Miracles!

May 25, 2019

Miracles!

 I haven’t been writing for my blog often.  I’ve been very busy lately!  (And yes, the picture is an old one, like 4 years ago, but it’s one of my favorites of Becca & Anastasia.)

This past week was totally amazing in how God just orchestrated things to work out for good.

If you’ve been reading, you probably know my little sister has been going through some rough medical challenges.  Read this if you don’t know about it.  (Okay, she’s always going to be “my little sister” to me, even though she’s a very competent adult.)  On Wednesday, my Mom texted me at work (she was playing taxi for Becca) with awesome news!

God had closed up one of Becca’s varicose veins!  But she was already prepped for surgery and had prepaid for it so the Doctor said they’d do the worst vein on the other leg.  That was so amazing!  Actually, they scared her to death before telling her it was good news.  The nurse with the Doppler says “stop talking” and moves the Doppler around with a serious face.  Becca’s heart jumped into her throat.  Then she sets the wand down.  “Let me get the Doctor.” And then Becca had to find her calm place and bite her tongue as they both moved the Doppler stuff around and made comments like “I see it” and “yes, that’s odd.”  Becca said finally the nurse says to the Doctor, “shall I tell her, or do I?” and then they told her it was gone.  They offered, since she was already prepped, to just start in on the other leg (the worst, largest vein) so of course, Becca said yes.

The second miracle happened two days later.  Anastasia has been severely allergic to eggs all her life.  Like so allergic she needs an EpiPen and can’t touch anything that touched eggs.  We have chickens, so you’d think our house was a definite no-no, but we are very diligent about keeping her away from our eggs and washing everything (hands, countertops, etc) to keep any contaminates from her.  And we bake cookies, breads, ice cream, and cupcakes without eggs anytime she’s over.  She’s really good about asking if it has eggs in it.  (Louis picked up a cookie snack from Aldis when she was shopping with us & she asked, “does it have eggs?” so we put it back and Christina made eggless cookies instead.)

Anyway, so much for backstory… at the end of school, the school gives back all medications to the parents.  Normally, that’s on the last day, but they almost gave Anastasia’s EpiPen back on Thursday instead.  Her Dad wisely didn’t take it; he told them her Mom would get it on Friday.

So her EpiPen was at school for the party day.

And that was when she needed it.  She misunderstood somehow and thought the cupcakes were eggless, so she ate one and two bites into it, her body rejected it and it ended with her in anaphylactic shock.  Although she had to go to the hospital, my brave 5-year-old niece recovered fine.  Becca raced from work to get to her.  The paramedics let Becca drive her to the hospital and she was admitted with a “severe level 5 reaction” so the doctors had to observe her in case her reaction returned as the medicine wore off.  (It didn’t.)  The Doctor was extremely helpful and handed Becca his card, which had John 3:16 written on it!

God lined everything up so that Anastasia would have her medicine and get just the right care.

Our family has felt the love of God and amazing miracles in the prayers, support, and love from all of you!  Please continue to keep Becca in your prayers!  I just had to pass along how awesome our week had been in the way God had been letting Becca feel His presence through these challenging moments.

God always has our best.  We give Him our lives with all of our stuff and He blesses us with His constant love and care.  He shows us love and grace and we are the hands, feet, and arms of Jesus on Earth.  Sometimes we are the givers and sometimes receivers.  And sometimes God shocks everyone with something totally unexpected like healing something in our bodies!

Thank you God, for Your warm arms gathering my little sister and her baby in Your tender care!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Odd Biology

Some thoughts on how unique our biology is; we are each uniquely beautiful.

March 13, 2018

Odd Biology

You know, our bodies are all unique.  This is an amazing thing – but I bet it’s frustrating to medical science!

You see, I have this odd biology where my body reacts to some of the silliest things.  (One of the reasons I’m so into organic and natural as possible!)  I had some bad mosquito bites so Louis suggested I take some Benadryl.  Normal stuff for everyone to take, right?  Not me.  I break out in hives – my entire body covered in red icky blotches that itched worse than chicken pox at 19!  So I’m allergic to normal Benadryl.  I’m allergic to latex.  I’m allergic to aspartame, phenylalanine, and acesulfame-potassium.  My body is just weird.

Last week I got pneumonia and was prescribed an antibiotic.  I followed all directions, stayed away from foods that might cause any reaction, but does my body just accept this medicine and dry up the pneumonia?  No.  Not me.  I’m two days from finishing the antibiotic when I bust out in hives and nausea that puts me to bed.

So I go in to the doctor and they are like “well, you are allergic to this antibiotic.  Usually we prescribe an antihistamine like Benadryl to combat the hives, but that won’t do you any good.”

I walk out with orders to rest, eat fresh pineapple, drink water and Gatorade or coconut water, and come back if the reaction gets worse.  I’m told, “it could take 5 to 7 days for the antibiotic to leave your system.”

Oh well.  At least I rarely get sick.  And now I know another chemical my body rejects.  Its interesting learning how different each person’s biology is: Louis and the girls don’t have any issues with fake sugars or with Benadryl.

Isn’t it amazing how unique each of our bodies are?  All of us have something that makes us different from everyone else.  We are each uniquely beautiful.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

Meet Alena

February 5, 2018

Meet Alena Summers

Alena Summers is an adventurous animal-loving girl who lives in the village of Covenant.  Her home is the planet called Devonia, an Earth-like planet far away where her parents’ transport ship crash landed many years ago.

Alena has one brother, Michael, and two sisters, Janine and Raquelita.  Janine is just big enough to start helping and doing big-kid stuff like fishing at Ice Cube Creek.  (Fishing is one of the Devonian children’s favorite things to do!)

Alena loves babies of all kinds.  She wants to study animals like her father and doctoring like Mrs. Nala and Mrs. Emma.  She loves getting to nurse the baby Brown-Sheep if they are rejected by their ewes (mother sheep).  Sometimes Alena’s temper flares fast.  She speaks the truth without tempering it.  Her father often says she must learn to speak the truth in love instead of in anger or pride.  Alena loves her beautiful world.  She comes across many unique animals and has fun adventures with her siblings and friends.  Alena also loves stories; she thinks that Butterfly tells the best ones.

One of Alena’s favorite stories in the world is the story of how Tawny came to be a part of her family.  That story is found in the third book in The Devonians Series called, “A Foundling Furball.”  When Alena tells it later, it starts like this:

One day while fishing, Alena heard what she thought was a baby crying.  The fishermen looked for this sound.  They discovered a baby dengee (a wolf-like animal) that was badly hurt!  Alena brought this dengee pup home and her father oversees while she doctors it. (Alena’s father studies all types of animals and their family tends the village’s current herd of Brown-Sheep) Alena names this baby girl dengee, Tawny.

Come follow Alena and her friends on fun adventures in their special world of Devonia here!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

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