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June 25, 2007
another unexpected twist...
so, some of you may recall that the summer jensen and i first met was marked by an emergency trip to chicago because his stepmom was gravely ill. well, this last week was marked by surprisingly similar events.
on thursday, i got a phone call from astrid telling me that jensen's dad had had another heart attack and that he was scheduled to have open heart surgery on tuesday. bomb dropped. his dad requests that all of his kids make it to chicago before the surgery so he can talk to them in case anything goes wrong. so, i give her the emergency contact number i have for jensen and begin the waiting game.
by thursday evening, their family hasn't gotten ahold of jensen, so i start trying the emergency contact number. no one answers. no answering machine picks up. i think i maybe have the wrong number. nope. so part of me definitely starts to panic. i mean, this is the published emergency, 24-hour contact number that was given out to all friends and family of LTC members and NO ONE ANSWERS?! finally, about 10pm (11pm Kentucky time), I get out the LTC graduation invitation and scour it for additional numbers. there's a number for an information hotline, but it doesn't say what hours you'll get an answer. i decided to try and call it, hoping for a human being on the other end.
i get an answer on the first ring.
a very nice young man takes down all my information, tells me they have to contact a few people, but they'll call me back. in the meantime, i go get online to wait it out. jensen and i's friend james is online. his girlfriend is at LTC so i start messaging him to find out what's going on with her. then he asks about jensen and how he's doing. i tell him about the emergency situation and that i'm trying to get ahold of jensen. james tells me he's actually on the phone with mel. so, he tells mel, she hangs up with him, goes and finds a drill sergeant, who then in turn goes and wakes jensen up. so around midnight, jensen gets woken up, asked if he has a cell phone and if he's used it recently (which of course makes him think he's in trouble). they tell him to go get his phone and check for messages. he does and then calls me for the details.
the next twenty-four hours were spent trying to figure out how to get him from fort knox to chicago in a short amount of time. as unfortunate as this situation is, the timing worked out well. yesterday (sunday) was the only day they were given off at LTC. so, i talked to a lieutenant colonel at fort knox, bought jensen a bus ticket for saturday, and got the time off at my own work to go meet him.
he arrived saturday in the late afternoon (his bus was an hour and a half late...it was an EXCRUCIATING hour and a half!). we grabbed something to eat and then went to the hospital. his dad was doing pretty well. the doctors have been very surprised at how well he's doing given his condition. he was up and around, refusing to just lay in bed. and, the couple weeks before this happened, their family had gone a cruise and to disney world. isn't it amazing that this didn't happen then, but rather when he was fifteen minutes away from a hospital with the #2 cardiac surgeon in the U.S.?
anyway, he talked to us and this, that, and the other. trying to keep us from knowing he's scared. trying to assure us that he'll make it to our wedding (which it's most likely that he won't even if everything goes well). a couple hours later, jensen's brother, pichie, arrives. he's at basic training at fort benning, GA and also had to get a few day pass to come. the rest of the evening was pretty much spent with pichie and jensen swapping training stories.
the next day, sunday, started with a huge puerto rican meal and then we returned to the hospital. by the afternoon, the room was filled with different extended family members. jensen's uncle ici (who he hasn't seen since he was about 9) came up from louisiana. he's a master chief in the coast guard and hasn't been able to be with the family very much in the past. oh, and by the way, this will be a weird mental picture, but now i know who jensen resembles. jensen has his mother's face, but his uncle's frame and build all the way. even their heads are shaped the same way! anyway, it was really cool to see the family come together.
yoly, jensen's stepmom, had requested that i make sure everyone prayed for cruz before we left the hospital. so before i left to take jensen to the bus station again, we all stood in a circle and prayed. i think it was a really good way to end the visit.
after that, i took jensen to the bus station, waited until he absolutely had to go, and then said tearful good-byes. it was much harder to say good-bye this time than when he first left for LTC. but, two weeks til i see him again, three weeks til we get married.
and the last time the emergency trip happened, it all worked out for the best. we're praying that the same will be true in the case. so, please be praying for the cartagena family, especially for cruz, his health, his surgery, and all the decisions that will have to be made afterwards.
Posted by Autumn at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2007
Sweet Relief!
oh sweet relief! jensen FINALLY called. you have no idea how weak it makes me feel that it bothered me so much that i hadn't heard from him. but it's the truth. and if i have to be weak, at least it's because i care.
by the way, to you all, he says "hi." :)
he's super tired. he said the first week was really, really hard. a weed-out week. which none of them was expecting. he said they really did send someone home for high blood pressure, so thank you for all your prayers that his would go down!
he's made lots of friends. there are a few guys there from puerto rico so that was nice for him. he's already had one round of leadership so that's probably one of the reasons he's especially tired (they take turns having cadets do rounds of being in charge during each phase).
and he's met yet another person from the famous blackhawk down incident. one of his drill instructors was an air traffic controller in somalia during the whole ordeal. i'm sure this will become one of his favorite stories to tell from LTC :)
personally, i was just excited to see God's hand even in this short phone conversation. first of all, he called while i was taking a nap. it has been SO hard for me to rest since he's been gone. i've had to daily, hourly, give up my expectations about him calling. when i finally do, if even for a few moments of rest, he calls. i love how God does that. and i had some concerns that i hadn't addressed in any letters i've sent and that i wasn't going to bring up on the phone, but jensen addressed them (without my prompting). i know God didn't have to give me peace about those things, but he chose to unburden my heart. and lastly, just the circumstances under which jensen called--it was after lights out and he had firewatch (getting up at 3:30 to do guard duty and then staying up through the next day's training). he gave up a portion of the little sleep he gets to call me. now that makes a girl feel loved.
anyway, please keep praying for us both. pray for his success and for the strength he needs on a daily basis. pray for his relationships with other cadets. pray for God to continue to stretch me and grow me through this process.
