Day 1: The beginning of a journey...

So, where do I begin? Our whole life is such a journey of ups and downs right from the beginning. I won’t bore you with my knee scrapes and stitches from my youth. But rather with a new beginning for me back in 2006. I had worked in a professional photography studio for 18 years. At first I just started doing whatever needed to be done, to managing it, to being a photographer myself, to buying the studio with my husband who also loves photography. This all happened over a period of 26 years and a lot of hard work, while raising 3 children. It was a passion for both my husband and I. We worked many hours and I found out, at the time,  I was quite the workaholic. But we felt very blessed to be doing something we loved. And doing it together was an extra bonus (most of the time!) 😊

It was 2006 when we actually purchased the studio from the man I had worked with. We were very excited. It all happened pretty quickly, and it took us a bit to get our ducks in a row. But we enjoyed all of it. One Thursday I was trying to get our health insurance worked out since we were now self employed. I was so relieved because the agent was coming the following Tuesday to sign the papers, and everything would be complete. Remember, to this point, I never had one sign of any kidney issues ever.  So as far as I was concerned, Thursday to Tuesday was no big deal. But, I came to find out that a lot can happen in one day, because Friday morning I woke up extremely sick and in a lot of pain. I was so sick I almost didn’t make it to the hospital. When I got to the emergency room they gave me a very high dose of morphine, which made the pain tolerable. They ran all kinds of tests and they came back into the ER room with the look of doom on their faces. I had to be admitted to the hospital and looked at by a nephrologist (kidney doctor) because BOTH of my kidneys were not functioning correctly. So after being in the hospital for almost a week, and many tests later, the nephrologists came into my room painting what seemed to be, the gloomiest picture imaginable. I had Chronic Kidney Disease and neither of my kidneys were working. They also said I will need to be tested for Kidney cancer because something just wasn’t right. Their bedside manner needed some work. But they let me go home, with the understanding I had to get set up with a nephrologist that I could see on a regular basis. Marv and I went home not knowing what was ahead of us. The emotions of fear, anger and total confusion were so overwhelming. And so, the journey began. Doctor appointments. Blood work. More doctor appointments. More bloodwork. Surgery to blast the kidney stones that had lodged and were causing further problems. All while running a business. Luckily, our kids were grown by then, even though one still lived at home. I think this was a major time in my life when God started working on my heart. Little did I know he was answering a prayer I prayed a number of years earlier. I had prayed, “ God , do whatever it takes to make me usable for You.”  Word of advice, don’t pray that prayer unless you really mean it. I thought I was a pretty good person. But God had plans of showing me all the things He needed to change in me, before He could even begin to use me for His glory! And there was plenty to be done. So, until tomorrow... to God be the glory!! 😊