thanks James + baptism day pics

I have been praying and praying for God to speak something mighty into me. I have been in a funk ya'll. I have had my head in a cloud...focusing on worldly things. Things that make me feel sad or left out or different. I have felt the past few days that I had something to prove. 

And, I don't. 

The book of James tell us to:

- humble ourselves before the Lord and He will exalt us

 -do not speak against one another

-draw near to the Lord

I gave up something this morning that was bothering me. I felt I had a right to something...and I don't. I don't have a right to be understood. I don't have a right to prove anything to anyone. 

God is a friend to those in need. He is jealous of our desires to prove something to the rest of the world. I boldly ask for GRACE as I lay pride on the cross and get back on track. You can't prove who you are with words. It must be shown by action and example...which means I have some work to do. 

God refine my heart as I draw close to you in this time of reflection.

There is no better reminder of His endless gift of GRACE than salvation. 

I feel honored to walk alongside a man who finds JOY no matter what. You just won't find him feelings sorry for himself. He will NOT be a victim of his circumstances. I have a thing or two to learn from him when my head gets too far in the clouds. 

I am grateful for his example to our kids.  He shows them by EXAMPLE that when times get tough...you just keep on truckin. Didn't you know you can still throw a football (in my bedroom!!!) even if you can't really walk? You can do so much, even when you have so little. When what he thought was the best of his life has been taken from him....

He got his crutches out and drove to the river to recommit his life to his creator. 

Now the best of his life can begin...robo-hip and all.  

Justin was re-baptized a few days before his big surgery at our friends ranch. Many of our dearest friends joined us to celebrate. Weatherchannel.com ain't got nothin on our God!

In true Texan spirit, we hopped in the back of trucks and headed down to the river. 

I couldn't have handpicked a better group of men to live life alongside my husband. Encouragers, leaders, loving husbands, devoted fathers, goofballs...and a whole bunch of aggies :)

LOOK AT THEIR FACES!!!

I think God accidentally forgot to give me one of these girls. One of them is mine. I just know it. 

This just makes me smile. 

And then this little treasure that was found. 

We choose JOY. 

per the norm

Per the norm...it is time for a new norm! This little chunk o time consists of recovery. Rest and recovery. Not for me of course, but for the Mister. He is 100% homebound for the next several weeks. He is unable to do most things on his own, which is tough stuff for an independent and high energy man. This is just another one of those times where we gotta bust out the boxing gloves and roll with the punches. He is not out of the woods regarding infection, so we still need to keep our prayer pants on regarding that. Due to the steroids, he has the skin of an 80 year old man. I apologize to any 80 year old men who may be reading this....but your skin stinks. The healing process for Justin is of course longer than most, he will have to keep the staples in longer, he will have to stay in bed longer, he will need to be home longer and he will make sure his doctors work for their paycheck :) The surgeon wanted to see him Tuesday and said he will not sleep at night until Justin's hip is fully healed. He wants less physical therapy for him because he is less concerned with his ability to move "properly" and more concerned with his healing process. We have much to be thankful for and much to continue to pray for. Please join us in praying for clear direction. Please choose 10 minutes between now and midnight tonight to pray over upcoming decisions. We need to come up with a new treatment plan. That may mean returning to Cleveland, that may mean visiting with a Naturopathic Doctor, it may mean both and it may mean something else that God has yet to reveal. Please pray, and let us know that you did!
God has already revealed many things to us regarding lifestyle and ways to make this new chapter work. Stay tuned for a food post! I will also be updating the blog a bit over the next week. It is way past due for a makeover, but it is also time to add a few fun things! I have been continuously humbled over the past several years at how many people read this blog. On average, this page receives 11,000 page views a month. People mostly find this page through facebook shares, but according to blogger stats we also get a lot of views from all kinds of google searches (from health questions to baby shower ideas), other bloggers sharing and more! I am no dot com mama with fancy tutorials by any means, but I would now like to offer advertising on the side bar of the blog. I will also do a very limited amount of product and business reviews a month (keeping it super limited for several reasons...more info to come). I will be adding pricing information later today, but it will be very affordable and much less than the blogger world norm. Every single bit of your love and support is appreciated. Ya'll are the ones who keep our story alive.

xoxo
misty mac

He is so good.

