The Saturday Six

One.
I will be the first to admit...I'm haven't organized very much this week. Organized naps, perhaps. And normally organizing and simplifying is more about something going OUT than something coming IN. But after this week and all the sick time, I have learned the importance of having a stash of tissues and cough drops and pain killers on hand - BEFORE you need them. I ended up with a touch of whatever Ryan has had, and there I was, at home all congested and still down from surgery. It was great that as Ryan went out the door, he could pull out a stash of all the stuff I'd need to get me through the day. So my challenge this week is to make sure you have not depleted {in these long sick-laden winter months} all your supplies that you might need if sickness descends. Because you know when it does...you won't want to go out then!!

Two.

Source

Mandy from Biblical Homemaking has been building a house. {Well, not her PERSONALLY, but her family.} She showed pictures this week of their kitchen that she drew out on paper, and she talked about how she used to mentally design her dream house {as a kid} by perusing through catalogs. I DID THAT TOO!! Did you? I used to rip out pictures of bedrooms and imagine which one I would have....ahhhhh how fun!!

Three.

 Source

A few weeks ago, Ryan and I had lunch at our friend John and Sandee's house. He had never been there before, so they gave us a full home tour and told us about all the renovations they'd done over the years. {TRULY a lovely home.} My favorite part was the one I'd not seen before...the master closet. It really was like its own room!! Kind of like what you see in this post from Kari Anne. GENIUS! I never thought about actually decorating the closet like another room. WHAT?!?!!?!? Yes, please!

Four. 

Source

Earlier this week, there was a newspaper article written that really cast a bad light over the school system Ryan and I grew up in. I am not even going to link to it here because I don't find it necessary to do so. Long story short, it accused the system of forcing Christian values on students. There are so many things I could say here, but this isn't a place for argument for or against. I just want to go on record saying that for as hard as the formative school years were, there is NO OTHER SCHOOL I would rather have been raised in, and Ryan feels the same way. We were loved, we were cared about beyond our grades, and we were free to be who we were in the safety of the school walls. If Ryan and I were ever going to have kids, that would be the ONLY school system we would consider sending them to. The outpouring of support for the system has been a joy to watch this week, and I just wanted to go on record saying I'm a proud Eastern graduate and I fully support the values they teach and the genuine investment the teachers make.

Five.

Source

You all know that Angie Smith is one of my favorite authors...and she is about to launch her first Bible study, geared for teen girls. I thought I'd throw this out there in case you work with teen girls...I can imagine this would be a great study!! 

Six.

Apparently I have a twin. One of my friends sent me this...it's near her house. I'm not going to lie. Kinda freaks me out!!!

Flowers and Cards and Talks

I've been blessed to be a pretty healthy person throughout my life. I had a bout of strep throat in Kindergarten that ended up settling in my hip {Yeah. Figure THAT one out.} And I fell off my bike when I was eleven and broke my leg. Other than that - pretty healthy.

The nurse even commented on it when she was getting me ready for surgery. {Funny how I didn't FEEL especially healthy in that moment!!}

But if there's one thing I've learned from this little gallternity leave I've had...it's a fresh appreciation for reaching out to those who ARE sick.

* Words cannot express my outrageous joy at seeing the flower man pull up in front of my house with a bouquet for me. I know flowers don't thrill the soul of every human the way they do mine, but it sure did make my day to know someone was thinking of me and willing to make a phone call to order some flowers.

* To have people take time out of their busy days to put together a dinner to go and drop it by our house was a much bigger deal than I ever imagined it could be. We had SO MANY people ask if we needed meals, and in typical Shaffer fashion, we waved them away and declared we were fine. Ryan can cook. I was sure I would be able to cook in no time. But in truth, Ryan has been exhausted from working and then taking care of me {while still fighting that stupid respiratory infection} and I haven't even felt like warming anything UP, much less cooking. What a BLESSING to have meals dropped by.

