Josh & Amber

Somewhere back in 2008 (I think?), I ran across a blog by a fellow pastor's wife. I can't remember now how I found it, but I knew right away that I had to get to know this girl. At the time I was a pastor's wife, too. And while many other aspects of our lives were different, something about her 'clicked' with me.

We got to know each other by reading our blogs & commenting & emailing and eventually facebooking. Sooner or later we talked on the phone. We've only done that a few times, but in the past 3-ish years, I've come to love Amber dearly! And her little family blesses my spirit every time I read a blog post about them...or when I see a video of her cute kids singing & dancing....or when I hear her talk about her sweet husband. She's such a kindred spirit in so many ways! We have shared a lot of life. Both of us have felt 'safe' sharing some of the nitty gritty stuff that would be hard to talk to local people about --- those details that you need to tell someone to get an outside opinion on, but you don't want it to get back to anyone. Since we live halfway across the country from each other, that works out perfectly!

A little while back, Josh (Amber's husband) started having some health problems and it was discovered that he has a genetic heart problem that could potentially be fatal. It was serious enough that they warned him, without treatment, he could literally fall over dead one day without any warning. It scared them to death! While I couldn't be there in person, Amber & I "prayed together" via email. The cardiologist & specialists they saw wanted to first try treating Josh with medicines only, but told them he might end up needing surgery to correct the problem later. Well, here we are later. In the past couple of weeks, his heart condition worsened to the point where the doctors said "Come to Cleveland now. You need surgery right away!"

After getting their two young children settled with relatives, they got on a plane & made the trip to Cleveland where they have been since this weekend. Yesterday, Josh (29 years old) was wheeled into open heart surgery. Amber was left to wait & wonder, hope & pray that her beloved would make it safely through surgery. Fortunately, there were prayer warriors lifting them up nationwide and they both felt the comfort of all those warriors hitting their knees to do battle with them.

Josh's surgery was a success! The surgeon told Amber that he ought to see some relief from the problems he was having immediately, but of course he still has to recover from major heart open heart surgery! Fighting to regain his strength, control the pain, cough effectively to clear fluid from his lungs, walk on command when he is hurting & so weak....all those things that go along with a major surgery like this are nearly as tough as going through the surgery itself!

If you'd like to follow their journey as Josh recovers from surgery, feel free to check out Amber's blog HERE. I know she'd be happy to know that more prayer warriors have joined their army. (So please leave her some comment love & let her know you're praying, too!)