Well, it is officially the last week of summer vacation, so I thought it was time to recap the summer a little bit. The very first thing that I did on my summer vaction (that's worth mentioning) was that I went on a mission trip. My youth group at Bristol and Shane's youth group at Indian Heights teamed up and went to Minneapolis, MN. We worked with an organization called "Families Moving Forward." They worked with families who are in homelessness by finding housing for them at different churches and synagogues each night, while helping them sort through the mountains of paper work that goes with trying to get out of homelessness and back into society. It was an awesome week. We had a lot of fun. The two groups gelled together as one group really well, and now Shane and I are looking into doing more events together. The only bad thing that happened during the trip was that I had to take one of my youth to the hospital. He is diabetic and wears an insulin pump, but he had a problem with the pump. He started to show flu like symptoms the first full day in Minneapolis. So we treated him for the flu. Eventually, he took his blood sugar and found that it was way too high. Between the high blood sugar and the all day vomiting he was extremely dehydrated. Thus, a trip to the ER. Everyone we met was extremely helpful and although it wasn't ideal, it actually wasn't as bad as it could be. We missed the first day of work, and the youth was released from the hospital around two in the afternoon. Despite that little set back, the trip was great.
The next big thing that I did on my summer vacation was to actually go on vacation thanks to my older brother Paul and his family. We went down to Gulf Shores, AL. Christie and I drove into the beach house around 3 in the afternoon in a pouring rain. We couldn't really see the road signs so that was a little tough. Otherwise, it was a great relaxing vacation on the beach. We spent the morning playing on the beach and the Gulf; the afternoons were spent relaxing inside and playing with my nephews Eli (3 years old) and Jakey (11 months old). They were incredibly fun. Really we didn't do much besides play in the water and enjoy each others company. Oh and of course we saw a lot of dolphins and went on a dolphin boat ride. On the last night of the trip though we had a really scary thing happen. Jakey was crawling around on the floor being his normal cute self, while Sarah (my sister-in-law), Paul and I are talking and cleaning up. Sarah's sister and Christie were in the other room with Eli, when Jakey starts to cough and cry. Only it wasn't a normal cry. There was a very sick kind of weeze in it. Jakey was choking only he was still able to breath a little. Paul after swearing a few time took him and tried to dislogue whatever Jakey was choking on. Paul being a doctor knew what he was doing but you could definitely see the panic in his eyes. It was a very rough situation. Paul used the phonebook and a map to find wear a hospital was and Paul and Sarah packed Jakey up in their van quickly. The rest of us waited incredibly impatiently for some kind of news to come. They didn't even make it to the hospital when Jakey did his best old man cough and became happy again. They called me and headed back to the beach house. He turned out to be alright, but it was the scariest thing I have ever been apart of. Jakey is still okay and if you look on my facebook page you will see him and I waiting to get on the dophin boat. To conclude this section, I have to say that going on vacation is awesome and we had a lot of fun. So Paul and Sarah if you are reading this: Thanks and I love you guys!!
Really the last thing that happened to me was that I was diagnosed with Basal Cell Carsanoma, which is the most common and least scary kind of skin cancer. As my brother put it to me, "No one in the history of modern medicine has died from it." Which was comforting to me but not to Christie. Two weeks ago I had it removed by surgery, which wasn't that bad. But financially, it would not have been possible without the help of my brother Sean. He came through for me and told that I don't have to pay him back until I start making more than $100,000, which of course in my line of work will be never. Although I don't think Sean reads this I would like to publish my thank you to Sean. Thanks Sean! I know that we haven't stayed in touch that much, but I know that you are always there for me and I love you. Also, quick note that my sister Judi and my mother, Jackie, helped to organize me being able to get the surgery. So to Judi and Mom thanks and I love you guys!!! The spot was on my hand and they got all of it. Tomorrow I get my stitches out and life can go completely back to normal.
My summer was pretty awesome. I know that there a lot of stories of hospital visits or near hospital visits in it, but honestly it made me appreciate the kindness of other people. I have had to rely on doctors I didn't know who treated us amazingly well. Brothers who let me have a vacation and helped me to become well. And doctors that I just met to perform surgery on my hand, although that was expensive and makes me question health care, I do feel that they did a great job. It's not completely their faults that health is an industry in the US. Grace was abounding this summer and I hope that you all could feel the love of strangers and families as well this summer.
Grace and Peace to you my friends and complete strangers,
Mark
