Salutations!

Hello everyone!!

First of all I would like to say Happy New Year to all of you, I truly pray that it is one that brings learning, growth, blessing, peace, and rest in many new and special ways!

Second, I don't know who of you will remember but a while back I posted asking for prayer over something I left rather vague. I want to thank you for any and every prayer that you sent up, I know they were heard, a lot of learning and growth happened. Unfortunately I am not going to go into all the detail of that situation here yet, but it will come.

Right now my main purpose for writing this blog is to ask for some more prayer, this time I will explain myself more clearly. Back on the 20th of December I went in for a minor surgery to remove something that was discovered while I was working away from home over the summer. The procedure went smoothly, and apart from just having stitches removed yesterday everything has been going smoothly with that. Unfortunately I came into this holiday season with a bit of a cough that eventually became a cold, and potentially more. The other day we had a heavy snowfall and my siblings and I went out to try and clear the rink on the ice. There was a lot of snow and for someone who was not feeling 100% to begin with, I pushed myself a little too hard and was not keeping myself properly hydrated. I came in drenched with sweat and physically wasted. I laid down for a bit and ended up getting sick, very sluggish and slept an awful lot more than normal in a 24 hour time frame. Yesterday we went in and sat down with the doctor, he did some routine check up-type things and found that there was some wheezy-ness in my lungs when I breathed. So he sent me in for some blood work and a chest X-ray. Today I will be going in to see what those tests discovered. It could be anything from my having a minor chest infection which resulted in some asthma-like symptoms, to a whole bunch of things that I don't even know about. I am trying to stick to the positive side of things. As for the excess sleeping and lethargy, the doctor said that the pain medication I was on from the surgery last month could have been a big factor especially when paired with excess physical activity and lack of water. Suffice it to say, I am no longer on that pain medication and have been keeping myself well hydrated since. :P

Anyways, to get to the point, this is all coming at a time when I am prepared to head out the door to South Africa as many of you know. There are some things that this could turn into which would prevent me from going, it seems strange to think that in all the ways this door could have been closed that it might truly have been left to this last minute thing. But who am I to question how God works. I really do hope that it is something simple enough that it will not have that large of an effect, but this is where you come in. I don't know if many or any of you will get this by the time I have found out what the doctor has to say today, but I believe that God is beyond time and that any prayer no matter when it is prayed, counts for something. So, that being said, I would ask for you to pray that we are able to find out exactly what it is and exactly how to treat it, that it would be something that would not hinder this new chapter in life, and that no matter what it is (or was), it does not leave me sidelined for much longer, for healing in time for departure. I would also ask for prayers of safety as I drive in to town as the roads are still in less than favourable conditions from all the snow we have had in the last two days. (and as a side, that I would also get used to using this puffer I have been prescribed for as long as I need to use it...they are more tricky than one would think) ;)

Thank you guys very much, and I hope to have an update soon!

With love,

Miranda