The Hazardous Holt House :(

So I was thinking today that it would be very appropriate to call our blog the Hazardous Holt House with all that we've been dealing with this week. To say the least, we could definitely use all the prayers that you have to give right now. About 2 weeks ago, I started to experience some of my Crohn's symptoms again. They started our very mild, but over the course of several days, the pain started to intensify. I called my dr and he was able to squeeze me in for a procedure and found that unfortunately, my disease has returned to the remaining colon I have left after my surgery. Pretty disappointing just 7 weeks after my first surgery to remove 5 feet of my colon! So, I am now on a huge regimen of medications and the dr is confident that I should be feeling better in a week or so and that there is no need for another surgery. I'm not seeing any of that relief quite yet, but I'm sure it is just around the corner. Then to top it all off, I just discovered that I once again have contracted Shingles, the adult form of Chicken Pox. I've had it several times before and was able to catch it early enough, so I shouldn't have the major symptoms this time, but talk about another major disappointment. Here, I thought I was good to go for 20 years and would not have to think about Crohn's disease again, let alone deal with it's pain so quickly. It was so discouraging to know all that I went thru with the surgery and recovery only to have it all come back again. It's been a huge test of my faith in God, but I know that he's in control, even though I often question what he's doing.

Oh wait, it gets better! Last Tuesday, Eric was on shift playing basketball and went up for a rebound and came down on someone's ankle rolling his. The dr didn't sound too concerned but wanted him to have an MRI to check it out. It appeared that he would just need to stay off it and let it rest for some time and he would be back to normal in a few weeks. Aparently God had other ideas, because he had an urgent phone call from the dr office and they wanted to see him immediately following his MRI to see the results. That was on 4pm on Thursday and at 11:15am Friday morning, Eric was in surgery to repair a completely torn tendon. Thankfully there was enough stability and surgery was not needed on a second damaged tendon. His surgeon was so glad it had been done and now expects Eric to have a full recovery! So, Eric has now returned home and he'll be here resting for at least 3-4 weeks. Then he'll go to light duty at work for the remainder of his recovery time, an estimated 7-8 weeks more! Again, talk about major disappointment for Eric because he just recently was able to return back to work from his Springtime wrist injury. The good news is that this was done while he was on the job so he'll continue to get paid while his is recovering. Eric just hates to not be able his job and is not looking forward to having to lie around the house off his ankle for a month!

All this to say that we are feeling tremendously spiritually attacked right now. We know that we serve a really BIG GOD that can do whatever he wants, but we also know that he has something he wants us to learn from this right now. We would just ask for your prayers as we find the strength to make it from day to day right now and that we would quickly come to understand how we can grow from this. Thanks for all the encouraging calls and emails that we've already received, and we look forward to the coming day that we'll all have perfect bodies and won't ever have to worry about breaks or surgery or sickness anymore!

We love our friends dearly and thank you for your prayers!