Now that Christmas in July has passed and I have had time to reflect on my major life changes this past year, I am starting to settle into my new life and the direction it has taken or should I say more accurately, the direction that God has lead me.  I don't want to get you sidetracked so let's start at the beginning -- no, not Genesis, but the beginning of this year, 2010.

My Dad is 93 years young and my Mom is 85.  Okay, I know they are getting older, aren't we all?  However, I don't think we (okay, maybe me) necessarily like to face facts and make decisions on what  we (I) are/is going to do if "this thing" happens.  We tend to ignore it or think that maybe it won't happen.  They have done so well up to this point, why don't they continue living like they are?  Besides, my life is going well and do you mean I have to change what I am doing?

As I was saying in my first paragraph, this all started at the end of last year when my Dad wasn't able to hold down any food he was eating.  After Christmas he was continuing to get weaker and weaker.  I know that it's not nice to say or think but when you live over 1,500 miles away and you aren't able to do anything or help out, this tends to fall on the family member that lives the closest.  In this case, it happened to be my brother, Duane.  He took over my Mom & Dad's property almost 25 years ago and has been the rock ever since. 

So it was Duane and his girlfriend, Rachel, that ended up taking Dad to the hospital and seeing what was going on.  Sure enough he had a hiatal hernia that was pushing his stomach up to his chest and he had a hard time breathing and he couldn't hold anything down.  Can you say, "surgery" because that was the only alternative -- there were no other choices.