Blessings amidst the Storm

Did you ever just have one of those months that everything seems to pile on at once? August has been like that for us. One of our biggest struggles, has been dealing with Jason's horse. He has had a hard month health wise. Let me back up and tell you the tale.

The end of July we went for a ride with friends. A few days later we noticed his withers were really swollen. So we took him to the vet and got a treatment going. We gave him bute and packed hot water rags on the area for a week. A couple days later of being done, he got really lethargic was laying down. We were thinking colic but he didn't have the symptoms. He wasn't eatting a whole lot so again we went to the vet. Cole (horse) had a cut on his tongue and it was kind of brown. The vet thought maybe he ate something that cut it and he had an internal infection. More antibiotics and an ulcer guard in case there were some ulcers. His weight went down and down until he was skin and bones. He would perk up and then get down again attitude wise. Then he had swelling under his jaw which we thought was now strangles. It's just been one thing after another. We took him in again and then vet did some blood and thought it was cancer! He took a biopsy and set it away and it came back today as negative to cancer but he still has an infection. So now, we're thinking, maybe he's got a chemical burn going on in his mouth from maybe some pesticides from some grass he ate. Not to get too graphic, but he's got a big hole in his lip and he's just not looking very good. Lost a lot of muscle and weight and the taste buds on the end of his tongue. We just have to wait until it goes through his system and get him on some penicillin for a month. We were already of the mind set that if it was cancer, he'd have to be put down today. Now, I guess we'll wait and see and nurse him along. Hopefully he'll get back to looking like this.

In between of just feeling attacked by the enemy in a lot of areas, there have been some huge blessings.

Last friday, it was my first day back to work, getting ready for the kids on monday. I went out to my car, early in the morning and found a card on my front seat addressed to me. I opened it up and found a card about being a faithful person. Folded in the card was a $10, $20 and 2 $100 bills! $230! The card was signed, "Your friend and sister in Christ." I cried and prayed a blessing for the friend, all the way to Cody. Money has been tight this month and this was just a sign for me that God was still there and was going to take care of us. What's funny is, the night before I was praying in the truck, "God, $10,000 would really help us with a lot of things." The next day I found this card! So I didn't get the total I would have liked but I'm not ungrateful. This is the second time this has happened to us in our almost 5 yrs of marriage.

Then Saturday came around and I checked the horse and he was worse off. I broke down in front of our friends. The weight of it all was really bothering me. We had all planned to go riding the next day after church and Jason would have to borrow a horse. Our friend's Quin and Tracy, asked me to keep a secret. They had both been feeling like they needed to give one of their horses to Jason in case his doesn't make it. Well, that afternoon, Jason got there and they said he could ride this horse Sabre (the one they were giving him) on Sunday. We were outside and Quin couldn't take it anymore. He told Jason that Sabre was his if Cole didn't make it and he could use him during hunting season until his was on the mend if he did make it. He was floored! So we've been blessed amidst the struggle. God is still in control and we live one day at a time.