not quite what I'd envisioned...

It's been a long, crazy month since we graduated.  A few highlights, and one urgent need for prayers/good thoughts/what-have-you...

...One of our coolest patients at my "real job" hired me to shoot photos all over Bellingham (she's a real estate agent and needs photos of all thirty-something neighborhoods, along with their schools & parks), as well as write copy for her site.  It's quite the undertaking, but it's been incredibly fun to be a) out with my camera all day; b) paid for it.  And the copywriting means I'm using my English degree, thankyouverymuch.

...For the first time in at least a year, I spent some solid time with dear friends down in Bremerton.  Since they live right in between my parents and J's folks, it has been notoriously difficult to get together because we were always "home" for holidays and not much else.  Now that we've graduated, it was a good time just to stay with our friends.  And it was amazing.  We got to meet Jeremy & Tracie's new son, and celebrate a coming addition to Andy & Grace's family.  That's two of my bridesmaids down... Amanda?  Anything you want to tell me?

When you get married and promptly move away from your good friends (and immediately start school), it's difficult to guage how it will impact things.  I'm so thankful for friendships that grow over time and distance, rather than fading (that includes you too, Julie).  Because I'm a total headcase, sometimes I wonder, Will things be awkward?  And that awkward moment never comes.  The laughter starts up, and I'm comfortable in my own skin as always, looking forward to a time when maybe we won't all live so far apart.

...and here comes the tough stuff.  My dad will be having open heart surgery soon to replace his aeorta valve and do a double-or-triple bypass.  This news hit us all really unexpectedly -- in addition to the scariness of surgery, we had a family trip planned to Hawaii next month, and no one needed a trip to the beach more than my mom and dad, for whom retirement has not been the idyllic time they had imagined.

We took it in stride as much as possible, and had a good Easter laughing together.  But after a test yesterday, we found out that the surgery will be a lot more complicated due to Dad's first open heart surgery over 20 years ago.  Dad had cancer when he was younger, and the Navy hospital, performing up to its infamous reputation, messed up the radiation treatments.  It affected the membrane around Dad's heart, and he went into congestive heart failure at the age of 34.  

There's scar tissue around the heart where they did surgery before, which makes the surgery more serious than first anticipated.  The heart has to work harder when scar tissue is involved, it becomes enlarged, etc.  They're doing all sorts of tests over the next few weeks to figure things out.

Grandma also has some heart stuff going on, so Mom is shuttling in between hours-long tests for Dad and cardiologist appointments for Grandma. Mom fell down the stairs at work two days ago.  (This is always the way my family does stuff -- try and make a crazy story out of it -- like our tent trailer rolling into a lake, or Kevin's house burning down the day before my wedding.  This particular story is my least favorite so far).  

I'm trying to wait until I can do the most good before I take off work and head down... but it's tough to be even three hours away.

Much of being a grown-up totally sucks, I'm realizing.

We'd genuinely appreciate your prayers.  Especially for these two people, who just celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary last week:

 Thanks.