Update

Well for those who may be wondering what is happening???? The house is still for sale. No lookers lately though. George is still working for Hostess Cake. The company has been in bankruptcy for the past several years and are working on making some changes to end that. If this plan is approved it will me a pretty big pay cut for us and higher cost for insurance benefits, but he would still have a job. We should know the outcome by Christmas.

Julie and I (Rebecca) spent 2 1/2 weeks of October out of in Arizona with my family. Thought it was a great place for Julie to get away from the Illinois allergens as well as relax and rebuild. Great excuse for me to go too :) We had a wonderful time!!!! Beautiful sunshine, lots of great food (my Mom is a great cook!!!) played games and just relaxed. No doctors :) Julie managed to gain back some of the weight she had lost as well as her strength.
We got back on a Tuesday night and on Wednesday started back with the doctors. She lost a filling so we also got to add a dentist to the list. The doctors have decided that her immune system is not functioning properly so she is to start immuno globulin therapy. Basically means take antibodies from a healthy person and inject them into Julie. It is an hour long, weekly process that she will have to learn to do herself. I am sure she would appreciate prayer for this. This is an expensive therapy and we are told that normally it takes 1 to 2 months for the insurance company to approve this procedure. We were a little overwhelmed by the whole concept and had prayed that if this is what she was to do the insurance would approve it, if not then they would deny the request. Within 48 hours they had approved it. The nurse was shocked!!! The Lord was definietly working!! She starts therapy on Nov. 17th.

As for me I am having minor knee surgery on Monday 11/3 I can't let Julie have all the fun :) Other than that trying to keep up with all of her appointments and enjoying some time off work.

Jamie & Fernando are doing great. Both doing well with their jobs and enjoying a little cooler weather in Miami. Jamie is flying home for Thanksgiving. Fernando won't be joining her this time as they are saving money for Christmas when they will be visiting with his family.

Regarding our school adventure... Well we are still in the holding pattern and just living the adventures God sends our way each day.

Overdue Update

Hello again, sorry for such a long pause in updates. To catch you all up on what is happening here. We are not moving in Sept. as originally thought. We have changed our move date to the end of January 09. We are awaiting the sell of the house - if this doesn't happen we may not be moving?????
For those who aren't aware postponing the move is actually a blessing. Julie has had a long battle with a cough that culminated in a 2 week hospital stay from July 24th- Aug 7th. During the past year she had been to see 3 different doctors, had numerous different antibiotics and various tests at one point last Dec. she had developed pneumonia, but with meds, would get better for a short time. Finally our family doctor scheduled an apt. with a pulmenologist (sp). We couldn't get in before August and Julie was planning to go to Guatemala on a mission trip with our church. The Doctor gave her the ok and she left on July 11th. On July 13th she got a stomach bug which led to dehydration and further complecated her breathing. Our church group took wonderful care of her (THANK YOU!) including a trip to a local Guatemalan clinic - not a recommended stop according to Julie. When she arrived home on July 21st we went directly to ER. The doctor there said he thought she was fine - though the radiologist had said she had pneumonia - and sent us home with some more antibiotics. By Wed. night she was much worse. Our family Dr. had just had a baby so we went to see the Dr. filling in for her. He, a previously retired Dr., could not believe she had been sent home from ER and immediately ordered another chest xray and lab work. Since he was a retired he did not have hospital priveliges and turned us over to another doctor, Dr. Pilcher - wonderful dr.! He admitted her and we were off on a long voyage of tests, and procedures. She was diagnosed with pneumonia, plural effusion, impiema and collapsed lower left lung. They removed over a liter of fluid form the lining of her left lung through a tube during the following week. We were dismissed from the hospital on Monday August 4th for 7 hours before returning due to an allergic reaction to one of the meds. She was readmitted until Thursday August 7th. She had lost too much weight and was at a dangerous BMI- body mass indicator level as well as extermely weak! They were trying to rebuild her before she could return home.
One of the great things that has come from this - Julie has had the opprotunity to share Christ with one of her lab techs - his name is Xaiver - would you join us in praying that God will open his heart to trust Christ as his Savior.
Well a month later, we are still seeing a variety of doctors-trying to figure out what allowed her to develop such an extreme case of pneumonia- VERY rare for someone her age- and can we prevent it from happening again as well as working on rebuilding her strength. She has had to take a semester off of school as she becomes tired very easy!
George is still working for Hostess Cake - fortunately he had not given notice. He will continue there until God sells the house or directs in a diffent fashion.
I, Rebecca, had already given my notice to the various people I work for and am semi retired :)
I am enjoying some time reading, being with Julie and catching up all the things that had been put on hold for the last month.
Julie and I are planning a 2 week trip to AZ to visit family next month and looking forward to that!
Hopefully there won't be such a long pause in the next update :)

The Adventrue Continues

Well for those of you who are keeping up with our adventures via this blog, here is the latest info. Last Friday George decided with the time crunch on selling our house and our crazy schedules it would be better to list our home with a real estate agent. So we contacted Beck Gerig with Caldwell Banker, we have known Becky for about 15 years, in fact we bought our house through her. In the meantime we still hadn't heard for sure if we were going to have a place to live in Florida. I was a little anxious about that one. After much prayer - mainly asking God, please let me know we have a place to go when our home sells. Monday morning we got a call from the Village at Baldwin Park and am happy to say we have a place to move into!!! YEAH!! As of Wednesday our house is officially on the market. We did have to repaint two bedrooms - the lovely beige color. We have one finished and the other one, Julie's, to paint yet this weekend.
We continue to see God's hand at work and try to fight off any panic as the time draws closer and closer. Julie is still in need of a job, we still have a lot of things to sell- we are having another garage sell this weekend - hopefully the last one :) Julie has continued to have some health challenges, we're currently awaiting some test results on the cough that won't give up- ongoing since September. Next month she heads to Guatemala for 10 days. So prayer for her would be appreciated.
We are looking forward to completing the move and getting settled in our new place as well as getting to spend more time with Jamie and Fernando. In fact they have already said they would come up for Thanksgiving - this will be our first Thanksgiving with Jamie in 8 years, which is exciting. Julie is hoping to be able to fly down and join us.
We will keep you posted as things develop and would love to hear how things are going with you.

