The Heymann Family Journal

What a relief!!! I had my x-rays done today. Everything is clear and fine PRAISE GOD!!! I have to go back next week and do computer tomography just to make extra sure everything is fine. The radiologist said she thinks its just a swollen lymph nod. I'm 98% sure it is nothing! Hopefully I'll get news in 2 weeks that it's 100% sure that it's nothing. I have been praying for grace. What a good day!!! Video is Seth at New Day Foster center in China dancing. He is available for adoption if you want to adopt the cutest 3 year old boy on the planet!!!

Can you tell I try to laugh when I'm feeling a little stress? This is really bad!

I just love plants. I got this from my dad. He is a great gardener. What I don't have is space or good soil. I really want vegetables in my small garden. I would love to have raised beds built, but that takes some thought and money and time. We are a little short on all the above! I found a wooden sand box on e-bay that sold for 23€ (delivered). It is not as high as I wanted and will not last forever. What it will give me is a place to put very good dirt. It is small enough I will not need to walk on the soil. It should help keep out the snails. I have already got the plants (tomato's, squash, peppers, and lettuce) to fill one sand box up. God willing it will be delivered by next week. I can not wait! I bid on a second wooden sand box. If I win that bid I will have the space for some very nice vegetables! As far as my health is concerned, I feel very energetic today. I have more energy then I have had in a month. I can really tell people are praying for me. I hope that th...

I called my parents today to tell them what's going on. The conversation went something like this. "Hi Mom" "Hi Amy, what is new"? "Did you read my blog"? "I was not home yesterday" "Oh, well...I might have cancer"! "Oh, you say that so casually" …..How do you say it? How do you even wrap your brain around the idea? I have to wait for two weeks to find out what is going on. Some how I have make peace with the possibility. There are two people in my Moms church that have Hodgkin’s. Both are doing very well. I hope it is nothing. My mom says I should think the best. I do hope for the best but I have to be mentally able to handle the worst. If I can have peace with what ever happens, I hope I will just relax. Believe me; I'm hoping it's nothing! I would be so relieved!!! But what would I do two weeks from now if the doctor does use the “C” word and I was totally caught off guard. I think what I’m trying to do is just ...

Here are Thai ads that are so funny!

I slept really well. I woke up feeling some peace. I went to my doctors appointment to get my blood work done. I have a x-ray on Friday. I am trying to relax and tell myself it's nothing. I don't get to talk with the doctor until June 12TH. That's 2 weeks away. If I didn't have this lump on my collar bone I would think I was fine...just a little tired. When I read about lumps on collar bones, it sounds like a sure sign of cancer. I don't think it's a swollen lymph node. I don't have a sore thought or any other symptoms of an infection. I would be glad to have a bad cold right now! I keep feeling the lump, hoping it will get smaller or just go away. It is still there. When I think about the lump I get kind of scared. Last night I started reading The God of All Comfort. when I fix my eyes on my God, I again have peace. I know that even if I do have cancer, God will help me. I hope it is nothing...but no matter what it is I am sure it will be OK.

Last week I found a growth over my collar bone. It's hard, and the size of a small olive. I tried not to panic but I know this is not really normal. When we returned home from our vacation I did a web search. I kept coming up with Hodgkin's disease . This is a very treatable form of cancer. On Monday I found myself sitting in the Dr office waiting to have this checked out. I keep trying to tell myself it's probably just a swollen lymph node or even Mono . I was actually pretty sick a few weeks ago with flu like symptoms. I've been run down since then. The Dr. examined my organs. He even did a ultrasound. Everything (Praise God) looks fine. I go in tomorrow for blood tests. Friday I have an x-ray. I know from the tests he has ordered he is trying to rule out Hodgkin's. Hopefully cancer will be ruled out. I would be very grateful to just take antibiotics for Mono. Please pray for me. I probably will not know what is wrong until next week. I hope it's nothing. Triv...

Friends of ours gave us another 100€ (about $160) towards the house in Mexico. We now have about $1000 total towards building materials. We need $5000 to pay for the materials for one house. Nicole will be asking for funds this weekend at Heidelpraise , a worship service in Heidelberg. I bought 300 paint brushes on e-bay. We hope to put colorful stickers on the brushes that say God bring salvation to Mexico( Dios trae la salvación a México ) on them. Nicole will be giving the brushes away for donations at the concert. Please pray that people will be generous and give abundantly towards this need. I want to thank our friend Peter for allowing Nicole to do this. She is bringing her girlfriends with her. I believe the kids will all be blessed to see that the small things they do can really be used to change peoples lives. I think too many young people feel like they don't matter. God gives all of us gifts, and what we have to offer does matter. Any way, please pray God blesses the ser...

The boy's both had a partial QEEG . A QEEG maps the brain at 19 different points and basically can tell you what is working, over working, and not working at all. With this QEEG you can see patterns that are common for different disorders. ADHD for example has a pretty normal pattern. Thomas did not have this pattern on the QEEG . He only got mapped at two points. We would need to do the full QEEG to see if he really does not have ADHD, but he looked like maybe his real problem is stress. His brain looks like someone who is never able to relax, like he is up in a tree afraid to be hurt. It's amazing you can actually see this on his brain. If he does not have ADHD, then it means he needs counseling, and Nero feedback to help him feel safe. Thomas was not adopted until he was almost 7 years old. That is a long time to "make it alone". Philip had a clear brain map of someone with ADHD. We need to get him on drug therapy. He eats allot of sugar. The Dr said that 60 % of a...

