if we could....

If Matt and I could (a desire of our hearts, not a reality)...
We would be part of the process of bringing a treatment into the United States that is as good (which would mean exactly the same) as the treatment Ryan received in Germany to treat Lyme Disease.
We would make it so that the facility administering the treatment was not a racket.....yes, I know they would need to make a profit BUT not a killing.

It would be a place of hope and healing

Oregon needs this
America needs this

America is ignorant about Lyme- very little money is spent on any sort of research or education.
It is pushed under the rug and ignored by the CDC and by our medical system.  They like to explain it away as psychosomatic symptoms.  When it is acknowledged, it's pharmaceutically driven for a profit and not for a cure.
You have very few treatment options in the US- of those treatment options, insurance covers none of the cost.
With the ignorance surrounding Lyme Disease, plus, the fact that it is, for the most part, a non visual disease (usually the person suffering 'looks' fine), so much of the time, friends and family will have a hard time understanding what you are experiencing or how to support you.
With the combination of the above, many times, those with Lyme end up suffering in silence, which is heart breaking.

The prayer of both Matt and my heart is that those who are suffering and agonizing with Lyme Disease would have the opportunity to find their healing.  That they would be able to wake up in the morning and feel symptom free and normal.  That Lyme Disease would be in their rear view mirror instead of ever present in front, behind, and on all sides of them.

Tonight, as you finish reading this blog post, would you please take just a minute and pray for those who are suffering with Lyme Disease.  Would you also please pray that the Lord would rise up the right treatment here in America.

Nothing is impossible with God
Nothing

If you are reading this and you or your loved ones are affected by Lyme Disease, please know that
Matt and I are so sorry- we may not have met you but our hearts are with you and you are in our prayers.

Kim 8.8.76 - 8.8.93

Tucked away in my attic, is a box....a box that I was crying as I filled it 23 years ago.
A box that I have hauled out and opened over the years just to remember.

The box has:
A journal that was passed back and forth between 2 boy crazy teen girls.  Kim always signed off with #32, her basketball number and I would put an X through her #32 and replace it with a #24 (my basketball number)
A letter
And a Nike T-shirt that was over worn by both of us

If I close my eyes, I can still hear her laugh and see her smile, I can hear the gracious way that she talked about those around her.  She loved the Lord, her family, her dogs (Hilga), and her friends dearly.

Kim went home to Heaven on her 17th birthday.
She would be 40 today
Happy 23rd Heavenly Birthday, my friend...you are still so very missed.

P.S. I will visit Kim's grave periodically.  Until now, I have never taken Ellie with me- I wanted her to be old enough to understand, at some level, the first time I took her.  Elle's and I stood around Kim's grave and watered the flowers that her mom, Vicki, had planted.  We talked about who Kim was and where she is at.  We talked about death and the hope of heaven.  I found myself mostly talking about memories that Kim and I shared and the joy it will be to see her again.

To Bill (Kim's dad), Vicki, and Natalie (Kim's little sister)........I love you guys and think of you so often.  May you feel God's comfort and peace wrapped around you.

'For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.'

2 Cor. 5:1

Tucked in the corner of Kim's headstone is this basketball with her number and our high school...
this is precious!