October Fulfillments

I believe I can honestly say October is my favorite month of the year.  I absolutely, positively and completely love autumn.  Along with the comforting temperatures and rewarding fall beauty...our family has experienced some fulfilling October moments this year.

Nate's 10th mission trip with EMI as well as building a home with Extreme Home Makeover in Joplin, our 4th trip within 5 years time to the Renaissance festival in Kansas City, kids camping out with grandparents, college visits in Arkansas, and many other little highlights...

One highlight occurred when our two youngest children and I followed Nate to Springfield, MO for three days.  He attended the Tri-State surveyors' convention again this year.  He never goes to those unless he's needing his PDU's to keep his license current, since sitting through three days of lectures that he's heard several times before is NOT his style.  But the kids and I enjoyed some fun stuff, and he joined in the fun whenever he had a break.

Thus, Josiah, Jessie and I spent some time exploring Springfield.  One fun place was a retro arcade hangout that Nate and I enjoy...1984.  It's tagline, "The best thing since 1983," makes me smile.  Nate and I both graduated high school in 1983, and although most of the arcade games in the place were ones we never played, it somehow makes us feel a little more youthful to walk in there and challenge each other to an intense game of Qbert (especially since I ALWAYS win that one.)  Jessie and Josiah loved it, even though mom and dad were actually beating them most of the time - something that rarely happens when we're challenging them to the video games of their generation.

One of the funniest things Josiah said during our time in Springfield had nothing to do with 1984, Bass Pro World or any other fun place we visited.  We were simply walking into the hotel, and Josiah saw his daddy pull the room key card out of his wallet.  Josiah's quick glance and sharp mind made him exclaim, "Wow, how many hotel room keys do you have in there?!"

Dave Ramsey would be so proud to know that Nate's wallet is filled with room keys rather than credit cards.

Speaking of proud - October has brought some incredible opportunities to Nate that make it hard for me not to be extremely proud of my hubby.  First, it was a week in Nicaragua, successfully serving on another EMI mission team.  Next, he volunteered and was selected to go to Joplin on Oct. 19 and 20 to be a part of Extreme Home Makeover's Joplin Build project - building seven homes in seven days.  He'll be serving on the carpentry and framing crew for home #3.

Oh yes, I am SO very excited to see him sportin' that hardhat!  I only wish I could be there at the conclusion, to help shout, "Move that bus!"  What a rewarding day that will be for the seven families, as well as for the thousands of volunteers that play a small part in it.

Last but not least...I'm looking forward to taking three high school seniors to Arkansas at the end of October, to visit two wonderful colleges.  One of those colleges has been the residence of our 22 year-old for the past 3 1/2 years...it will be so good to have an excuse to spend a little time with her.

Sharing life with family and serving others...all of this random activity somehow has seemed a little more gratifying during this radiant and glorious month of October.

"But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create..."  --Isaiah 65:18a

That's Just the Pits...Isn't It?

"Do everything without complaining or arguing." -Phil. 2:14
That has got to be one of the most challenging and difficult verses in the Bible for me.  After all, when I've got problems, I'm just SURE that other people should know about them, because they'll certainly want to feel sorry for me, won't they?  My problems are just as bad and probably worse than anyone else's around me, right?

There's the kicker that usually shuts my mouth from continuing the grumbling.  For every terrible situation that'd I'd love to complain about...I can always think of someone who's dealing with a tougher struggle.

My complaints about our net income dropping into the depths of the poverty level last year sound lifeless when there are so many unemployed people around me with NO income. My griping about that old lady that despises my pastor/husband is insignificant, when I consider what an amazing husband I've been blessed with, no matter what she thinks of him.  Perhaps she's never known the joys of having a loving and committed husband, and so she takes it out on others.

You get the idea.  Sure, we've all got issues and problems that can get us down, overwhelm us and cause us to grumble.  However, isn't everyone dealing with problems and struggles?

"But," you may say, "Their problems or your problems are nothing like mine - you can't understand how terribly difficult this is!"