Posted by Autumn at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2007
Update: Jensen's Address
so, it was a small event, but a major JOY for me. today i received jensen's address in the mail, along with my official invitation to his LTC graduation.
ah, it was SUCH a relief just to know that i can finally contact him. EVEN if it won't get there for at least four days. EVEN if i don't know if he'll have time to write back. at least now i have the freedom to bombard him with tons of letters telling him how much i love and miss him.
if any of you would like to write him, feel free to ask for his address. i'm sure he can use as much encouragement as he can get!
Posted by Autumn at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2007
Wedding Blessings
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works. [a]
They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
Psalm 145:5-7
So, I was kind of "saving" these up. I don't really know why. But, I know one way to bring peace and hope is to remember the good things that God has done. With that, I'd like to share some of the blessings God has given us along the way in planning this wedding. I hope that for everyone (engaged, married, single, EVERYONE) it helps you to meditate on the gifts God has lavished on you. Here goes...
1. We're having our reception at the Knapp-Storms Commons (yay nostalgia!). The first bonus was that you have to pay a $500 deposit for the room, but they eventually put that towards your catering bill. When we found out we had to move our wedding date, we were technically supposed to lose this deposit. Not only did they let us keep our deposit, they gave us an extra month to decide on a new day!
2. I told this one already (I think), but I waited four months for my wedding dress and ended up getting it for $300 less!
3. The wonderful Emily Wagner helped sew a bustle for my dress so I wouldn't have to pay $200 to have one done at the store. Thank God for talented friends!
4. We ended up finding bridesmaid dresses on sale and some of the bridesmaids were able to get them at half the price!
5. We found a SWEET apartment for way cheap. Our apartment manager has really taken a liking to us so she picked out a newly renovated space for us at an even cheaper cost than we originally talked about. We love her :)
6. Some more talented and wonderful friends, the Leidals, designed our wedding invitations for us and had them printed up really cheap (under $100).
7. So far, all our decorations have been half off :)
8. ISU Dining created a Puerto Rican menu for us! And, they recently decided all events at K-S Commons get to use table service for free--another $300 off the bill!
9. Our wedding is Iowa Games weekends, so hotels are BOOKED. I had talked to the MU, but never turned in an official contract. They still kept rooms for us so our out-of-town guests still have a chance at a hotel room!
10. It's Iowa Games weekend so we might end up with fireworks during our reception :)
So, I'm sure there are many more blessings I'm forgetting, but I think that's good for now.
It's been really reassuring to know this is not just me and my event planning skills, but that God's hand is in it.
Posted by Autumn at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
June 12, 2007
Update: Jensen and LTC
Sorry folks, as of 6:30pm on Tuesday, I haven't heard from Jensen. But, I'm guessing no news is good news. Thanks for the phone calls and emails. And for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.
Posted by Autumn at 06:37 PM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2007
Urgent Prayer Request: Jensen & LTC
Hey All,
As you may or may not know, Jensen has been pursuing his dream of joining the military throughout this semester. God has continued to open doors, but never without testing us about whether we trust him and whether we can be okay if he takes the dream away.
At the beginning it was his physical fitness--could he pass the PT test? With lots of prayers and a ton of work, he did it and got the next go-ahead, dropping his running time by three minutes in two weeks.
Next was his academic standing--could he make the grades to raise his cumulative GPA? Once again, with lots of prayers and tons of work, he did it and got the next go-ahead, achieving a semester GPA of 3.61.
I truly tell you these things to give God the glory. He keeps bringing Jensen above and beyond.
This morning, I took Jensen to the airport so that he could fly to Fort Knox, KY for a month of military training. This training would allow him to catch up on what he's missed by not starting in ROTC his freshman year. Just to let you know how much we believed this is what God has for us, you should know that Jensen's participating in this training means that we will be separated for the last month before our wedding (he'll return less than a week before the big day).
But once again, God wants to know if we will give up this dream for him and he is testing our faith. Jensen called me this afternoon (he only had two minutes to talk) and told me that when he arrived at Fort Knox and had to go through a physical, his blood pressure was really, really high. This has happened before when he is stressed out, but it typically goes down as his anxiety is reduced.
Jensen and I would like you guys to pray that he would be filled with peace beyond understanding tonight and that his blood pressure would return to normal by tomorrow morning when he will be tested again. If it is not, this journey will be over and he will be sent home.
Guys, please pray that we would both be filled with trust and praise through the next twenty-four hours and all our days.
Posted by Autumn at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)