This week, I am in a waiting pattern. You see, I started having these crazy swollen lymph nodes and after about 10 weeks of them, I decided I'd better visit a doctor and ask if they were anything I needed to be worried about. The doctor confirmed that they were a bit worrisome, so after a bit of an exam and a few follow-up tests, we had no answer for the issue. Because of the very limited healthcare options available there, we had run out of diagnostic options. So, I was sent down south where the medical care is far better in the hopes that we could get a diagnosis. I have a test in a few days which we are hoping will give us some answers. For now, we wait. I wait here and my family waits back in West Africa.
I'm gonna be honest, the waiting stinks. I am tempted to feel sorry for myself and the fact that saying yes to my call to Africa means that I am navigating a scary time like this without my husband and family by my side. But, I am trying hard to take captive every thought instead and think on things to be grateful for. Things like good healthcare, the fact that I work for an extraordinary organization through whom I get to live a really cool life, children who love me and long to be with me, a husband who has been so kind and whose sweet daily e-mails I will treasure for years to come. I am thankful for the spring weather and flowers I am experiencing. Not to mention, after eating out only 5 times in the last 6 months, I have now eaten out 5 times in the last week. Hooray for no cooking! Most of all I am thankful that no matter what comes through that biopsy needle on Weds., I know that my future is secure and nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing is a surprise to my Lord. I am thankful for the hope I have in Christ!
During all of the waiting, I have been indulging in lots of chick flicks, which I haven't done in years. Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and their friends have been keeping me company each evening. One of my girlfriends back in Niger was kind enough to pack me up a case full of DVDs and I have laughed and cried through lots of romantic comedies over the last week. But, as much as I have enjoyed many of them, they have me wondering, why do they all end at the wedding? A few go so far as to show the "One Year Later" scene where the happy couple is shown in a cozy scene with the bride sporting a baby bump or holding a baby or the like. But nothing beyond that.
Well Sandra and Julia, I'm here to tell you...I'm 40 something now and I'm searching for a story that's a bit different. Where are the romantic comedies about the couples who were wed 20 years ago and are knee deep in parenting and college applications and trying to keep the "spark" alive while driving their SUVs? That's the story I want to see. The one where the bump on their waistline is not from a baby on the horizon, but is leftover from the babies that are about to graduate from high school. I want to see the romantic comedy where the magical date looks like actually getting to have a complete conversation that doesn't involve work or children and instead it focuses on remembering why they chose one another all those years ago. Or how about a story where a "tropical getaway" involves recruiting grandparents, leaving meals in the freezer, two weeks of coordinating carpool solutions, and more than likely a meltdown in the swimsuit department before boarding the plane. What about the stories where romance involves cellulite and wrinkles and reading glasses and the fact that sometimes the best kind of love is the one that's endured a whole lotta mess and yet still chooses to be committed and electric after all that time? Where are those stories?
Because, I've been thinking, that's the one I wanna see.
3 comments:
I agree!!!! I think the world needs to see it!
Praying for you friend.
شركة تنظيف بالجبيل
شركة كشف تسربات المياه بالقطيف
شركة عزل بالدمام
شركة كشف تسربات المياة بالدمام
شركة تسليك مجارى بالخبر
شركة عزل اسطح بالجبيل
شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بالاحساء
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