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Amish Haulers
Hello Everyone,
Fix yourself a cup of tea and read this.
It's Monday morning. I'm sitting in KFC in downtown Perm, and I'm thinking about a lot of different things. I'm thinking about how my fantasy football team, The Amish Haulers, is number 1 in the YWAM Eastern Europe fantasy football league, and it looks like I will be up for a first round bye in the playoffs. Rachel says she's proud of me. Then I'm thinking about what has Perm come to if I can manage a fantasy football team from home and then go eat at KFC. I try to tell Rachel that it's not so important that the Chicago defense did well on Sunday or that my wide receiver, Randy Moss, caught three touchdown passes against Miami. What's important is to take it one week at a time and not get our hopes up, because the Amish Haulers could easily be eliminated in the playoffs.
The KFC when I first came was a Soviet-style fabric store. I think they sold things like socks and fur hats too, if I'm not mistaken. Then a pizza joint took over and Perm's teenyboppers flied like flies to... uh, like flies to a nice hot pile of... uh... pizza! Then the "American Grill" took over which specialized in such favorites as potato dumplings and borsch. That was a bit of a disappointment for us. Sometimes you get your hopes up and then, well, you get potato dumplings and borsch. And with such things we shall be content.
Of course, I'm thinking about that other thing to as I sit looking out at downtown Perm. "That other thing" is Jaden's MRI. He has come out and is coming out from sedation in a room with Rachel. The doctor asked me to leave because there was a woman who was to also come into the recovery room with Rachel and Jaden. It's not too often that I have an hour and a half just to do nothing so here I am sitting in KFC and thinking. I'm thinking, "I wonder if Pastor Bob was right?". Pastor Bob was the semi-retired visitation pastor who went with us to Jaden's MRI in the States two years ago. We were really happy to have Pastor Bob go with us. He seemed like an old hand at going to hospitals with people and praying with them. He helped us relax as we went to the doctor and then to the MRI. By the way, that hospital in Cleveland has an underground labyrinth that connects the hospital with Philadelphia, I think. If the exercise in walking through the underground labyrinth does not bring health then the treatment at the end of the maze may be of help. Anyway, Pastor Bob told us,"I just think that God wants to do something special here." Later on, he said it again, "I just think that God wants to do something special here."
So, I'm sitting in KFC on Monday and wondering if Pastor Bob was right or maybe he was just trying to help us feel better. I'm also kind of wondering why the doctor seemed upset and asked us if Jaden had been through any treatment.
But, you know, you don't want to get your hopes up too much, because you might win the regular season just to be eliminated in the playoffs or you might go to the American Grill only to be offered a bowl of borsch. And, you know, sometimes people have faith and still have a hard time. It's in the Bible.
This afternoon I went down to pick up Jaden's results. They handed me the slides and the result written on a piece of paper in medical language, and in Russian of course. I read the paper and it looks like they can't find anything wrong with Jaden. I wondered if it's because it's in medical language so I asked to see the doctor.
The doctor seemed a little nervous. He kind of laughed a little. I felt it coming, but wanted him to tell me, so I gave him a bored look and asked for an explanation. He explained that the vein can't become smaller and there is no explanation for this.
Rachel's hovering at the moment. It would be nice of her to leave and let me finish writing and then read it.
Anyway, the doctor explained that maybe another vein formed in his brain that fixed the malformation. And added, "But that is impossible." He showed me the MRI results of Jaden at three months and then the results from yesterday, side by side. In the three month MRI there is an obvious problem. In yesterday's version there is a picture of a normal brain with normal arteries and veins. I let him go on for a while and then offered, "Well, we did pray". He wasn't sure what to do with that. He said we should probably come in again in a couple of years and get another check up. I asked him if his MRI machine was broken. He assured me that it was not.
We will send the results to the surgeon in America too. If the doctors tell us to go through more check ups we will. That's our job; we're the parents. But today, we thank all of you for your prayers and ask you to give God the glory. Turns out Pastor Bob might have just been right, "It looks like God wants to do something special here."
God bless,
Andy, Rachel, Hannah, Charlie, Jaden, and Benjamin
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