IT'S OFFICAL

For those who are wondering, yes, we are back home in Bloomington. Sorry for the delay in updating. It has been a VERY busy week. We arrived in Florida last Sat. May 17th. Sunday we toured the school and after the initial tour in the field George had chosen to study, 'Recording Arts', we were both left confused and uncertain. We then went and talked to a representative in that field. This led to us talking with Gene, a professor in the field of 'Show Production and Touring'. We then took a second tour with this program as the topic. Now this was a perfect fit. The reason George had previously steered clear of this major was due to the word 'touring'. At our age we aren't all that interested in the touring lifestyle. :) We learned this is a very small part of the program. So, as with many college students, George has now changed his major. He will be studying 'Show Production and Touring' This will enable him to work in any area where there is 'live' sound. Any time you see a microphone. He will also learn to install surround sound theater equipment - we are talking the expensive state of the art stuff. I have already told him "No, he can't have one" :)
We met Mike & Rachel, our friends from Tampa, for supper and had a great visit!
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning were spent looking for a place to live. This is the anxiety part. Wow, housing is not cheap! The apartments are not big! The bugs well those are BIG! Ok, so I guess I am a little spoiled, I prefer not to share my home with creepy crawlies. As we were driving we accidentally took a wrong turn and WOW there were some really nice apartments!!! After some persuading on my part, George finally allowed us to take a look, all the while saying, "honey no way can we afford these." Much to our surprise and happiness, they were running a special that put them just slightly higher than the less than desirable places. So, after really discussing, praying about, stewing over (again me), we are going with the nicer place. For those who would like to come visit - you will not have to share the space with any unwanted critters. That will make visiting a little more enticing :) If you would like to see where we will be living you can go to: www.villageatbaldwinpark.com The floor plan is the 2/2.
Our projected move in date is September 21st.
Prayer requests: Julie to find a full time job
sell our home - if you know anyone interested it is a 3 bedroom 1 full & two 1/2 baths, finished basement, 2 car garage, workshop (could be home office), gas fireplace. Price $175,900.
Me to find a job, after we are there, I don't need anymore here :)
Thank you! Keep checking for further updates.

Winter Park here we come

Well for those who are keeping up with our adventure we are off to Florida in about 2 hours. We will be arriving in Orlando, FL around 3:30pm local time. Tomorrow we take a 4 hour tour (do you feel like breaking out in Gilligan's Island theme song? Hopefully this has a better ending :)) of Full Sail, the school George is planning to attend. We meet with his adviser, financial aid adviser, and housing adviser. Then try to process all of the information.
We are hoping to meet up with Mike and Rachel Hedrick, for those of you who may remember Rachel worked for WCIC and is a good friend of mine. They are now living in Tampa.
Monday and Tuesday we will be looking for a place to live.
We may meet up with Mike & Toni Kripple, Jamie, Rebecca and Haven Cox, Abby & Alex Hepp who happen to be vacationing in Dayton while we are down there. For those wondering what is the connection - they are good friends from here in town. Julie has watched Haven for 3 years and Abby is one of our Jamie's best friends. She even flew to Flordia to be in Jamie's wedding.
Wednesday afternoon we fly home. We are pretty sure in Atlanta we will be meeting up with Jeremy Schmucker who is also flying back into Bloomington after his own adventure of 'meeting the parents' :)
Prayer requests would be: safety for us as well as Julie who stayed in IL. , to know for certain this is God's will for us at this time, then if yes - ability to find housing while in FL, would also appreciate prayers for Julie to find a full time job. THANK YOU!

Blogging Beginnings

Most of you know by now that Rebecca & I are Embarking on new Adventure I will be leaving my job at Hostess Cake & all resemblance of job security and our comfortable lifestyle & jumping out of the boat in uncharted waters I have enrolled at Full Sail school of entertainment media in Winter Park Fla. I will be getting my recording arts degree at the end of the 12 month program I will be looking for a job in sound production I have been involved with sound production at Grace Church in Normal for 10 years now I have found it to be my passion it just seams to be what really drives I'm not sure why it's taken until now to figure out what i want to be when i grow up but at 52 this is really scary to know what the future holds but at least I know who holds the future in his hands with out my faith in Jesus I'm not sure I would be able do this. And with out the love & support of Rebecca, Julie, Jamie & Fernando & the rest of family & friends every one has been so supportive & encouraging & I'm very grateful.

This Saturday May 17th we will flying into Orlando to visit the school on Sunday we will be taking the tour of the facilities & meeting with the advisers & if all goes as planned when we get back we will be putting our house on the market we have been busy for the last few months preparing for the sale we have been listing things in the paper & internet & on the Church Grace Gram things have been selling quite well we had a garage sale & it went well also we have a lot more stuff to get rid of we need to travel as lite as possible .

Well I will keep track of what is happing& keep you up to speed....