* My mom gave up a day to sit and watch TV with me. A couple of friends came over to hang out and talk on their lunch hours. I know how precious lunch hours are. To know that people would sacrifice theirs to come and look at a girl who hadn't showered for a questionable amount of days  = priceless.

* Ryan's grandpa and my parents came to sit with him while I was in surgery. I was out. I knew little of it. But as scared as I was to go to sleep...I loved knowing I could fall asleep knowing people were with him. He didn't seem scared at all. I corner that market. But I felt better knowing he had support. Just in case.

* I hobbled to the door to get the mail...and found funny cards inside that made my side hurt. To know that people wanted to send a card just to cheer me up was a spirit-booster.

* People have texted and emailed to make sure I'm okay, which has made me feel so loved. You've sat here and read through the details of my surgery and recovery, which is kind beyond measure.

People offered snacks, coke and coffee runs, rice bags...and so many more things that I am afraid I'm going to forget one and leave someone out. But my point in saying all this is...regardless of what people did...whether it was a prayer, a text, or a meal, it let me know that having a village of friends is a good thing. It manifests in all different ways. One way was not more important than another. I didn't appreciate one more and one less. They have all come together in one big picture of love and care, and it has moved me to be more intentional.

We're all busy people.

We all have reasons why we don't have the time or the money to reach out to someone who is sick or recovering. And maybe, like me, some of us just haven't experienced what the need is like. We think it's no big thing...until it becomes our big thing. And then we know in a fresh new way.

So as you look around your circle of friends, what do you have that someone could use? Could be a few minutes of talking. Or a dinner. Or a sweet tea. Or a text. Or a prayer from wherever you are.

Thankful that God has used this season of forced down-time to teach me this lesson. Looking for specific ways to put it into practice!!

Gallternity Leave

I greet you from the land of Gallternity Leave. So far it has consisted of naps, naps, and more naps. And I thought I'd let you peek in!

First of all, I cannot BELIEVE I forgot to show you this picture a couple of days ago. For goodness' sake, I built the entire name of the blog post about it and then forgot the picture. I blame the pain meds.

Yes. The chalkboards go everywhere.

When we got home on the day of surgery, Ryan got me all set up on Mo {who certainly had NO idea the immediate torture he would go through between Ryan's upper respiratory infection and my surgery. I bet he's regretting being adopted by the Shaffers!}

My parents came over that afternoon to visit me and to bring a bouquet from the whole family.

It's so pretty! Flowers AND Cadbury eggs AND a Starbucks card!

 I really didn't feel too terrible when I came home. Just didn't have an appetite at all...and as the day went on, my belly became increasingly sore.

That evening, Ryan's sister, Bre came over with dinner for us. Delicious taco bar in a bag. It was so thoughtful!

And my friend Marie stopped by just to check on me and to bring  her rice bag in case I needed it for my tummy:

 The rest of the night? I just slept.

Tuesday, Ryan had the day off to spend with me at home, and I fear I was in and out most of the day, while he worked so hard around the house. I appreciated all he did! I did try to get up, brush my hair, put on a little makeup, and change clothes.

I put myself on a strict schedule of walking laps around the house every half hour so I didn't get too stiff. I still wasn't having pain...as in just sitting didn't hurt. But it hurt to move, and stretching out to stand up tall was not fun.

I was excited to hear the doorbell ring and the florist delivered a gorgeous bouquet from the station. Braeya immediately took it over. Of course.

Ryan and I did lounge around quite a bit - in between his chores. I loved having him home.

I also got a second flower delivery that afternoon - from my in-laws. They're so sweet! Thanks, Allen and Nita!

Ryan had to attend a class for work that night, and my mom had planned to come stay with me, but the roads had gotten really slick during the day, so we told her to stay home. Ryan still went to class, and I stayed home to try being a big girl. It went moderately well. By that point, I just wanted to sleep off the day!! Fell asleep that night looking at all my pretty flowers:

Wednesday was Ryan's first day back to work, and neither of us wanted him to leave. My mom did come over that day, so after Ryan left, I took a nap, and Braeya waited for Grandma:

When she came, we sat around and watched TV. I fear I was terrible company.

