prayer request.

Meet my grandma: fondly known in my younger years as "Grandma with the white hair." :) I always say that she is the "quintessential grandma," and if you've been blessed enough to meet her, you probably agree with me!

[Grandma, or as some know her: Gertrude Metz, and I]

She, and my family, crave your prayers. Before I left to come back to Thailand, she was having some increased difficulty with a reoccurring health problem. The weekend I left to come back to Thailand, my mom drove up to Indiana (where my grandma lived) to be with her, and help her though the operation and the recovery. However, during that time, the doctors realized that she was also suffering from congestive heart failure.

My mom helped pack up my grandma, and she immediately moved into our home in Virginia. Since then, my family has been helping her set up doctor's appointments and figure out what the next steps should be... this Monday (Aug 26th) she will be going in for tests to see if a mitrol valve replacement would be a viable option or not. The tests will check for blocked arteries, through doing a heart cath and TEE (an ultrasound of the heart via the throat). If all goes well on Monday, then sometime this next week she will go in for open heart surgery.

I am so glad that my grandma is able to be with my family during this season of her life, although it is hard that I can't with them also. I'd love to be able to support them with my physical presence, but that is not where God has me. So I will pray. And I would ask that, as so many of you faithfully pray for me, that you would also pray for my family, specifically my grandma during this time. Thank you in advance for your prayers for us, and for her!