Happy Thanksgiving

What a great week it has been.  We are so thankful to be visiting with one of my brothers, Chris, and his wife, Es.  They drove down from IA and are spending Thanksgiving week with us.  It has been extra sweet since we haven’t seen them since their wedding 18 months ago.  There has been a lot of laughter, tickling and silliness… which is doing all of our hearts good, I do believe.
We are obviously extremely thankful for all that we’ve come through this year.  We are thankful for Josiah’s healing… and you can tell by the double chin in the picture that he’s back to being our chunky little boy.  It is incredibly overwhelming in so many ways when I think about all that our little man (and our family) has been through – the worst and some of the best.
I have always loved the passion of hispanic and latin cultures.  I realize that our family has ended up right in the middle of that passion.  We have the intensity of stress, trials, exhaustion and normal life craziness.  We also have had an amazing increase in the intensity of our love, appreciation and value of our time and life together.
A fellow CaringBridge mom, Holly, articulated some of my thoughts so well – “And so this Thanksgiving, although we still have much to be thankful for, I am reminded that some times, some seasons of life, we must be thankful simply for who God is, not just simply for the pain we have avoided. As a mom. I would love for my children to avoid pain, especially of this magnitude. But we are trying to learn to praise in the valleys and be thankful for who God is, no matter how horrific the storm we are experiencing.” www.caringbridge.org/visit/katemcrae
We are thankful for our Heavenly Father, His mercies and grace, our family (both here and around the world), our prayer support and church family, and all that God has provided for us… especially a growing and healed little boy.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Remember to be thankful

This has been an emotional month.  We’re still trying to sort out the insurance issues.  There is a lot of miscommunication or lack of communication between the insurance administrators, hospitals, doctors and us.  All of the money should be taken care of by our primary insurance or TennCare, but it’s just the hassle of getting it all sorted out.  Not really what I would like to spend our time and energy on, but I’m thankful that it should all be taken care of.
Tony had an interview for a new position with Chick-fil-A.  We got news this last week that they are going to pursue other candidates.  Thankfully, Tony found out from his boss that it was due to credit issues… which have not been helped with all of our hospital stuff.  It was encouraging to Tony that it wasn’t his personality or ability.  And, it means that it’s not a final closed door.  We’ll just work on being better stewards of what God has given and wait for His time and His provision.
In the midst of all of this, I have still been trying to process through some emotions that have risen up in regards to Josiah.  I’ve been having a hard time reading other CaringBridge entries.  I think part of it is because my heart is still so raw from watching Josiah go through his treatments.  Then, this morning, I realized that a lot of it is due to fear that this monster will come back to try to destroy my little boy.  So, I’m working on getting my mind renewed with the truth that I know… that God is faithful and will carry us through every step that we take no matter where those steps take us.
I’m working on getting something worked out for us to go bless the kids that are stuck up at Vanderbilt for Thanksgiving.  I know there’s a lot to be thankful for – in the midst of these horrible battles.  It’s so important for all of us to be reminded of that.
Right now, I’m especially thankful to have a weekend full of girl time.  My close friends and I flew a friend in for the weekend to celebrate our fall birthdays.  Our husbands blessed us with childcare and we’ve enjoyed some rich fellowship time.  What a wonderful blessing and reminder of how important good friends are.

Hmmmmm, now what

Maybe the title gave it away… maybe not.  I know I’m doing a lot of apologizing these days.  Life is insane.  Oh well, here I go again.

I apologize for not updating more quickly after the interview last Friday.  It was fairly anti-climactic.  There are so many applicants with so few stores opening, so Tony had a hard time getting a read on how the interview actually went.  It seemed like it went fine, in general.  CFA said that Tony would hear back at some point – either “yes, let’s move to the next round of interviews”, “possibly, but not right now” or “no, thank you for your time”.  So, that left us feeling like we didn’t have much to share.

Well, now we do have something to share.  Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait too long to hear back from CFA.  It turns out that they actually emailed Tony yesterday.  They told him that they have decided to pursue other candidates.

And… that brings up a whole slew of “now what” questions.  We do know that God is carrying us through this whole drama that is called our life.  Part of me is thankful that we don’t have to worry about getting everything together to move and all that it entails.  The other part of me feels sort of stuck in a rut.

In addition, we’re in the midst of sorting out insurance issues with Josiah at both Vanderbilt and UNC.  We are having to pay some to UNC until we can get the insurance stuff settled or get some financial assistance.  With Josiah’s new diet, there isn’t much room in our budget.  Tony and I are working on being the best stewards of our time and money… in the midst of the normal activities and stresses of our abundant life.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we sort out what God has for us and how He will provide as we search for His plans.

Fickle Friend

It’s amazing how days can seem to drag on for forever and, yet, I cannot believe that it’s already November.  To quote a classic dcTalk song, “Time is ticking away….”  The time change hasn’t helped either.  With Nashville being so close to the time zone line, it already gets dark here by 5:30.  Half of the time, I’m feeling like the day is already gone and it’s time for the kids’ bedtime only to realize that it’s 6:30 and I still have a good hour or two to fill up with activities for them.

All that to say, I figured it was high time I wrote an update.  Of course, since my fickle friend has me so messed up, I’m tired and it won’t be a very long entry tonight.

There are a couple of things that I wanted to share a little bit about.  Mainly, Tony has a big interview tomorrow (Friday) afternoon at 3 p.m. CST.  About two months ago, the doors began to open quickly for Tony to pursue becoming a Chick-fil-A owner/operator.  He had started the application last fall, but with Josiah’s cancer diagnosis, it was put on the back-burner.  Now that Josiah is doing so well, Tony’s boss brought up the possibility again.  Tony & I discussed and prayed about it and felt like he needed to at least finish the application and see what God did.  Well, long story short, Tony has an interview tomorrow with the CFA head of hiring for the west coast – just an example of God’s favor in this situation.  The normal timeline they gave us would have had corporate calling Tony around Thanksgiving to set up an interview.  When God moves, He sure can be quick when it’s the right time.  We covet your prayers – for the right doors to be opened and/or shut, for wisdom and clarity… and for peace that God continues to be faithful whether we have good or bad chaos in our lives.

For now, if you’d like an update on some of Josiah’s stuff, you can go check out www.caringbridge.org/visit/josiahzapata – it’s been an eventful couple of weeks for him, too.  I’m just too brain-fried to continue writing tonight.

Thank you for your prayers and for your words of encouragement.  Hopefully, time will not slip so quickly by before I update again.