As we drove away from our vacation house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, I could see the Alps through the clouds. It was one of the first times I had seen the mountains all week. It felt almost like a kick in the stomach. Sad, so sad! It wasn't a great week. We really worked over time to make it special for the kids. The girls seemed to appreciate the effort we made. The boys both acted pretty spoiled and selfish. They both have way too much energy. Being trapped in a small apartment was not all that great for them. I felt like an over worked under loved social director on a washed out cruise ship. I can not take the blame for the lack of sunshine....but I sure felt kicked! I felt like God should have known how much I actually "needed" a vacation. But I guess God knew I would get by without a vacation! Instead we got an endurance test! I guess we passed! Today we stopped by the office of a speech audiologist who does diagnostics in Auditory Processing disorders. She ran some t...

I found an internet cafe. I'm only going to check in and say "hi"! The weather has been pretty bad all week. We have not been able to see the mountians, let alone go hiking. We have taken the kids swimming, to tour a salt mine and in to Muenchen. We spend alot of time watching DVD's and playing the Wii. Today Juergen will take Thomas ,Nicole and Philip climbing. I hope the weather will be OK tomorrow. Maybe we will at least get one day of hiking in. Friday the boys and Sarah have a speech evaluation. We want to start them on a computer speech therapy program called Fast Forward.

Juergen has to work up to the last minute. The whole responsibility of packing and cleaning falls to me. This means doing all the laundry, emptying all the trash, watering plants, and trying hard to clean. With 5 kids in the house, it always seems like cleaning in a windstorm. You clean only to turn around and see it dirty 5 minutes later. Life "moves",life never stands still! I'm happy we will be getting away for a week. I hope for rest and a good family time. We have very good memories from vacations in the past. Somehow getting away helps all of us relax and draw closer together. OK, back to work. I will bring my laptop with me and I hope I can blog. I'm not sure the house we rented has Internet access. If you don't hear from me, look for an update next week. God bless you and keep you close to His heart.

We wanted to find a good Christian camp for the boys to go to when I'm gone with Nicole this summer. Praise God, we found this great camp. Some old friends of our use to send their kids here every year. They even flew their kids over from America to Germany each summer to attend this camp once they moved back to the States. I guess it's a great camp. I'm praying it is. There is just so much we can do for the boys. God has to do the rest. We can not "make them" believe in God. Only they can decide to believe in God. But we can do our best to give them positive exposure to our faith. They will be away from home 10 whole days. They have never been away from home. This is a big deal in it's self. I hope they get on OK. They will have each other. So Nicole is stepping out by doing this Missions trip in Mexico, and the boys are stepping out by being away at camp. We may decide to have Sarah come to the States with me. This is being talked about. Juergen wants to get...

The kids have vacation for two weeks. Today Nicole had a few of her friends over, and they played on the Wii and painted in the garden. On Saturday we get to go to Garmish (God willing) for a week. I'm looking forward to that. The weather here has been super good! I'm adding a few pictures of my flowers.

Nicole and I read Prince Caspian 3 or 4 years ago. I've been looking forward to this movie. It doesn't come out in Germany until July, but that gives Juergen time to read it to the boys!

Tonight Nicole's youth group went repelling off a bridge. I wish I had a photo of it. I guess some people took cellphone pictures. Hopefully I'll get a shot. I use to climb and repel when I was young. It's a lesson in trust. God is the rope we should all be holding on to! He is really strong enough to hold us!

On May 14, 1948 Israel became a Nation. Jewish people that were scattered around the globe finally had a home they could return to. God took a waste land and caused it to become a garden. Happy Birthday Israel! We love you and bless you!

I just read the headline on CNN, Maybe 100,000 people are dead in Myanmar. It is already one of the poorest countries in the world. I've been with in miles of the boarder of Myanmar. It's right next to Thailand. I'm sure Thailand will be giving aid, and also receiving a flood of refugees from the country. I guess I'm pretty sad, and almost shocked by this tragic situation. I hope somehow the government is overthrown in Myanmar. I pray the government of Myanmar falls like the homes, schools, and trees! This use to be a prosperous nation. Now it is totally destroyed. God help these people!

Hi Mom! I want you to know I love you and I'm sending you 5 pounds of Cashews for mothers day! HERE are some facts on Cashews . I hope you and dad enjoy eating your nuts. I'll call you next Sunday. Love, Amy

I'm sitting at my desk drinking my coffee and reading my e-mail. I can hear Nicole strumming away on her guitar. She's getting good. Jessica is in her room laughing at something on a video. I think it's Madelin and the dog show. Thomas, Philip, and Sarah are doing their 10 minutes of Wii fit balance exercises. I can hear Sarah cheering for Philip. Go Philip Go!!! Too cute! We have had the Wii fit for one week now. We are all hooked on it. I have a fitness age of 34 (I'm 46 years old). This makes me pretty proud. It's all the house work and living in a 4 story house. OK, I hear a fight now...got to go.