No, I can't.  Likewise, you can not understand my troubles.  Who am I to assume that I've got it worse than you do...and vice versa?

C.S. Lewis put it rather bluntly: “Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others... but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God 'sending us' to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE hell unless it is nipped in the bud. ” 

Thus, I will do my best to heed Mr. Lewis' advice and "nip it in the bud."  I'll bite my tongue for the umpteenth time and remember that when Paul said "everything," he really did mean everything...and for a good reason.

Who's to Blame?

Stories like this are disturbing, for several different reasons:


Man Dies from Toothache - Couldn't Afford Meds


Of course everyone cries, "If he would have just had insurance, he'd still be alive!"


I won't argue that it obviously would have helped him.  I don't want to take up the "national healthcare vs. no national healthcare" debate. But I see deeper things within an article like this that trouble me...such as this quote:
"When people are unemployed or don't have insurance, where do they go? What do they do?" Silverstein said. "People end up dying, and these are the most treatable, preventable diseases in the world."
Wow - that struck me as an exaggeration, and a sad commentary on today's society...as if insurance is the only answer?


We personally have never had dental insurance.  During my early 20's, I also struggled with wisdom teeth pain off and on for a few years. One time, when I was pretty sure it had reached the infection point and I could barely open my mouth, I called a dentist and made an appointment, knowing that we would probably just have to make arrangements to make monthly payments or something. After x-rays,  the dentist said, "I'll charge $25 a piece to pull them, and we'll do all four and get it over with today."  No mention of expensive dental surgery; no offer to put me on antibiotics or pain meds for a few days. I had even driven myself to his office, expecting that I would be put on some meds for a few days and then have to schedule an appointment to come back at a later date - at which point I'd have someone else drive me.  However - he was making it affordable for me right now, I figured he was the expert, and so I let him go at it.  He shot me up with lots of stuff, pulled all four teeth in short order, and sent me out the door with a scrip for pain meds.  I couldn't even talk when I walked in the pharmacy - just handed them the scrip, feeling conspicuously like a swollen, speechless pumpkin.  I drove myself home, pulling over occasionally to spit the blood out of my mouth...laid around home for about 24 hours before the bleeding finally stopped, and that was that.


Granted - that dentist was obviously rather "old school," and I was pretty miserable for a day or two.  But - what if the young man in the article had visited an "old school" dentist?  Why does needing wisdom teeth removed always seem to automatically mean expensive surgery nowadays?  And why oh WHY aren't some health care professionals just a BIT more in-tune to their patients' needs?  I'd be willing to bet money that dentist had samples of antibiotics at his office that he could have given him for free, or he probably could have set him up on a payment plan and pulled his teeth.  Have we become such a "medi-quick convenience clinic" type of society that many of our health-care providers no longer need to understand some deeper issues that a patient may be dealing with (ie: he's out of work and not insured?)  Have we convinced a generation of people now that unless they have insurance, they're doomed to pain, misery and in this man's case...death?


Yes, it's sad that he didn't have insurance.  But what is sadder to me is that he died, NOT because he didn't have insurance, but because someone, somewhere, just didn't speak up and ask a question or two.  His dentist let him walk away.  What if that dentist had just taken an extra moment to ask, "I see you don't have insurance and can't afford wisdom teeth extraction.  Can you afford these medications?"  (but the dentist apparently didn't even offer him an antibiotic scrip?) Or what if that young man would have been honest and said, "I'm not sure I can afford a prescription right now."  Drug reps hand out free samples to doctors all the time...wasn't there someone, either the dentist or the ER physicians, who could have offered him samples if they realized he was unemployed and uninsured?  Or what about the young man's friends or family - if they had known, surely someone would have offered to help him buy those antibiotics?


I'm sure I'm over-simplyfiying it, but I believe some good old-fashioned communication, honesty and just a little concern and involvement could have saved this man's life.  Maybe insurance would have also saved him, but that seems to be a minor side-point.  Insurance will never take the place of people who genuinely care about others - whether they be care-givers, patients, friends or family members.