home, and reasonably healthy

PICTURES FROM OUR TRAVELS,

and then a brief overview from our trip...

Gavin found a tiny Hermit Crab


Sophie & Auntie Brelin

Marcus & Brelin at the Kwajalein Yacht Club
(a building with a fridge of beer)

Sunset from Kim & Jon's Patio
(we ran outside from the dinner table one night to take the pic)

Brelin.
photo cred: Marcus
scenery cred: God

Sorry for that lame post the other day, I didn't mean to post it. But, I guess it's good that you knew we were alive. It was honestly all I could muster anyway.

Since we've been home, all I've really done is go to the hospital, get fluids, and then do laundry. I did see a friend for a couple of hours on one afternoon--and that was really fun!! But, I haven't even been down the street to catch up with my family. I've just been sleeping on the couch.

Our vacation was amazingly wonderful. It was paradise. Seriously paradise.

We feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to get away together for such a long time, to rekindle our love for one another; to remember that our life is about more than just shiny silver bowls filled with puke. We were reminded that we can be about more than just surviving until the next IV therapy appointment; about more than just the monotony of each stormy day in Seattle, and even more we can thrive through the stormy moments that seems to compound in our lives.

We were separately so worried about my ability to "survive" the trip, but I made it, and had a really wonderful time. I only had to go to the ER once while on Kwajalein, and the trip only cost us $220 (which is normally about $1200-2550 here), so that was a real blessing. We think that our insurance company will reimburse us for this too.

While we were in Kwaj, we had the chance to snorkel, lay on the beach, Marcus surfed & scuba dived, we ate dinner on the beach several nights, we had a couple of bonfires on the beach, we had worship in the chapel, we traveled to different islands (one by boat- Bigi and one by plane, Roi). We stayed overnight on Roi. I was able to keep up with most of the activity, and even worked out most days with Kim! I had a lot of fun snorkeling, and we even got to see a sea turtle! We got to go golfing, and we rode our bikes everywhere. There are no cars on the island, so you either ride your bike, walk, or run to wherever you're going. It's an amazing place. I'd move there in a heartbeat...except there are no GI docs there, so they won't have me. :) We stayed with Kim and Jon, Sophie and Gavin the whole time we were there, and they were wonderful hosts. I'll tell you about some of our adventures in more detail next post.

We are so thankful for our time together, so blessed that we could be together, to enjoy our time with each other, with family, and be in the sunshine!! We loved it--and it's nice to know that even if I'm not healed completely by this surgery, I can still be fun. God has given me life, and He has given me grace. And I'm so thankful.

Blessings to you all.

Hugs and love,

brelin