Around lunch time, my friend Lynn stopped by to bring me a card and Starbucks love, and she stayed to chat with me for a while. Man, I have some of the nicest friends!! I appreciate all their support!

And then Mom and I spent the afternoon watching HGTV and someone decided her Grandma's black skirt was the best parking spot. {Mom is NOT an animal person, so this was quite a moment.}

So that's been my Gallternity leave, so far. I'm thankful I feel as good as I do, while being frustrated that I don't feel even better. {Go figure.} I know it's all going very well, but I was hoping to pressing on full speed ahead by this point, so actually being forced to slow down is good for me, despite the frustrations.

Thanks so much for checking in on me and putting up with all my updates. You guys are the best!

92 County Tour: Huntington County

Ready for another break from health chatter? Today is your day!

Can you believe we haven't been on a county tour in FOUR MONTHS?? The end of last year got a little bit chaotic on us, and our attempt to take a tour in January was derailed by the beginning of the gallbladder debacle, so we were DETERMINED to get one squashed into February. Of course on our appointed day, Indiana got MORE snow, but we didn't care. We went anyway!

Next up for us was Huntington County, which actually borders our own county to the north. I drive through Huntington County FREQUENTLY during the winter months, because my trusty "back way" to work treks right through it. Because of that, this kind of felt like another home county for me!

Huntington County was named after Samuel Huntington, whose signature can be found on the Declaration of Independence. This county also really has only one significant city - also named Huntington. Originally I intended for us to also stroll through Roanoke which is an adorable little town just north of Huntington, but we didn't end up getting there, which was okay. We had fun doing what we did!

This was our first time to do a county date DURING a snowfall, and it made for some very cute pictures.

Our first stop was the Forks of the Wabash. We'd been there before...last fall, actually, when we went with Ryan's mom to have our Christmas card pictures taken. The Forks are a beautiful place for pictures!

There are several historic cabins and a little gift shop there, and we thought they were very pretty in the snow!!

After we left the Forks, we tried to go to the Sunken Gardens, where we also had Christmas cards taken last year but alas, the parking lot had not been cleared, and even in our 4 wheel drive car, we were afraid we would get stuck. So we skipped that and headed to lunch instead.

Last month, after we left the ER, we stopped at the Pizza Junction, which is a pizza shop in an old train depot. I was too sick to eat last time, but this weekend, we went back!!! It was snowing pretty hard by the time we arrived:

We ordered subs, since I am trying to be careful about greasy pizza right now. A train actually came through while we were eating, but we were on the wrong side of the restaurant to see it. Pretty cool to hear it zoom by though!

After lunch, we went to a vintage store, called Antiqology, which several people had recommended as a must-see stop while in town! They actually sold ice cream - like a soda fountain counter kind of feel, but we were headed for coffee, so we didn't do that this time. They did, however, have a full WALL of craft sodas in glass bottles, and we picked out a bottle of root beer. We asked the guy his root beer recommendation, and he said they had SIXTY-TWO kinds of root beer alone! WHAT!?!? We brought it home to have POST surgery.

The rest of the store was filled with REALLY COOL vintage finds. Check it out!

My favorite find was this original file cabinet, custom made for the Huntington County Courthouse back when it was first built over a hundred years ago! It was several hundred dollars more than our budget allows...so we couldn't have it. But it is amazing.

After leaving Antiqology, we went to the Party Shop - a little coffee shop that also specializes in fine chocolates. Sounds like the perfect pairing to me!

I got a fru fru raspberry crumble latte, and Ryan got fresh brew and one of their delicious turtles.

They were serious about their candy in there!!

