Major Prayer request

(this was also sent as an email to many of you--this is a reminder to please pray for us)

Hi Friends and Family~

Some of you may already know (either from the email update or from Joshua's blog) that Joshua is scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed on this coming Tuesday (9/26). Over the last months (years is probably more accurate) he has experienced discomfort due to the pressure of the impacted teeth, as well as pain simply from the presence of them in his mouth. While we are excited that he will finally be able to have them removed, it is also coming at a hard time for us--both academically and financially. Joshua will likely miss several classes (one of them potentially being his very first at Harvard) because of the recovery time involved in this kind of surgery. He will be dealing with the more nasty side of recovery and probably taking pain medication, all the while trying to keep up with his reading and studies for classes. The surgery is also going to cost considerably more that we had first anticipated. The original quote that the surgeon gave Joshua was almost half of what we are now expected to pay. While neither of us had any illusions that this would be inexpensive, we certainly were not prepared for the burden of the final bill that will be handed to us. Though there is some money in our savings account that can (and likely will) be put towards this, we were hoping that would be a nest egg for the (future) addition of children to our family. There is the possibility of various credit cards with little to no interest, but we are loathe to add that kind of debt to our lives.

All of this to say...please be praying for both of us in the following ways:

1. That the surgery would go well and that Joshua's recovery time would be swift
2. That Joshua's teachers would be understanding and gracious, and that he would be able to keep up with his studies and not get too far behind
3. That God would provide financially in a mighty way

Thank you all for your love and support in our lives! Thank you also for your prayers for us, on this occasion and always.