I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year’s! A lot has happened since I last wrote. I enjoyed the opportunity to speak a couple more times in Michigan at my church for about an hour each time. It was also so nice to see some friends in Michigan (though sadly it is not realistic for me to see everyone I would have liked to!). Ryan flew home so Mom, he, and I spent Christmas together (with Chester the beagle too – 14 years old now). We decided to drive up to our old church in Lexington for the Christmas Eve service, which was a delightful surprise for our friends from there. After the service, Ryan and I just went on a quick tour of the church to remember our “old stomping ground” where we’d grown up in the youth group. When we entered the choir room, to the left on a little table as you walk in, there was a small (probably a few feet wide) chalkboard with “Howdy Choir Members!!!” written faintly on it in chalk. It looked like something I would write, even looked like my handwriting. I looked closer and saw my name signed in the bottom corner! I haven’t attended that church since 2004, so I was definitely not expecting to see that! It doesn’t erase anymore, and I don’t know if they usually have it out like that, but it was a cool, random surprise!
On Christmas Day, we drove back up to the Lexington Cemetary to put a wreath on Dad’s grave and Mom read a meaningful poem. We then drove up to the Lexington Park along the lake where Ryan and I ventured down onto the snowy, windy Lake Huron beach. As we passed the swing set on the way back, we decided we should swing in the snow! And yes, I even jumped out of the swing into the snow at the end. So that was some random, child-like fun. Then Mom did an amazing job of cooking Christmas dinner, which was normally Dad’s forte since he was a trained chef. It was definitely different not having Dad around, but it wasn’t as emotional as I’d expected. I never really noticed how “O Come All Ye Faithful” is more fitting or meaningful now – “Sing, choirs of angels; Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above” (i.e. Dad). The day after Christmas, we went to our family friends’ place for our annual Christmas gathering.
Minnesota!
Then the next morning, Monday the 27th, Ryan and I flew out to Minneapolis on the same flight. It was kind of humorous that I’d been upgraded to first class again because of my frequent flyer miles, but Ryan not so much... So I got to go to the front of the lines and sit in first class, while he was back in coach! I got to board earlier, so I gave him a little wave and smile as he passed me on the way back to coach, haha. I thought about asking the person next to him if he/she wanted to switch and sit in first class, but after getting situated in my comfortable chair and enjoying my pre-flight glass of orange juice…Naah! We would both probably sleep anyway and not really talk. At least, this is what I told myself as I enjoyed my spacious seat. Once there, I stayed at Ryan’s new place in Hopkins, MN. He’s renting a house, and has acquired two housemates who have both been friends with him for years.
Beautiful Redemption…Crisis Averted!
Within a few minutes of arriving at Ryan’s house, my jaw appliance broke! It had been getting weaker and at one part the clear material had been worn down to expose a couple centimeters of the internal wire. At first I was kinda freaking out because it cost like $1500 and we’d gotten a letter the previous week about how my insurance does not want to cover any more jaw costs. But then I realized that I already had an appointment scheduled with the jaw specialist that very day, just 3 hours later. The jaw appliance is custom-made and the only place that can fix it in the world is that very place where I had the appointment. So they took it overnight to send it to the lab to be fixed. Then I came back the next day, they refitted the repaired appliance to me at the only timeslot still available for an appointment (at 3 pm, precisely when the jaw appliance would return from the lab!), and made the necessary adjustments to hopefully fix/help my jaw (the original purpose of the appointment the day before).
Just that one day of naked teeth (not wearing the jaw appliance) was cause for noticeable discomfort, soreness, and pain. It made me realize how truly blessed I am that it broke when it did. Had it broken a few weeks, or even a few days, earlier in Michigan, it would have been a painful wait until I could make it to St. Paul to see the jaw specialist. Or had it broken in the following week, I would’ve been back here in Botswana at a loss for what to do. The other thing that I thought it might have been affected was that I was planning on riding down with one of Ryan’s housemates to a young adult Christian conference down in Kansas City on Tuesday morning. I knew the jaw appliance was more important, so I was willing to miss the conference if need be. But when he learned that I would need to wait until the jaw appliance was back from the lab to have my appointment at 3pm on Tuesday, he was more than willing to wait and still drive me down to the conference! So besides that small delay (and the costs of repair), it was essentially harmless because of the timing. Had it broken any other day, it would’ve been much more of a crisis. It reminded me of how God loves to bring redemption to the bad situations in our lives.
Kansas City! Reuniting with friends and making new ones!
I had already worked out to stay with friends at a church near the conference. Interestingly, the guy I had emailed to ask about accommodation, Ben, had been the student leader of the high school bible study/prayer meeting in Lakeville a couple years ago with whom I was working. Two years ago, I had invited Ben and several of his high school friends to come to the same conference and had worked it out so they could stay at a church with the Bethany College of Missions group. And now, Ben has since graduated and is now a sophomore at the University of Minnesota co-leading the Univ. of Minnesota House of Prayer (which he started last year!). So this year when I realized I could come, I emailed Ben and he hooked me up to stay with them at a different church. He was the one organizing 30-some people from Minnesota (including me) to attend the conference. Pretty cool how it was coming back full circle!