JMac is bustin outta here. The doctors feel certain that he should recover at home and away from this germy hospital where risk of infection is just too high. He will have home health come by once a day to check vitals and make sure he is obeying all his "rules". PT will begin coming by as well until he is able to get out of the house and go to PT. He has lots of restrictions over the next 6 weeks. Justin isn't much of a rule follower. In fact he excels at convincing people that it is really a good plan to break the rules :) If you know him personally...you know this is TRUTH! Justin is so overwhelmed by Gods' grace and protection during his surgery. He felt His presence over him when he awoke. He was in agonizing pain, but he knew that he had been given a very great gift. The odds were against him, but our great God was FOR him. In light of the tragedies around us, we know more than ever that life is so precious. This is not the life we planned for. These are not the challenges that we ever thought we would encounter. God isn't done with Justin yet...and we praise Him for that. He is our everything, and we WILL adore Him. Please join us in praise for this overwhelming outcome. The road ahead is going to be hard, but the unending reminder of His presence will sustain us...no doubt.
What are the next six weeks going to look like? What can he do? How will he feel? Can you come visit? Why are you not answering my text? How can we help?
How blessed are we to have these questions to answer?!
Basically, Justin's list of things he cannot do for awhile is pretty lengthy. He cannot kneel, bend, reach (for example reach down and pull up his blanket), out on shoes or socks, cross legs, twist, DRIVE (say what?!), bear full weight on his right light, life more than 15 lbs, stand for too long, sit for too long, shower standing up etc. He also cannot vacuum...which I am sure is devastating to him. NOT. I bet he doesnt even know where I keep the vacuum. There are many things he can do after this six weeks recovery and some he can never do again. Like, play basketball which pretty much means my debut on basketball wives is on permanent hold.
The collapse of his right hip is inevitable, so we will do all this again at some point. We will be pros by then! We are also praying hard as many suggestions from doctors have come in about returning to Cleveland and seeking some alternative care. Please pray that we will seek his will in discerning what is the best option.
He hurts like crazy. The man takes dinosaur amounts of pain meds on a daily basis and it is hard to find anything that works for him other than keeping him knocked out. He loves visitors, but we have to continue to be extra sensitive to germs. If you think you may be getting sick do not come. If you have been around a sick person do not come. If you do not shower often dont come. :) Please check with me first when you want to come visit. If it isnt a good time, I will tell you when a better time is. Taking care of Justin is a full time job right now and tack on my three little amigos and I have my hands full (with beautiful things). So please give us grace if we are not updating you well. We know you love us and want to be praying for us specifically and I will continue to make the blog a priority. We know that we would not be on the back end of an uncomplicated surgery if it wasnt for YOUR prayers. Justin will need full time care for a bit, so your offers to help have not been unnoticed. We are grateful for the yummy meals that have been coming and the incredible people who have stepped up and taken care of things that we just cant get to right now. You are doing God's work right now. You are serving in a mighty way. Go hug your husband, kiss your wife, wrap your kids up in a big hug and tickle them until they pee. Really, do it now.

post op day 1 - quick update

So we are at day 1 post op and things are going pretty well. He slept better than expected last night and they mostly disturbed me instead of him ;) The doctor has finally gotten the pain under control, that has been the most difficult part thus far. With the amount of medications that he takes baseline, it was tough to come up with a concoction that would give him any relief. This morning his IV infiltrated and his forearm swelled to double its size. He looked a bit like popeye! They got it out and were able to set a new IV in his port. He has not been able to move around much so they have brought in some special tools to help with skin irritations and blood clots. He has a fancy blow up mattress now and they have offered him some air boots, but he declined :) He is still wearing compression garments and movement simulators on his feet. Physical Therapy was no bueno yesterday. They made him sit up on the side of his bed and it was flat out awful. Today the therapist was able to assist Justin with a walker and he got out of bed and walked over to a chair where he sat for about 45 minutes. I was so proud of him!!! The therapy wears him out big time but he is being strong as always and trucking through it. He knows it is what he needs to do to get  outta this place. We still need to remain in prayer over the next two weeks for infections risks.
current prayer requests:
1. NO infection
2. that he can make all his physical therapy goals
3. that the pain will continue to subside so that he can come off IV meds
4. little macs at home
thanks, yall.

ps: please forgive us if we have not responded to your text or call. we are gratefully overwhelmed with all the phone love and it is hard to keep up with! we are feelin the love ya'll.

song of hope

all things bright and beautiful you are

all things wise and wonderful you are

in my darkest night, you brighten up the skies

a song will rise

i will sing a song of hope

sing along

god of heaven come down 

heaven come down

just to know that you are near is enough

go of heaven come down

God of Heaven came down. He came right on down to the OR at NC Baptist today and made Himself PRESENT. We knew that he was near...and THAT was enough. This morning was hard. It was scary and very sad to leave him behind while I was scooted on to the waiting room. Thankfully, Katie was there with open arms waiting for me to cry in her lap. Dru was there too, but lucky for him I did not cry in his lap. Sweet people surrounded me while we waited for what seemed like 986543 hours...and then the news came. The most wonderful news. Surgery went better than expected! The surgeon was more than pleased with the lack of complications. He got "a whole bunch" of staples on the left side where they did the total hip replacement and has two incisions on the right where the core decompression took place. They used some of his own stem cells to hopefully regenerate some of the bone on the right side and buy some time (this is the more painful procedure of the two and will take longer to heal than the other). We need to diligently pray that the right hip will behave. The surgeon feels like a right hip replacement is ultimately inevitable...but this will stave that off for a bit.  The surgeon reported that his cartilage just peeled away like paper...yuck. Good thing all that broken junk is OUT. 