And our last stop before leaving town was Huntington University. We had to stop by for a photo opp for some of our friends who went there. We have some memories here too, as the Fandana Music Festival that we we worked a couple of summers ago was held on its campus!

So that was our snowy, Huntington County date!! We had a great time, despite the crazy weather. Can't wait to head to the next destination!

It's a Gallbladder!!

You guys blessed us to pieces yesterday with your kind words and the MANY prayers we know were being offered on our behalf. Thank you. I feel good enough to write, so I thought I'd let you see some pics {don't worry - nothing gross} from our day yesterday. Ryan, as if he did not rock ENOUGH by writing yesterday's post, also did an AMAZING job of documenting the day in photos. Man, I love that guy.

Before surgery, he surprised me with a sweet card and a couple of coffee mugs full of Reese's candy. I sobbed, of course, reading the card.

We had to be at the surgery center at 7:30, and we got all checked in right away. I was pretty weepy by the time we got to the hospital. The enormity of having surgery had settled in on me, and I wanted out. But Ryan and the nurses were sweet to me.

We were so surprised when Ryan's grandpa walked in! Grandpa Cox has been a dear friend of my Dad's for years, so he became my grandpa in my heart as easily as he became my grandpa in title. The fact that he would come over and sit with Ryan was such a gift. And we knew my parents were coming, so after everyone was there, they all gathered around my bed and Dad prayed over me.

I met the anesthesiologist and the doctor came in to meet me again as well. The nurses were busy tracking down the missing blood work from last week. ANYONE surprised by that?

They actually took me back about 15 minutes early, and I was NOT ready yet. I immediately started crying, and the nurses were so sweet to me. When they got me in the OR, it was so cold, and I was so scared, and I just needed one more prayer. I was half a breath short of asking the nurses if any of them were praying people, when the sweet nurse right by my head just leaned her whole body over mine, put her face by my ear, and prayed the most beautiful, heartfelt prayer. I am convinced God planted her in my OR for a very specific reason.

She put an oxygen mask on my face and I remember saying "I'm falling asleep, aren't I?" followed by a fleeting thought that I hoped they weren't going to kill me with that mask...and then I was coughing and sputtering in recovery.

Ryan told me that the surgery only took an hour...they'd prepped us for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, and that the gallbladder wasn't quite in as bad of shape as they thought. Still bad. But not AS bad.

I tried so hard to eat a graham cracker and drink some Coke, but I had no appetite at all. NONE.

The nurse told me I looked green. That didn't help. And it was with that news that I sent everyone but Ryan out of the room. No need for everyone to see a show if it happened. {Which it didn't.}

After about an hour, I gingerly climbed back into my clothes and prepared to go home:

Wheeled out and ready to go!

Again - thank you SO much for your prayers. We love you all!!!

Faith, Marriage and Life - Just All the Stuff

So Bekah and I have this agreement.  I do the heavy lifting and she does the writing.  And it works like a well-oiled machine because it is geared toward our strengths (that is literal and physical).  But today is different.  Today she is giving birth to a gallbladder and for everyone’s sake, we plan for this to be the only way she ever gives birth.   We love children, but don't feel led to have any of our own.  

Every day you read about Shafferland through Bekah’s eyes.   So bear with me if you will and fasten your seat belt for a blog post through Ryan’s eyes.  Let’s do this!! 

Life.  Life is wonderful.  Life is crazy.  Life is difficult.  Life is a journey.  When I think about our life over the past 2.5 years I’m completely amazed.  I’m sure most of you know our story; if you don’t, you can read about it over several Bekah-posts here.  It is one that neither of us expected and continues to amaze us and surprise us.  You know how it is when you have a plan and it never works out quite like you expect?  That is definitely us times 1000.  And you know what?  That is okay.  It’s okay because it keeps life interesting.  It shows how much God is a part of our daily lives and how much He loves us.  And if were really honest, it shows how truly important we are to Him.

