The Lord's Provision

This past week, MK and I had one of the coolest experiences I think we've ever shared together.  We got home from running errands, and when we checked the mail, we found an envelope addressed to us with a printed label (not hand-written) and no return address. 

We hesitantly opened the letter (that we both commented kind of looked like the unibomber's style just because it was so anonymous looking), and we both prayed that it was not a bill. Ha.

Here's what we saw:

It reads '" God loves you and promises: "and my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus."' Phil. 4:19

We both just about passed out because all included in the letter was a VERY VERY generous monetary gift.  I could not stop weeping that night and still do when I look at the letter that we have on our fridge.  I was humbled that someone [we still don't know who] felt like we needed this gift.  We in NO WAY deserve this generous gesture, but we humbly accept that God is providing for our every need through people in our lives.  So, if it was YOU, we just want to say a ginormous THANK YOU!!!!!!

You have blessed us beyond imagination, and we will be putting the money towards my infusions (which as you can imagine are not cheap).  Oh yeah, did I mention that the amount of money given to us was the EXACT amount that my infusions cost?!?!?  What?!?  Seriously, Lord, you are SO GOOD!!!!!  
 
Speaking of infusions, I should probably explain how God is providing for me in terms of my health as well.  Recently, my doctor had me try an immunosuppresant drug for my ulcerative colitis.  It didn't work. I broke it in hives...lots of them!!!

Don't be bummed though...I'm not.  Now we've moved on to biological therapy, which means that I no longer have to take ANY pills!  Praise the Lord.  I am getting Remicade infusions through an IV.

Click here to read more about Remicade and the in's and out's of Remicade.  (This is one of the best websites that I've ever been to that helped me understand the drug itself but also UC.  Very informative).  The best part about this treatment is that I don't have to take pills, so I can just bypass my colon altogether and go in through my bloodstream.  It is used for people with auto-immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, Chron's, and UC-which is what I have.

The medicine is supposed to do 4 things:

1. Provide symptom relief (AKA-not pooping all the time)
2. Provide lasting remission (prevent flare-ups)
3. Eliminate the need for steroid use (Prednisone has REALLY bad long-term side effects, so we do NOT want to be on it all the time)
4. Helps the colon to heal

There are very few present side effects from this drug.  Mostly just long-term things, and even those are very slim-to-none...(like 1 in 15,000 people develops lymphoma from taking Remicade).  

So anyway, I get my medicine through an IV.  I went for my first one last week.  It took about 3 hours because they have to ease you in to receiving the medicine to check to make sure that your body will respond adequately with no adverse reactions. So, in the beginning I was getting 3 drops per minute of meds, but by the end of the 3 hours, I was getting nearly 63 drops per minute!  The first one was successful as far as I'm concerned. No side effects, and I feel great.  It's hard to know if it's working because I am still on Prednisone and will continue to be, but I am tapering off and only have about 4 more weeks.

I go back for another infusion next week (2 weeks after the first), and then I will go again 4 weeks later.  After that I only have to have them done every 8 weeks, which will be awesome!!!  After being a daily (and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day) pill-taker for the past 2 years, this feels like a weight is being lifted off of my shoulders because it is just one less thing I have to worry about.  I am really hopeful and thankful for the ability to try out this new treatment.  But even more than that, God is providing.  He is so good!

I am reminded of Matthew 6: 25-34 and hope it will encourage you as well:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

God is good. All the time. 

All the time. God is good.