Laurie Ishii

Daryl and I are home for Christmas! Yesterday we were at the ER at County hospital USC. Last Tuesday Daryl got two teeth extracted and two days later he woke up covered with big red hives/welts from head to toe! He also had fever of 101.3 and when I called my uncle who’s a dentist he said that Daryl’s symptoms weren’t normal and to go to the ER. So we did.

Thankfully, he was seen immediately, and given an IV with antibiotics and Benedryl. The doc said that it seemed that Daryl had an alergic reaction from something he was given when he got his tooth pulled. (Anesthesia?) We were out of the hopital in four hours! (Miracle, praise God!) Daryl felt better and the hives seemed to clear quite a bit.

Last night we went over to our Pastor and his wife’s apartment and had dinner with some great friends from Reality LA. Our friend Aubrey is the most amazing magician! Wow – he did card tricks and coin tricks – even appeared to make a coin come through the coffee table… I have never seen anyone do such amazing tricks right in front of my eyes.

Then there was our friend Nico – that man has such a love for Jesus, I am so inspired by his testimony, coming out of the homosexual lifestyle – how he is now serving Christ with his whole heart and now reaching out to others… the ower of God is so evident in his life! He is truly an example of a changed life, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new” 2 Corinthians 5:17 He is UNcompromising, sold out and on fire for Jesus Christian! What an encouragement! And our Pastor – Tim and his wife, are people with such INTEGRITY! So evident by their lives and the fruit of his ‘flock’…

We got home after 11pm and to bed after midnight… Daryl kept waking up in the middle of the night itchy and uncomfortable. This morning our friend Jackie cooked a Christmas ‘country breakfast’ with eggs, toast, sausage and grits! Yum! But by the time we finished breakfast Daryl wasn’t feeling too hot – we were supposed to go to his brother’s for Christmas dinner but he called to cancel. He’s asleep in bed now. Which is fine with me, cause this week my body has been in a lot of pain from the fibromyalgia and cold weather. I’ll probably crawl back into bed too, after catching up on some e-mails. Hopefully Daryl will feel better after some more rest.

Besides, this day is really about Jesus anyway – I have been reflecting on the amazing fact that He came to earth for US… in one of my devotionals it talked about imagining what life would be like if Christ had not come…? How different the world would be… how different my life would be! I am SO grateful and feel so BLESSED!

God is so good!