Through the journey we have done so much.  And as you know something that we have done A LOT is wait.  So much so that I’m beginning to think it’s a spiritual gift, but that can’t be.  Right?  We’ve been talking at church about spiritual gifts and that has never come up.   Just like many of you, we have waited and waited and waited.  And there are still many things that we are waiting on.  Some of our waits have only been shared between the two of us because it’s not time to talk about them publicly yet.  God is always working, especially while we are waiting.  Waiting is a process that has allowed us to have victory in ways we didn't expect.  It has prepared us for future goals and has pushed us to stand firm in our faith.  Through the difficulties in life, the many hours of commuting, the waiting for life answers, and definitely the blessings, I have seen a changed Bekah.  I know you read her thoughts everyday here, but I LIVE with her.  And let me tell you it is no easy task.  I’m seriously kidding about that.  But I do see her at her best and worst.  I experience life with her in a way that no one else can.  She shares things with me that she doesn’t share with anyone else.  AND I LOVE IT!!  I love the true relationship we have together.  I love that our marriage is a priority to her.  I love all the ways she shows love to me and of course all the FUN we have.  I have experienced life with her in a way I never have before.  It’s like my eyes have been opened.  

 When we were dating, what attracted me to her most was her commitment to Christ.  I knew that if I was ever to marry, it would have to be with a woman I was equally yoked with and someone I could trust completely.  I have seen too many marriages fail or strained when these things were not primary.  I don't know if she has ever told you about the journal we keep together.  We started it when we were dating and would pass it back and forth between seeing each other.  It was a way to write love notes to each other, tell one another our hopes, dreams, and fears, and we wrote prayers to each other as well.  It was a great way to get to know each other better and it was all in one place, a little black spiral bound journal.  We have kept it up since being married, but only exchange it about once a month now.  I was reading through it the other day and it is filled with so many thoughts go through page after page of her writings, especially after you get into our marriage you see her faith and trust in God growing.  Even through the waiting and the tears. She is amazing!

Sorry got a little sidetracked there.  When I start talking about the love we share and our marriage I just run wild.  Back to the changed Bekah.  I’ve been noticing this for a while and then Lynne even mentioned it to her the other day.  Her faith has been growing like crazy.  I’m serious.  It’s one of things you don’t notice until you start looking back at things. 

With all of the fun trips and adventures we have had in our marriage, I think equal to that has been the difficulties.  Not difficulties from marriage, but from what life can bring sometimes.  And that’s where your faith is needed most.  Faith to get through the trying times.  Faith to face the challenges in front of you.  Faith to face tomorrow.  Bekah lives out this faith every day.  She lives out each day with a beautiful smile, a laugh that is infectious, and a spirit of joy.  She is the person that lights up the room when she comes in and the one who helps you feel better if you're having a bad day.   When we pray together she is so genuine and honest with God, just like they're best friends.  I love it.  And I love the relationship between the three of us.  It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.  She is always in prayer for someone because everyone knows that she will pray for them.  She’s always so encouraging, always loving, and always so full of insight.  Since getting married, I have seen her become stronger and grow because she trusts God.  She trusts Him with our lives.  I know it’s not always easy for her and she absolutely struggles at times, but she plows ahead.  Sometimes with many tears, but still plows full steam ahead.  

And now we're to today.  Her many years of stomach issues have been diagnosed with a stone filled gall bladder and hopefully it will be removed flawlessly.  Sure hope we can keep it!! If not, at least the stones :)  Many of you have been in prayer for her for quite some time which I appreciate so much.  I ask for you to continue in those prayers today for my sweet Bekah.  She is the light of my life and my rock.  I’m so thankful that she waited so long for me.  It was just another part of God’s plan for both of our lives.  And possibly the reason she is able to wait so well.  

Thank you all for coming here and enjoying life with us!  We love God.  We love marriage.  And we love all of you.  

      Stay strong Awesome Sauce.  I love you and will be here when you wake.

                                -Ryan