November 3, 2013

Home From Houston

Sunday, November 3, 2013

It is good to be home after being away since last Tuesday morning.  It was great to be away.  Yes, we have been out of town a lot this year, but other than the visit with the audiologist on Tuesday afternoon, this trip was mostly for relaxation and a change of pace.  The timing on the visit to the audiologist could not have been better.  She had determined that the T-coil function on my sound processor is not working correctly so she said she would order a new sound processor.  Then I began to have static through the processor, and the "Focus" setting wasn't doing what it should.  All of the problems came together at time for the appointment which had been scheduled for months.  I knew the T-coil didn't work as I thought it should, but a phone call by Ron to the audiologist last week on another subject brought this problem into focus.  That may all sound confusing, but just trust me, the timing was perfect. 

Most of the rest of the week I spent attending the International Quilt Festival which is the end of October every year in Houston.  The first one I attended was in about 1985 and I have been about 15 times I think.  I usually take some classes and used to attend lectures, but it got to where I could not hear well enough to enjoy them so I only do the classes and the shopping. 

In the above photo, I am in the bottom right hand corner wearing black slacks and an aqua colored shirt, next to a lady in a pale blue shirt and darker blue slacks and a blue purse over her shoulder.  That is my friend Tiny who met me there for a couple of days.  We are near the front on one row of booths and on the left of the photo is another row.  In all there were 19 rows of booths for our shopping pleasure.

This is how my husband spent those days!  He was a jewel, doing all of the driving and carrying of things for me.  He did not go shopping with us, but I used the purple bag in this photo for my purchases.  It is a rolling tote and my orthopedic surgeon had written a letter to get me permission to take that tote on the floor.  The bright orange sticker on the bag is my pass to use the rolling tote.  I could not have done much shopping without that pass.  Even carrying a book for more than a few minutes was uncomfortable.  We would shop for a while and then take our purchases to Ron to transfer to another bag.  He spent his days in a big lounge chair reading book after book and waiting for us to bring things to him for safe keeping.  A week of shopping is my dream vacation.  A week of reading is his.  It was a win/win situation.

There were challenges.  There was a lot of rain while we were there and keeping my Cochlear sound processor dry was important.  The sewing we did in the classes was tiring for my weak arm.  These last few months have been void of long walks, so the miles of walking I did was good for me but tiring.  With Ron's recent leg and foot surgeries, it was exhausting for him.  But the change of pace did wonders for both of us.  That was the closest to a vacation we have had in a very long time.

 

Spending time with this wonderful couple was the icing on the cake.  The Reeds have been so kind to house us when we have had to make all the trips to Houston this year.  God has gifted them with the ability to make guests feel so comfortable in their home.  I cannot count the number of times they have opened their home and hearts to us.  What a blessing they are in our lives.

Here is another photo of me with Tiny as we shopped.  It was fun to spend time with her at the show.  She had lived here and been in our Sunday School class as well as my quilt group and moved away a few years ago.  She has fought her own health battles - mostly eye problems and we joked about what a pair we were with her half blind and me half deaf.  But we shared lots of laughs.  Tiny's husband, Gene, passed away not too long ago and the last time I had seen him was at the quilt show two years ago.  We talked about how, like Ron, he was happy to sit in a recliner and read while she and I shopped.  The main difference was he read car magazines and Ron's choice is Science Fiction.

This evening after we got home, I was able to have a nice long chat with our son Stephen.  He is so busy but managed a nice phone visit tonight. 

I had a wonderful email tonight when I got home.  Ron's aunt has talked to me a lot about my Cochlear Implant.  She had mentioned a friend who had serious hearing problems.  I had suggested that she give the friend my blog site information and let her read about my experiences.  It gave the lady the information she needed to decide to talk to her doctor about Cochlear surgery.  The lady had the surgery and can now hear!  Praise God!  That is a lot of my hope about this blog site.  We all know people who struggle to hear and many of them could be helped by the surgery.  I hope you will share the web address for this site with anyone who struggles with hearing loss.  The surgery may not be the answer for them, but maybe some of the other information I share can help them or their family by making their life easier.   www.rachelsprayer.blogspot.com   As of this evening, the site has been viewed in 56 countries around the world a total of 13,475 times.  (The map you may see on the blog site did not start at the beginning of the blog, is counting in a different way, and for some reason misses a lot of the over sea views.)  God is using it to help others.

Tomorrow evening I speak to the women at our church about the things that have been going on in our lives this past year and what God is doing in the midst of it all.  I hope some of you can join us.