Justin is now is some serious pain. They were not as on top of their game with pain management as we had hoped, but he is now fully awake and getting a little relief. Physical therapy starts now. They are coming in shortly to make him sit up...he is super excited about that. Not. We have a very long road to recovery ahead, but the worst is over! You prayer warriors are just the icing on top of a very yummy cupcake. 

Main prayer concerns for now:

1. NO infection, specifically in the joints

2. pain management

3. the little macs at home

We are asking that you be super sensitive regarding visitation right now. We promise to be honest, so if you want to come...just ask. We will let you know if it is a good time or not. Today he just wants to rest, but he may be up for a buddy or two tomorrow :) Please make sure that you leave your germs at home. Thanks, ya'll. 

let us REJOICE

The past few weeks (and specifically days) have been jam packed. Much has happened, some good, some sad and a lot of in between.
We have had a LOT to do in a short time regarding Justin's surgery...which also came during a VERY busy two weeks of life. We had some family pics taken by our awesome friend Rachel Russo. She is SO very talented and so precious for squeezing us into her busy schedule. We had a great time and I ALREADY have the most amazing pics hanging on my wall (thanks to another dear friend!). We were SO blessed to have some amazing friends put together a little 24 hour getaway to the Hill Country Hyatt. We needed some time away to think of nothing...and we could not have done that at a more beautiful and relaxing place. So grateful. Then we took a little impromptu getaway to the river house (justins favorite place) to relax and spend some time with the boys. It has been so amazing having Justin home these past few weeks. We have gotten to actually do LIFE with him...we see him more than one day a week and it has been incredible. The boys are on cloud nine. He has been resting quite a bit which has been so needed for so long. Then...we MOVED. We closed Tuesday and moved straight in. Again, my amazing friends came through and less than 48 hours later we were FULLY unpacked. Completely done. Insane, I know.
Unfortunately, that night our community lost a very dear person. The town of Boerne was shaken as a pillar of faith, a leader in our church, an amazing husband and father was taken from this earth in a car accident. We rejoice as he enters Heaven, but we mourn with his beautiful wife and two adorable children. It hurts to badly to think of a loss so tragic and instant. I feel like I have been given a very big heads up on what could potentially be a significant loss in my life. My friend did not have a heads up. This town has lost so much and yet gained so much. Stay near to us Lord... because we are broken hearted.
Amidst this devastating loss, Justin chose to rededicate his life to Jesus. We know that God had orchestrated this plan long ago, and we moved forward with his baptism on Saturday. Justin's dearest friends joined us at the river for a beautiful celebration of salvation. I just cannot describe in words (I know, shocking!) how special this day was. The weather was forecasted to be gross, but the sun shined so brightly! It could not have been more perfect. Our Pastor challenges him and loves him so much, it was so personal and just so perfect.
And now, we prepare for surgery day. There has been SO much to do in preparation. Blood work, tests, appointments, xrays and blah blah blah. Justin and I will arrive for pre op stuff at 4am on Tuesday. We have absolutely no idea how long he will be there but we have planned for no less than 7 days. He will have a total left hip replacement and core decompression on the right. These two surgeries at the same time are complicated and risky for anyone, but even more so for Justin. So why the rush? The several doctors that treat him on a regular basis and the several surgeons who saw him agreed that this is Justin's only chance to walk again and to reduce the pain long term. There are no guarantees. It is also necessary to carefully place this surgery smack in the middle of his chemo treatments...so the time is now.
Please cover him and the two surgeons in prayer. Please think of him during the long road to recovery ahead. We don't know what the next few weeks and months are going to look like, but we do know that we can do it. We will figure it out, we will roll with the punches, I will undoubtedly freak out a time or two, we will be loved on and prayed for...and we will never stop leaning on the Lord. We will find the new normal, we will kick its tail and then we will move onto the next thing. God is so faithful in bringing us peace and understanding even when it seems like there just isn't a bit of hope left. We don't have time to be idle friends. There is much to gain in leaning on the Lord...so so much.

and now some pics...

just one of the amazing shots russo got :) bryce was on standby with the crutches...macs working together!

 my boys LOVE babies

Raegan and Ellis workin hard on unpacking day!!

Baptism Day

real men love jesus

 (check out all that ONE LESS orange!)

 two little buddies watching Justin on this extra special day

 loading up to head down to the river. i mean...does it get more awesome than this?

And he was washed in the blood. This remarkable gift from Jesus will never be forgotten. 

This is the day the Lord has made...Let us REJOICE!

more pics to come