Quick Update

We are just waiting now. Waiting to see if pumping Ben's stomach will relive the pressure and let his body heal on it's own. If it doesn't then they'll have to operate. 50% of the time this works. We are praying that it will for Ben.

We postponed our wedding.

Please pray that we will have wisdom moving forward. It's freaking me out to not know what the next step should be.

Thankfully, we serve a God who does. I am learning to trust Him in ways I've never had to before.

I just wish it was easier...

When you think it might be over....

I am heading back to Kentucky today. Scar tissue has closed off Ben's intestine and is causing problems. They are trying to remove it without surgery, but if it doesn't work, another operation will be required.

I am ready to be done with all this. I just want Ben to be well so we can get married.

Please pray for Ben. None of this is very comfortable for him...

New Post

I need to get that depressing post off the top of my blog. Umm... in case you were wondering, things at work are backing to being great. I was just in a funk.

So yesterday was my personal shower and bachelorette party. It was fun! I can't think of anything to write, so here's some pictures. Oh and the most useful gift I got was two toothbrushes labeled "Benjamin" and "Andrea". These were from Amberly; I used her toothbrush Thursday night.

Musings after a tough day at work

My advice to people when they are leaving a company is to not give too early of a notice. Like 11 months. That's too early. That's the notice I gave my company. I didn't mean to, it just came out in conversation.

I love the company I work for. They have been so great to me during the past 3 years of working there.

They signed me up for health insurance before I started full-time.

They gave me a flexible schedule when I wasn't feeling well.

They let me stay in Kentucky until Ben got out of the hospital.

But it's hard to keep seeing all of my projects get reassigned to other people. 11 months is too long of a time to get phased out of a company. All of the projects I have been pushing for the last 2 years are finally coming to fruition and someone else gets to run with them. I know it's the logical thing for the company to do, but it's hard for me. Watching other people get promoted to positions I helped create is tough. Listening while other people get credit for my ideas stings.

I'm excited to try my hand at a new company and the job I have now is not the job I want 5 years from now, but 2 months would have been an easier length of time to get pushed out. 11 months is just depressing.

Live and learn.

Oh, and I found out today that I have a cavity. :-(

On Wal-Mart

Yesterday Wal-mart stole a little bit of my soul.

I hate Wal-mart. Not for it's questionable business practises, but for the sheer volume of stuff and people they cram into a single building. I hate the noise, the lighting, the bright yellow price tags and the vast femullet sightings. I do my best not to shop at Wal-mart, not for moral reasons, but for sanity reasons.

Unfortunately, the nearest store to Ben in Kentucky is a Wal-Mart. Target and K-mart are a good 40 minutes away. This is the biggest downside to moving to Kentucky.

Yesterday I needed to get Ben some stuff to make staying in his room more comfortable. Like food. I had to go to Wal-mart. I also needed to pick up some cotton pajama pants for Ben. Target sells all kinds of these. Plaid, solid colors, prints. Target has vast quantities of PJ pants for men.

Wal-mart only sells Nascar print pants.

That's when Wal-mart stole a little part of my soul. When I realized that I would have to buy Ben Nascar pants and he would have to wear them, a little part of me died. At that moment I hated Kentucky and Wal-Mart.

So I took them back to Ben, cut all the sleeves off his shirts and trimmed my hair to be all business in the front and a party in the back.

Home!

Ben gets to go home today!

Which means if all goes well I get to go home tomorrow. I seriously can't wait. I am so happy he's healing well.

God is good!

Time for a little venting

I'm writing this post while the adrenaline is still pumping. Irrationality does that to me.

Ben and I have a drama queen for a travel agent. DRAMA QUEEN.

The day Ben got sick, we declined our travel insurance. Declined it. It was $140 to cover the CHANCE that we'd have to change things on our trip. We decided we weren't cancelling it - the worse that could happen was that one of us would get sick and we'd have to postpone it. We'd take the risk of POSSIBLY paying more for the assurance that we won't have to pay $140. Then Ben's appendix decided to revolt.

So I e-mailed our travel agent and told her we needed to postpone the trip until August and that we understood we'd have to pay the fees associated with that. I figured this probably happens all the time.

She called me today to discuss it and by the way she talked, you'd think I'd ask her to please stop the world from turning.

"Andi, you didn't purchase trip insurance. There's nothing I can do for you."

"I know we didn't purchase trip insurance. We aren't cancelling the trip, we are just moving it. I read the papers we signed. We still have the option to change things - we just have to pay more."

"I just don't know what I can do for you. If you had gotten the insurance that would cover this."

"I know. We took a risk with the insurance and we didn't win. I don't understand why you can't help me. I know you can move plane tickets, I know you can move hotel room dates. Not sure what the problem is."

"But it'll cost more than the trip insurance would have."

"I guessed that. We'll pay it. Just let me know what our options are."

"As long as you know you'll pay more...."

"Just call me back with our options."

There's nothing like walking out of the hospital room of your future husband (who's in intense pain) to take the call of a travel agent who tells you that your thousands of dollars are lost (when they aren't). There's nothing like that to get the adrenaline pumping. And make you want to strangle some one.

*Update on Ben - He still may get to leave tomorrow. They cleaned out his wound today and that was a lot of pain. They think the infection is pretty much gone. Praise the Lord!

** 3:00 update: The travel agent pulled through and got the changes made. We are this close to finalizing the changes and paying for the fees.