Behold, the old becomes new

You have waited a long time to see if we are alive! You have wondered if we are finished with our "redemption house"? Well, we are alive, and as you can see we are a long way off from finishing the redemption project. The flooring project is half finished on the third floor. Then we have the kitchen to put in. The second floor has the floor to start, and then the kitchen. The first floor has the flooring to start and then the kitchen....so we have a long way to go. But the ugly frame walls are now covered with sheetrock. The wiring, plumbing, heating and insulation are all done.

And Jesse has not had to haul Karl off to the hospital for more medical reviews for seizures, but the medications have been changed now three times. Perhaps this one will be right. One made me mad, another sad, another gave me a skin rash.

Debbie has started the medication that was being researched at Sloan-Kettering, but we are not in that program so we don't have to travel to NYC. The medication's immediate impact is not pleasant--itching, burning and pain. So far with three weeks into the three month journey it is being tolerated with some difficult-to-sleep nights.

So, as you look at the pictures, imagine and pray for new faces from all over the world that might be living in one or more of these apartments (a one, a two, and a three-bedroom apartment). New spaces, new faces from new places. New places, new opportunities to redirect our thoughts.

OK tell me, is it really so bad that one way of dealing with unpleasantness and pain is to be busy with good things that the bad and the ugly fade a bit from our attention? Redemption requires a lot of unpleasant moments--but to see new hope, new directions, and new life come out of the old means that we can't stop with the pain.

The next month for Karl is in Manilla. Debbie carries on in Baltimore. Her next surgery is the 17th of November. Stay tuned--or stop by and help her plant flowers in the yard or Jesse put some oak flooring down :)