Feeling off-balance, but okay

I started this week with some trepidation. We knew that on each of the first three days (Monday to Wednesday) we would hear news that was out of our control and each had the potential to change the plans we'd carefully made for the coming month. Of course, we try to hold our plans lightly, knowing we're not really in control, but it's still hard.

The three things were:

Car repair

Our car was in a minor accident when our middle son, practising for his driving test, was hit from behind on the approach to a roundabout. Not his fault and the offender didn't stop. On Monday the car was scheduled to go to the panel beater and be assessed for our insurance claim at to be fixed. Our main concern was: when would we get it back? With an already complex month, this was an unwanted extra complication. Thankfully the assessor thought we'd get our car back on the day that we start to move out of our house. No day was ideal, but that's not the worst it could be! Thankfully we'd bought a second car a few weeks ago, with the intention that it would become our middle son's car after he got his licence. So, we still have a car to get around in!

Driving test

For my non-Aussie readers,
this is the sign that you
get to put on your car in the
first year after you have your
driver's licence (then you
change to a green P for two
years). When learning you
have an L sign.

Our middle son had his second attempt at a driving test on Tuesday. Again, out of our control, though we'd done all we could to prepare him, including recruiting a number of prayer warriors to pray on Tuesday afternoon at 2.50! I vacuumed the house while waiting for news about how the test had gone: shouting out my prayers and frustration to God. It must have been a sight for any flies on the wall. (It's been a 2 ½ year journey from when he first got his Japanese learners, then was diagnosed with epilepsy and had to jump through medical and government hoops here to get his Australian learners, get his required hours, get credit for the hours he did in Japan, and then get a test date, fail, and get another test date.)

We're incredibly thankful and relieved that this time he passed. God has been so gracious to us this year in helping us achieve so many of the goals we set out to nail.

Ongoing medical saga of my jaw

The ongoing saga of the discomfort I've been experiencing on the left side of my jaw came to a head (this started in Canberra during our long service journey in mid March). By late-May I was unwilling to accept the GPs assurance that all was fine. So I went to a physio (thinking it might be muscular-skeletal). He suggested another go at a dentist, who took an x-ray and referred me to an oral pathologist, who referred me to an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon who sent me for more scans, including an MRI. Amazingly, all that was achieved during June! 

It's been a ridiculous journey that I wanted to end asap, preferably before we went back to Japan, where accessing medical and dental services just becomes more complex for a non-fluent Japanese speaker. 

I had my post-scan appointment on Wednesday and the final assessment is that this is an abscess under a molar. The tooth needs extraction under General Anaesthesia. This is now planned for next Tuesday. Phew! And amazingly, I'm not in much pain, certainly nothing like I experienced at Easter time.

No one knows how this has escaped the attention of so many professionals (in three months I've had four dental x-rays, two ultrasounds, two CT scans, as well as an MRI). But perhaps it was just God keeping me off-balance, and part of his growth plan for me to trust him?

What now?

Well now that most of that is decided, we forge onwards. It's only 15 days until we hop on our first plane. Things are steadily getting done. Today so far I've made an enquiry about getting our carpets cleaned, I've finished our last prayer letter for this home assignment, written this blog post, and done (all?) the paperwork for my day surgery next week. Next on the agenda is a coffee and some more sorting of boxes of stuff that are lying around (much is memorabilia and correspondence from many years ago that has thus far been stored here).

On Saturday we are doing something new: holding an open day here at our house. So between 9 and 4.30 we could have a lot of people visiting (or maybe hardly any at all?). It's a chance for local people who may not have seen us to briefly do so.

Yep, I'm still feeling off-balance. I think that's where God likes me!