Vacation and Prayer Requests

Hey Everyone - Greetings from FREEZING COLD Michigan.

It actually has been mostly nice and I already am starting to get rid of that "white girl" glow. However, when you are in the shade or once it gets to be late afternoon, the freezing cold sets in.
We are having a good time in Michigan, but have had a few glitches along the way. My Grandpa on my mom's side (who is 92) was supposed to arrive here on Saturday, but instead ended up spending the weekend in the hospital. The hospital staff wanted to keep him longer due to some concerns about his heart, but he demanded he be released so he could come on vacation. So this morning my parents drove three hours to their house to pick them up and bring them back, but he hasn't felt well since he got here. Within about three minutes of getting out of the car, he tripped on a rug and fell, causing a large cut on his elbow and general overall pain. He has been in bed since about 6:00 this evening complaining constantly of being cold. My dad and uncle are convinced this means that something is wrong with his heart and are highly concerned about him.

Then tonight we got a call from my aunt and found out that my Grandpa on my dad's side (who is 90) was about to go into surgery because apparently he has had a bunch of blood in his urine recently. They decided to try surgery to fix the problem. We got a call a little later from my aunt saying that they had to stop the surgery because his heart stopped. They were able to get it restarted, but they are watching him closely. Also, while they were in there, they found that his bladder lining is almost non-existent, so that is not a good thing either and I'm not sure there is much they can do about it at this point.

All in all, this leaves a large cloud looming over vacation. I've already heard one member of the family talking about what we all do if we lose Grandpa Staples in the next day or two, and another saying that we could lose both of them this week. While I'm not sure that isn't a little overly pessimistic, there are some serious concerns and we will wait to see how it all plays out. Thankfully we know that God is in control and whatever happens was already planned long in advance of this week.

I'll try to post some pictures later in the week so you can see how it is going. And yes, we miss our dogs. Mike wrote a blog about that a little earlier I think. We hope all is well with you.