In Sickness and in Health

"Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." Jeremiah 17:14

How do you truly feel about saying in your wedding vows, "For better or for worse, in sickness and in health?" Have you ever really thought about it? Have you ever had to endure either of these? If you have never had to endure either of these in your marriage, you are lucky or maybe you are fooling yourself. Every marriage has its ups and downs. If you are lucky, maybe you don't have any life altering events that rock your world and threaten every ounce of what you thought you knew. If you have been reading this blog, you are aware of the numerous life-altering events that our marriage has endured over the years. We've had infertility struggles, three premature babies (two of which had lengthy NICU stays), a devastating car accident, sick children, devastating losses of family members, and alcoholism. All of these impacted our lives in different ways and ultimately each changed the course of life in one way or another. We are different people because of these events. Some of these events changed our lives over time. But the last event, alcoholism, was a process or long-standing that changed us over the years. It is a disease that forever altered the course of our lives. It could have altered it for the worse. But we didn't allow it to break us. Instead, we turned to God, and he saved Mark and in turn, He saved me and our marriage.

My last blog posts, I spoke about how Mark and I reaffirmed our faith in God publicly and we renewed our vows. I wish more couples would do this. It was exhilarating and long overdue. Honestly though, the timing was perfect. The rest of our trip in Maui was amazing. We honestly felt rejuvenated. I cried again as we departed this paradise. However, our kids and granddaughter were all at home and we needed to get back to reality.

We dove right back into family life, and we had Paislee our first weekend back as Justine worked. We had gotten home on Friday, and she came over bright and early on Saturday. Bailee and Tristan came over so they could see us and Paislee too. We enjoyed the day and then, Justine called with about an hour left in her shift. She said she all the sudden felt very ill. She said she had the chills, aches, and a bad sore throat. When she got to our house, I tested her for Covid. What do you know, she instantly tested positive! She already had a high fever. We sent her home so she wouldn't have to be around Paislee, but after we thought about it, we figured she was already exposed. Bailee and I decided to test Paislee and she too was Covid positive. Well, shoot!

We all had been around Paislee all day and knew we were all exposed. Bailee and Tristan decided to head back to Jamestown. While we were gone, Kalli hadn't felt well, and she still wasn't 100%. She still had a cough, stuffy nose, and sore throat. I decided to test her, and she too was Covid positive. We knew it was going to make it rounds regardless of vaccination status. It was just a matter of time. Justine felt tough. She ran a high fever for days. I did have her come and get Paislee on Monday so I could work. By Tuesday, Bailee and Mark were feeling tough. Each of them was tested and negative. During the night they both started to run fevers. Bailee tested positive Wednesday (less than 12 hours after testing negative) and Tristan also tested positive. I decided to retest Mark and he too was positive. Mark, Bailee, and Justine continued to feel tough with fevers, aches, and chills for several days. Paislee ended up only with a cough and a stuffy nose. Thank goodness for that! I felt good until that Friday, then I started to feel sick. I never did test; I just assume I had it again. What better way to quarantine than to go ice fishing, so that is what Bailee, Tristan, Mark, and I did.

Honestly, our family was lucky. Mark and I had Covid in November 2020. At that time, no one else had it other than us. No one got too sick. Justine hasn't been vaccinated yet because her neurologist didn't recommend it, but he recently told her he was now ok with her getting it. We were worried about her because she recently had infusions again for her Multiple Sclerosis and that can greatly affect her immunity. Mark and I prayed every night for Him to protect each of us and to renew our health, especially Justine. God is good and he answered our prayers.

Justine was due to have her extensive MRI this past week. This winter has not been kind weather wise. So, needless to say, Justine did not make it to Fargo for her MRI. It has been rescheduled once again. She can't get in until the beginning of March. She has had no other issues and her strength seems to have returned. She has not complained of any headaches or numbness/tingling (to us any way). She is a resilient woman, and she is not going to let anything slow her down. She is constantly on the go and because of this, we get to see Paislee often. She brings a smile to anyone’s face. She wants to interact with everyone, and she does not want to miss a thing. She talks all the time, and we are afraid that in the future, her mother won't even get a word in, and she can talk more than anyone we know (just like her Grandpa John)!

Our family continues to be blessed in so many ways. The closer we feel to God, the greater our blessings. Every one of us is full of blessings and positive things. You only must change your way of thinking and believe. Grace is when God gives us good things that we do not deserve. Mercy is when He spares us from bad things we deserve. Blessings are when He is generous with both. Truly, we can never run out of reasons to thank Him. Reflect on your day and choose to thank Him for at least five things. I challenge you to do this every day. The more you are thankful, the more you attract things to be thankful for.