us that that is exactly what He was saying. 

So here we are in the midst of some of the craziest health issues we have ever faced and as we ask the Lord about all this he says, "it's time to move". It's almost like He isn't answering us on purpose ;o) So, we are moving to Bend Oregon sometime in the New Year. Daniel's heart is to set up a 24/7 house of prayer. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a place where worship and prayer goes on constantly, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There are many of these places around the world now and we feel like it is something the Lord is doing in the earth that will usher in the presence of the Lord in greater measure. We are praying that we will begin to see signs and wonders in these houses of prayer, including great grace to see the lost saved, the sick healed and the saved to grow deeper in their walk with the Lord.

For those of you who don't know, my parents and both brothers and their families all live in the Bend/ Central Oregon area so we will be very very close to my family again which is a huge blessing. The boys are looking forward to being near cousins and my parents and I am looking forward to being an Oregonian again. 

One reason I wanted to share all this with you all is that we realize the importance of starting a house of prayer like this. It doesn't happen over night, it isn't easy, and it isn't without some resistance from the enemy. We feel like it is very important that we raise support. Now, I don't mean financial support, but prayer support. Our goal is to get at least 100 people that would covenant to pray for us as we venture out in this new journey. If we have learned anything in this last season it is that we get really "slammed" by the enemy when we don't have the prayer support behind us. If we had at least 100 people who would covenant to pray for us once a day I know we would go much further, much faster than we would if we tried to do this on our own. Please consider covenanting with us in this way. We would love it if the Lord put this on your heart if you would email us and let us know so that we can pray for you as you pray for us.

Also, I have a surgery date. I am tentatively scheduled for January 7th to have the surgery. Again, I am puzzled by the Lord's timing. We had hoped to be moving at that time, and done with surgery before Christmas, but the Lord planned otherwise. It's completely out of our hands. In some ways Daniel and I are sitting back and saying there is absolutely nothing we can do to "hurry" this process up at all. We can't make any of this happen faster, so we are sitting back and relinquishing all control to Him. He showed me a while ago that this is like a dance. We are dancing with Him. Even though we aren't sure which direction He will turn next, we just have to let Him spin us and twirl us and dance us toward the next thing. When we try to take over we just mess things up and step on toes..... 

So, we wait and we dance.

A new day

I thought I'd take a second and update so that I don't forget to do so in the craziness of my life ... First of all thank you to all who have been praying for us. We have been horribly sick (mostly just Ethan and I) the last 2 weeks and it's been quite a battle. Finally, finally we are on the other side, with just a bit of coughing left. We really appreciate your prayers though.

Also, an update of the surgery... still no date as of yet, but our next Doc. appointment will be Dec. 4, three weeks from today, if all goes thru with the insurance which we are still awaiting full approval (your prayers on that aspect would be greatly appreciated.) At that time I will meet with the endocrinologist and the other surgeon and also giving some of my own blood in case they need it for surgery. 

Anyway, looks like surgery will be closer to Christmas time. We are praying the second week of Dec. at least!

We'll let you know more as soon as we know more. Thank you again for your prayers. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Wedded Bliss

Today is our 9th anniversary!!  Marriage is such an amazing thing. To grow more in love with this man every single day seems impossible, but it is absolutely true. 

When I first met Daniel I didn't think he was the one for me, but as I watched his life I knew there was no doubt that he was the one for me.

It took him a bit longer to know the same thing, but once he did it took him all of 2 days to tell me loved me and was ready to marry me. We've never been the same. 

Daniel is my rock. He and I had a prophecy over our lives that we would grow together in love as we "worked the trenches of this valley" and that has been so true. We have weathered things I never imagined we would face, but it has only worked to cement our love further.

The boys are helping me make this evening special. We love to celebrate the actual day with the boys... a special dinner, candlelight, and then we enjoy watching our wedding video as a family.

God has richly blessed us and we are looking forward to many many more years  of joy and memories.

Sobered

I don't really get into politics much, mostly because I don't know much. However all morning I have had a sick feeling in my stomach. I'm so sobered by the issues at hand. By far the biggest issue being abortion. I feel like we have gotten so overwhelmed with our lives lately that we haven't thought about praying much into these elections until this last week when Daniel went down to the 'the Call' in San Diego. We are so heavy with the world our children are growing up in.

As I woke up early and felt so heavy about this election the Lord reminded me that there are more that are with Him than are with the enemy. That just because we have a president who has no regard for human life in the womb doesn't mean we don't pray anymore. In fact I will pray more for this president that any other president I think. I'm mostly praying for his salvation.

I was sickened as I had to try to explain to my 7 year old what abortion is. I cried as I looked into his puzzled face. All the unsaid questions and implications that were bombarding his mind. I had no answers. It's one of those moments when you realize your child has lost some of his innocence and I ached inside realizing that this was just the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak in terms of all the horrible things he would learn about our country, this presidency and mankind.

