the road to week eight

We are done with week eight and it's hard to believe we still have another month here!  Time seems to pass a little slower when your "normal" becomes all twisted upside down and the holidays call your name from home.  Still, we are so silently joyful at the progress we are seeing and it bubbles out of the deep places of our hearts.

When we came here, I was holding down my health and energy level fairly decently, taking over a full load of college credits and being mom to sick children.  Two of my three boys were not doing well on a daily level and life had become somewhat unmanageable in terms of getting through daily activities.  When you start to kill off Lyme, you typically become sicker before you get better because of the toxic die-off that is often called "herxing."  It is so different than what we know of using antibiotics to get better from a bacterial infection (like strep throat for instance) because as the bacteria dies off, our bodies clear it out and we usually feel better within 12-24 hours.  In contrast, when Lyme dies off, our bodies naturally release cytokines in response to an immune reaction that happens in our body.  Sometimes these cytokines and Lyme toxins (dead spirochetes) are not cleared fast enough and the body feels the full reaction of inflammation and cell response to the invading pathogen.

...when a picture is worth a thousand words.

Levi joined us at week seven after three weeks of missing him.  He got us through one more tough week, then at week eight, we started to see the cloud lifting.  Each of us have more energy and we get out of the house more often to use our legs and breathe fresh air.  As Christmas lights begin to go up around town, I know it will parallel our journey to health and healing, culminating in a celebration of thanks.  We are not totally healed yet and there are still symptoms that get us down, but I know that we are on our way to freedom from Lyme and this makes my heart sing!

Last weekend we were able to drive a few hours south to see some sights and this weekend our main event is Starbucks!  Oh the joy in my heart at seeing words on a menu I can actually read and being able to order something I know a little bit about!  It's not the extended Starbucks menu, but I can order a Toffee Nut (holiday special) Latte with coconut milk, half sweet and they won't look at me like I am crazy!  No, I am not supposed to have it, but some things in life are just worth it.

We ate our home-packed lunch here amidst cowbells and sunshine.

I could listen to cow bells all day.

Where's Waldo?  Just kidding- can you see the church on the hill?

I see the light in my middle child's eyes that has been lacking and as they all feel better I see the energy and some of the crazy that a house full of growing teenage boys should naturally have.  They can hardly keep their hands to themselves as wrestling on our floor becomes a main staple of entertainment for them!  I am just sorry for all our neighbors.

We will celebrate Thanksgiving this coming weekend with so much thanks to God in our hearts.  We miss home so intensely but we are profoundly grateful for this season in life where God is providing in mighty ways and teaching us so much.  Thanks to each of you for your prayers and support - words really cannot do justice to say thanks enough for the ways you have been an absolute blessing...truly, the hands and feet of Jesus as we walk through a difficult season.

I snapped this picture out the car window as we drove by.  

There's no fanfare, it's not on the map, 

just alongside a rural road out in the country-side.

It made me think about the ways that God

works in our lives...not in the spotlight, but in the background; 

in the quiet honesty and aloneness of our hearts, just us and God.

I love my Levi-Ben.  He is our rock and takes care of us so well.