Blessings

It has been nearly two weeks since my surgery to remove my gall bladder.
I am doing very well. Thanks for your prayers!

Now that we have jumped the hurdle of surgery, the next hurdle is starting school. Although after nine years of preparing for school, it does get a little bit easier....but it's still a hurdle.

I have been reminded this summer of the many blessings that God has given me/us! So I thought I would post some pics of those blessings!

First of all my HUBBY! What a blessing he has been in my life! Can't imagine my life without him. Thank you Lord for such a wonderful husband!


Our Home! Thank you Lord for allowing us to build a home where family can join.
"God provided it. Now it is our job to use it for Him"


The blessing of sight to see this every morning! What a beautiful creation we are surrounded by.


My family means the world to me!



My beautiful niece, Mallory!


My handsome little nephew, Mason!


My doggie, Brody!



There is no picture to show the gift of eternal life that you freely give to us, if we accept and confess that you are Lord. Or the mercy and grace that you pour out upon us. We recognize that we are sinful and have fallen short in this life, but yet your goodness is still revealed to us.

WE ARE BLESSED.....

A Waiting Game

That seems to be the story of my life.....WAITING!!!

Why can't things come easy? Why does it seem to be so difficult? Why does every task seem to be prolonged?

Questions I roll threw my mind daily!
Read a verse on Sunday found in
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not disappoint us,

because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Ok, so God is obviously trying to teach me perserverance that will then produce HOPE!
That doesn't make things easier...but it may shed some light on our circumstances.

I have some of you write me emails, text messages and phone calls on how I am doing.
I am feeling good, although I seem to have a "flare" up of "belly aches" that occur almost daily. Thanks to my aunt Mary, telling me about liquid Mylanta! That takes away the discomfort in about 10 minutes!
I am scheduled to have my gall bladder removed on Tuesday, July 21st (again more waiting)at 10:00 in the morning. It is a fairly simple procedure. They will put me out with general anesthesia and remove it laproscopically. They tell me that I will be back to normal in a day or so and can resume activity almost immediately. This has been a huge relief because I am due back to school on August 14th. Although everyone who knows, Mrs Drury, knows that I will be in there by August 1st!! :( But lets not talk about school, I have a couple more weeks of summer left.

Waiting...a story of my life...
Waited 5 long years to marry the man that I LOVE...
Waited 8 long years (still waiting)to have children...
But you know, as I ponder those things in my life that I have had to wait for, I know full well it was/is for a reason! I truly believe that with all of my heart. A dear friend of mine told me "I can't help but think that God is preparing you for something BIG, Darcy"! ..."Really?!?!" But you know if He is indeeded preparing us for something BIG, I want to be completely prepared. I guess that might shed some more light on this WAITING GAME!

I heard a message spoke once on Patience. The pastor shared that
PATIENCE means LONG SUFFERING

I really do count my blessing every day, hope this wasn't a "Debbie Downer" post. Just some thoughts that I have been wrestling with and wanted to share.

Chalk it up as another experience...

Well I am typing this post from a hospital bed! Yes, I did say hospital bed! Kind of strange how things can change in just a matter of a day.

It started Saturday, about 2am, I woke with a really bad belly ache! I couldn't get back to sleep. Took some medicine and tried to get comfortable in the chair. I must have gotten somewhat comfortable because I fell back asleep for a bit. Then I woke up about 2 hours later with a stomach ache that was about 3 times as worse. Just a strong pain under my right rib cage. Kind of resembled a "leg cramp" that just wouldn't go away. Again I tried to take some more tums and Tylenol hoping that it would just go away. As I was trying to get comfortable in the chair and wanting so badly to go back to sleep, Pete was getting ready for his week long fishing trip to northern Minnesota. He left that morning around 5:30am and wouldn't return until next Saturday sometime. He has been planning this trip for about a year, so I knew he was so excited to get away. I was still in pain when he left, but I was determined that it was going to go away in a matter of minutes. Well minutes turned into hours with not relief.
Finally I decided to call First Nurse around 5:00. I described my pain to her and she said "you need to go to the ER". So my sister Lisa and I hoped in the car and headed to the ER. It was a very quick trip, I might add. By the time I saw the doctor the pain had somewhat subsided. So since the pain sort of went away, he sent me home with some expectations to follow this week. The Dr believed that from the symptoms that I shared, that it had something to do with my gall bladder. I would have to agree with him, because of my own research that I had done online.
So we left the ER around 8:00 and went home and something to eat. Shortly after I got home my cell phone rang and it was the nurse from the ER. She said "We need you to come back to the hospital to spend the night. Some of your levels were elevated". So I packed a bag and went to the hospital with my sister. Making frequent calls and message updates to my husband who was now 9 hours away!
As we talked with the Dr on Sunday night she shared that the levels in my pancreas were really high (21,000) and needed to be around 300. Although that sounds high it is only about in the Mild to Moderate state...which was good that it wasn't more severe. She begins to tell us that one of the main reason for this in my pancreas is that something related to my gall bladder. So they wanted to monitor me a little bit closely to figure out what the problem really was.
I had an ultrasound done on Sunday that did confirm that there were some gall stones forming in my gall bladder and that the duct was a little inf lammed. The Dr. thought that maybe I had passed a stone that then blocked the common bile duct that didn't allow my pancreas to filter properly.
So now I am sitting here in the hospital bed with an IV that has been pumping fluids through me to get all of that inflammation out of my pancreas. I have not eaten any food or drank anything since Saturday. She wants my digestive system to have no activity so that it will heal properly.
I am just passing the time with watching TV, surfing the web, reading a book, reading some magazines and talking to family and friends on the phone. I have had many conversations with Pete over the phone and he feels terrible. He wants to be here so badly and feels terrible about fishing instead of being next to me. He has told me countless times "it just isn't right that my wife is in the hospital and I would be sitting on a lake fishing!". I kept telling him that there wouldn't be anything for him to do here, but to sit and stare at me. And besides my sister and mom were taking good care of me. I tried to give him peace of mind, but I guess that wasn't enough, because he decided to come home today. He should actually be here any minute. I feel terrible that I messed up his long awaited fishing trip, but he felt that being here was more important.
I am feeling much better today. My enzyme numbers have cut in half almost every day. this morning my Numbers were closer to 900-700 range. She wants them to be a bit lower before she starts my digestive system back up again. I am really hoping that I can at least eat something tomorrow, because right now I am starving! So things are progressing well, but the Dr. did say it might not be until Thursday before I can go home! :( I was a little frustrated when I heard that, but I want to make sure that I am well so that it doesn't happen again!