So it was an adventure staying at the church with 2 or 3 different groups from Minnesota, mainly college-age students. Maybe 50 people staying there…and only one shower!! It was great to meet a few St. Kate’s students who have been leading a bible study on campus. St. Kate’s is where I did my undergrad and where I’d co-led the Campus Crusade bible study for over 4.5 years. A couple years after I graduated, it had kind of fizzled out, and I’d tried to “find the remnant” in 2008 to get it re-started up, but as of 2009, I only knew of 2 students (one of whom was planning on transferring) going to the bible study with the 2 Campus Crusade staff. After I moved to Botswana, I no longer had any idea what was going on at St. Kate’s in that regard. So it was just an encouragement to meet these St. Kate’s girls who were passionate about Christ and have been leading a bible study and are in the process of getting it chartered! The last night (New Year’s Eve), we ended up staying up until 4 am talking and sharing testimonies.
Besides the encouragement and inspiration the worship and speakers at the conference provided, it was such a blessing to see so many of my friends there. I was so thankful to have coffee and catch up with one of my former youth group students, Bethany, whose family moved to Florida (so I didn’t know when I’d get to see her again). She had also come along two years ago with Ben to stay at the church with Bethany College students. I also had lunch one day and hung out another night with one of my friends who lives in Kansas City (with whom I’ve stayed several times) and our mutual friend from Bethany College. I also saw a handful of other classmates and friends from Bethany College. A bunch of us went out for dinner one of the nights.
Minnesota Again -- Good Medical News!
I rode back up on New Year’s Day and the next day, I attended the Lessons and Carols service at my Minnesota church and gave a presentation afterwards about my mission work in Botswana. Saturday night, Sunday, and Monday I also met up with various friends and college roommates. Though I couldn’t see everyone I would have liked (or even have time to stop by Bethany College), it was so nice to see the many people I could.
All told, I had 3 jaw doctor, 2 massage therapy, and 2 chiropractic appointments while in Minnesota. I am supposed to wear the jaw appliance another 2 months at least before I can hopefully start tapering off of it. The massage therapist told me that he doesn’t think I’ve lost any range of motion in my neck; it was just pretty tight. He told me something he’d never shared with me before: When I first started coming to him in September 2008 (7 months after the accident), given the extent of my injuries, he didn’t think he would be able to help my neck gain any range of motion. He thought his role would be to prevent any regression, but he honestly didn’t think I would gain any more rotation since I broke the top two vertebrae. So when I continued to gain rotation for a year and 4 months until I left last December, he said he was completely surprised and thoroughly pleased. He was one who has called me a walking miracle.
Right after that on Monday the 3rd, I decided to drop in to visit my physical therapist, who is a neck specialist. I didn’t have an appointment, but I just thought it’d be nice to drop in and say hi as I passed through. He wasn’t expecting me at all, so he was surprised to see me and we hugged. He wanted to see my neck rotation, so I turned right/left and up/down and he said it’s better than when he last saw me (December 2009)! So that’s an encouragement to know that I’m not regressing while in Botswana. This physical therapist has emailed me a few times in Botswana, and in one of them, he again acknowledged that my main physician has been God. He wrote in May: “I'm happy (but not surprised) to hear that your neck is doing well. You had 3 important things going for you: great motivation to get better, a body that's good at healing (good genetics) and a good medical team with a high level supervisor (God).”
Michigan Again … Atlanta … Johannesburg
I flew back to Michigan later that day and again was upgraded to first class. Oh my goodness! It was a new plane with ginormous seats! There was so much legroom I couldn’t even touch the seat in front of me with my feet! My chair could recline all the way to a flat bed, or while seated, I could adjust it in so many ways, including lumbar support. All this for no extra charge (thank you frequent flyer miles). Ludicrously beautiful.
I was back in Michigan with enough time to basically wash my clothes, do last minute errands, and repack for Botswana. I came down with a cold that Tuesday, including a painfully stuffed right ear. Thanks to some medical advice from friends, I got some medicine and it was feeling better after a couple hours, though still stuffed. With some special airplane earplugs to equalize pressure, I didn’t suffer too much on the plane rides.
During my 6 hour layover, I was able to have lunch out in Atlanta with Kjel, the step-dad of Jessica from my accident. His wife (Jessica’s mom) Cindy was sadly not able to get off work since it was the first day of school. It was nice to catch up with Kjel though. Then, I happened to sit next to a woman on the flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg whose daughter had broken her neck in a car accident 4 years ago and was in a coma for 10 days before passing away. So we kind of understood each other. Then after the long flight, I was picked up by the parents of Karin, the other woman who was killed in my accident. During my 23-hour layover, I stayed at their house again (in Karin’s old room), as I had in July. It was such a blessing to see them again and to share more with them. They told me I am always welcome there; that their home is my home.
Botswana!!!
Then it was off to Botswana, where I arrived safely on Friday. The two housemates already back picked me up from the airport and we went to our friends’ house in Gaborone, where we’d been invited for dinner. Yesterday, we handed out flyers to all the youth as they stepped off the coach bus from Youth Week (a YFC camp in South Africa), letting them know about the Youth Week Reunion event we have planned for January 22 at the new YFC building in Gaborone!! Our other three housemates had been at Youth Week so we picked them up too. So now it’s feeling back to ‘normal’—today is the first day back at the office and we are gonna sweat it out at aerobics class tonight!
Blessings from Botswana,
Em
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