Today I find myself aching at how callous my own heart has gotten toward some of these issues. I think an election every 4 years is important to shake us from our religious stupor or the smallness of our own lives and problems..... these issues are our issues. I have an aquaintance who is one of those highly annoying kind that love to argue and antagonize just to hear their own voice.... he disagrees with me on just about every issue... attacks whenever he can and I have to fight the urge to feel personally offended. I realize however how offended the Lord must feel at the state of our nation and the selfish smallness we think with.

Today I am aching. I think it's good to ache if we pour it out in prayer. The Lord gave me Psalm 51 this morning.... I poured it out before the Lord for myself and our nation.

For those of you who aren't familiar with 'the call" and Lou Engle, I want to tell you about them. He is making it a personal goal to see abortion ended in our nation, along with other things, but that is his main agenda. He has come up with a one line prayer that I have been praying all morning. It goes like this:

"I plead the Blood of Jesus over my sins and the sins of my nation. End abortion, bring revival."

I think that is the best prayer I can think of right now.

Rejoicing

Hello to you all... Thank you all for your sweet notes and concern, but most of all for all the awesome prayers. I'm astounded at how the Lord is moving. It really is fun to watch him work.

Ok, so yesterday Daniel and I were bracing ourselves for the Dr. to be in our faces about waiting for surgery. We were pleasantly surprised by his kindness and respect for us.

The appointment went so well. First of all he asked us where we were at this point and when we told him we were ready for surgery he said, "well, maybe your prayers weren't wasted". That caused us to perk up quite a bit. He said that at the beginning of the year they changed the way they do these kinds of surgery to an endoscopic approach.... basically they moved from the dark ages into the present. He said that they used to stretch open the nose (ouch) and put a tube up your nose and then shine a light down the tube and look with binoculars and "try" to get it all. Then they put you on an MRI table to make sure it is all out and then if it isn't they put you back on the table and work some more, back and forth, back and forth until it's all gone! 

Now, they put a very small tube up into the nose (no bigger than your actual nasal cavity) and they have a camera with a light at the end of that. The procedure takes two doctors but it's done on a 40 inch high definition TV screen. Extremely accurate and almost no risk of harm. The difference between this year and last year is astounding! The Doctor's demeanor this year was so peaceful, almost like he was  telling me I needed to get a filling put in my tooth! It was amazing.  Then he looked at the MRI and said that it looked very good. The tumor isn't growing into my brain, which is a greater risk of harm, it's grown down into the nasal cavity and when the incision is made it will basically "fall out". Then he uses "scoop like tools" to scoop it out (sorry if that grosses anyone out) but that there isn't any cutting or anything.

We were overwhelmed by the good news. It was amazing because if all goes according to plan (which is what we are praying) that I could be out of the hospital in as little as 2 days.

They didn't give me a date for surgery yet. I have to meet with the two other doctors first, but hopefully that will take place next week sometime and then I project that I will be having surgery the week before or the week of Thanksgiving. 

We are so amazed at the goodness of the Lord. Last year when the Lord was speaking to Daniel and I about cancelling surgery he told Daniel "it won't work". To hear the doctor say that the new technology has made it much more efficient and thorough has put both of us at ease. We felt the presence of the Lord the whole time and were very relieved that this trial is almost over!!! 

Prayer requests: 

1. Pray for the surgeon and the team. That they would be especially skilled on the day of surgery.

2. That the tumor would "ball up" There is one side that is pressing against the nasal cavity and the doctor mentioned that that is the only part that would have a possibility of being difficult to remove totally... if it isn't thoroughly removed there is a chance of reoccurance.

3. That there  would be no complications and that recovery time would be as quick as possible. I'd like to be home for Thanksgiving :o)

4. That the pituitary would be restored to better than normal function almost immediately. It is "squished" up against the wall of the nasal cavity and needs to come back down and be restored. Also that all the "damage" done to my body by this tumor and the excess growth hormone would be reversed immediately and restored to normal.

I'm looking forward to feeling like a new person! Thank you all for praying for us! His ways truly aren't our ways and we are so grateful that we heard him and obeyed instead of trusting simply our head knowledge and going ahead stubbornly even when he cautioned us to stop. We will keep all of you posted on our status as it gets closer. For now we appreciate all of you! 

Checking in

I'm so sorry for not updating this blog more in the recent days. We've been in the midst of some pretty crazy times here in the Burgess household. We will get to talk about it more freely in the days to come, for now there isn't much I can share here, but you can know that it's good, it's all good!!!

This week is rather crazy as I go for my doc. appointment on Thursday and then Daniel heads to San Diego on Friday for the Call that will take place all day Saturday. 

I will update everyone at the end of our week as to what the doc says and when the appointment will be for surgery. So far it seems that the procedure is rather "simple" and quite a quick recovery.... I'm praying for that and more.

Little tiny mini update

The Doc. appt. to schedule surgery has been changed to Thurs. the 30th.

Thanks for praying.