I have no idea why this had to happen right now.Although last week was the last week of school (not a good time) and next week I have family come home (not a good time)....so in all actuality this week was "the best time for it to happen". God is really teaching me a lot about my body these days. A fried told me "Darcy, I think you could be a nurse, from all of the medical experiences you have had lately". I laughed and thought "no way"! God also is reminding me that he has created us in a way that is absolutely amazing and I am thankful for the knowledge he has given to those we entrust our lives to in times like this!
So the Drury's can just chalk it up as another life experience!

Inspired by a song

One of my favorite ways to worship our Creator is through music. I love when a great song comes on the radio and my heart is gripped. I ponder the words and start to reflect on my own life. Some songs often bring me to tears as I listen and am reminded of God's promises to us, as His children. If we have put our faith and trust in Him and accept the gift of eternal life that He freely gives to those who believe...He promies to never leave us nor forsake us (Jos. 1:5)
Heard this song on the radio today and felt it was a great depiction of my heart and thought I would share with others!





Praise God that He will be by our side!! I am so encouraged today that He is at work and I am anxious to see what he has in store for us!

Held

First of all I want to thank everyone who has been praying for us over the past couple of days. We have felt every single prayer that has been made! It has been incredible to see how the Holy Spirit has worked within us.

There has been a song that has resounded in my mind this week, which will explain the title of this post. It is a song by Natalie Grant called Held. There are portions of that song that are exactly my heart. Here is the portion of the song that has stuck out to me...
"This is what it means to be held....this is what it means to be loved and to know that the promise was when everything failed, we'd be HELD".

That is exactly what it has felt like for us! On Sunday I kept expressing to Pete this overwhelming sense of "being upheld". Even though we were at war against emotions that were raging inside of us, we felt the hand of God upholding us every minute of every day.

We spent a majority of past few weeks just being with each other. We found that brought us the most comfort. We spent a lot of time talking and reflecting. You know when you marry your spouse, you express a love for them that is real and deep and you question "How can I feel this love any deeper"? This is one of those undesirable times that has deepened that love that we thought was unmeasurable at the time. As we celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary, I reflected on the man that God has so graciously blessed me with and I can't imagine my life with anyone else. God knew what he was doing and knew exactly what I needed in life when he joined our hearts together!

As we look forward we still have a lot to think about. We are trying to be open to all measures. We want to be obedient to God's will for us. We want to be receptive what it is that He would call us to do. We are tired of waiting and don't anticipate waiting months to make that decision, either. We meet with our Dr. on Tuesday and hope to have some things made clear.

Please continue to pray for us in this time! We are overwhelmed with the decision that we will have to make in the weeks to come. Please pray that we would recieve wisdom. Pray that our hearts would be open to God's leading and then that we will be obedient.

Thank you SO MUCH for the kind words, cards, emails, messages, etc...that you all have sent. Our hearts have been encouraged!!
The journey continues.....down drury lane....to be continued...

Romans 12:12
Be JOYful in hope,
PATIENT in affliction,
FAITHful in prayer

With broken hearts

We went in today to have our pregnancy test completed. Results came back negative. Our hearts are torn. Please pray for us during this time. We will type more at a later time when our hearts and minds have a chance to heal.

Pete and Darcy

Trusting His Plan

We continue to trust that God is in control. Darcy was able to stay home all day on Tuesday (day of implant), Wednesday and Thursday morning. I was so proud of her for taking extra time for herself before going back to school. Each day, she continues to improve in how she feels.

We received word from the clinic on Thursday that out of the six eggs that were left, none of them continued their growth so we will not be able to freeze them. This was a bit shocking and disappointing when we heard it. We are grateful that God provided two strong embryos through this process and trust that God is in control with every step of this journey. God continues to refine us through this current "fire".

Continue to pray that our babies grow and fully attach themselves to Darcy. Pray that the medicines continue to help nurture our babies. Also, pray for the Marshalltown community. We received word yesterday that the school district that Darcy and I work for will be shut down all next week due to the flu outbreak that you continue to hear about on the news. We pray that these actions will help curb the spread of this. Also pray that Darcy's body is protected from this illness and that she is able to remain healthy and strong.

Our next appointment is on Sunday May 10th. We will head to the clinic to have pregnancy tests done. We should know more at this time.

Thank you so much for your prayers and kind words. We can sense your prayers each day and are so blessed to have loving family and friends to surround us during our journey.

God Bless,
Pete