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| Mara and her apartment mates |
Our life has changed quite a bit around here because Mara has moved away from home. She is now down in Texas and Adventures In Missions. We have now been home without her for 2 1/2 weeks. It still feels strange not to have her at the dinner table, not to tell her goodnight and have her sweep the floor. Our floor is struggling to stay clean with Mara gone. She is with 33 other like minded young people who have a pretty intense schedule for the next 8 months to work at learning their Bible better, to learn some skills needed for being a missionary and grow in their walk with Jesus Christ.
Mara is sharing an apartment with 3 other girls. It is in an apartment complex with all the other students as well. The learning opportunities go far beyond her actual classes as living with people she didn't know and making many other new decisions have been learning experiences as well.
She is happy to be at AIM but it hasn't all been fun and easy as the major fatigue along with dizziness that she had been experiencing a lot earlier this year has come back pretty full force with the busy schedule she has. So I am doing a lot of praying for her, trying to advise from afar and seeking to give it to God and not worry. I covet your prayers for her as well. We had visited a doctor several times this past year and had gotten a lot of tests done (blood work, echos, etc) but the only thing that the tests brought out was low Vitamin D and B and low Iron. She started taking supplements for all those and also started using electronics less (mostly because her college classes were done) and her headaches really got a lot less frequent and she had some more energy. We were really hoping she was better but unfortunately she wasn't truly all the way. We don't know if there is something more causing problems, that mono is still hanging on from a year and a half ago or what the deal is. She has the classic symptoms for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome but there are no "fixes" for that and I would like to see it fixed. But for now she is working to find ways to manage it and we are seeing what we can do about fixing it and we pray.
Poor Jonathan started school this week while dealing with a bad cold. So his take on it has been up and down. He came home on Monday saying it was going to be a lot of fun, on Tuesday he was ready to quit and today he thought it was going to be okay. Change isn't always easy for him and I don't think all of this course is going to be a ton of fun but I think he will do fine and will actually enjoy a lot of it.
So those are the big changes at our house. We are left with just two students for our homeschool and Aaron is working a couple of days a week. So then it is just Megan and I.
Life changes but much stays the same....
Late summer still brings a bountiful crop from the gardens and my parents' orchards. So the canner is being used, the dehydrator is humming away in the kitchen and we are eating many delicious straight from the garden meals.
4 comments:
We'll say some prayers for Mara and Jonathan too.
I'm assuming you've had Mara's eyes checked recently and her prescription adjusted accordingly? Our son had major dizziness and fatigue issues due to an inaccurate eye glasses prescription a few years ago. I was shocked as we'd had his prescription changed only a couple of months earlier. I guess the brain has to work a lot harder which can lead to fatigue. Either way, I hope her issues are figured out and a solution is found!
Prayers and best wishes for all of you in this season of change!
Lea
I'm glad to check your blog and see a post as I was concerned something had happened to you!
Those are a lot of big changes at your house! I'm sorry Mara isn't well. I have struggled with health on and off since I was a teen. I was also told it could be CFS. I found that the biggest thing that made a difference for me when I am able to do it is sleep as many hours as reasonable before midnight. Eg. don't go to bed at 11 pm but instead 9 or 10 pm sleeping. This is hard to do though but I do feel a lot better when I do this. Stress, change and busyness also majorly affect me. So maybe this is the case with her as well. I try to not over schedule my days and look at the big picture of the week for deciding how much to do. This is hard at her stage of life though unfortunately. I really struggled with that at her age.
Lea, Thank you so much for the prayers and the suggestion. We have had her eyes checked very carefully just in case but unfortunately that didn't help. She did even get vision Therapy last fall which did improve the tracking for her eyes but not the fatigue or the headaches that were common for her at the time. This summer we visited another more advanced eye doctor and she decided to give Mara prism glasses but I don't think she really noticed any improvement after that either.
Nola, Thank you for your concern. That is sweet of you. Thanks also for sharing a bit more of your story and what has helped a little for you. I did remember that fatigue has been a challenge for you but I didn't realize that it was so similar to Mara. I sent your comment on to her for her to think about the idea of going to bed earlier. I think that is something she could do much of the time even with her busy schedule. It just feels challenging when the others in her apartment tend to stay up and be active much later. Hopefully she can learn to manage things. Abbi (for some reason I cannot get it to work so I can sign in with my account to comment!)
So sorry to hear of Mara’s struggles!! We’ll be praying for her. For Jonathan as well with his school course and also for you as you’re experiencing a lot of hard change in your close knit family. You’re doing a great job mama! We raise them to be independent and go out there and make a difference and that’s what yours are doing! Take comfort in knowing that we surround you and your family in prayer. ❤️
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