Hello, My name is Eric and my family and I are reaching out to the world for help to get through a tough time.
My wife has been very sick for a few years now. The doctors can't seem to figure out what's wrong and all the bills have piled up.
Please read my wife Amy's story below below and if you can, please donate. If you can't, just sharing our story and this page can be a great help too.
Thank you!
Amy's Story:
Some of you know our story, and some of you are just hearing it for the first time. Either way, I would like to thank you for taking the time to pray for us, send positive thoughts and encouragement, spread the word about our needs, or even bless us with financial and other means of support.
I’m Amy Dewey, and until recently I worked in the medical field and was working towards my Nursing degree with an ultimate goal of becoming a Nurse Practitioner. I also spent a lot of time nannying and caring for my friends’ children as well as working in nursing homes and hospitals. I loved providing respite care to some very special children and was very active in my hobby of family photography. I loved volunteering at church and spent as much time with family and friends as I could. Seemed as though we were always going somewhere, doing something fun, trying something new, or setting out on a new adventure…
I have been married to Eric since 2005, but we've been together for almost 11 blessed years. We have a daughter who is just the light of our lives. She’s 13yrs old now, and everything you want a teenage daughter to be. She’s compassionate, sweet, loving, funny, smart, and the reason we have a small zoo. We have dogs, cats, and fish which make up our small zoo. We are a small but close family, and live a truly joy filled life even in the midst of trials. Like any married couple and family we’ve certainly seen our fair share of challenges and trials, but somehow managed to persevere lovingly together.
Like nearly every other family in America we’ve been through some lean times, and were affected by the economy. When my husband was laid off a few times in one year and things got tight while he was still hunting for a job, I did what I could by working 3 and 4 jobs to keep bills paid and food on the table. It’s just how we’ve always been as a family, sacrificing where we could to make sure everything was taken care of. A strong work ethic was passed down to me from my grandparents. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up, and was so blessed to have them in my life for as long as I did.
I was in school trying to get through a phlebotomy course when I started to feel exhausted to the point I felt like I just couldn’t hold my head up, let alone my eyes open. I was still working several jobs at that time and figured things were finally starting to catch up to me. Eric was working again so it made sense for me to scale back from 4 jobs to only 2 while I was finishing school. Then I was queasy all the time and my body started to ache too. When I couldn’t keep food down any longer I assumed I had the flu. It soon became apparent that it wasn’t the flu, and I spent a few days in the hospital on fluids and undergoing testing. At this point I was able to take a leave of absence from school and cut down to 1 job.
At this same time my Granddad was diagnosed with cancer and placed in hospice care. 3 months after he passed away, my Grandpa passed away. I would eventually go to 8 funerals in 6 months. It was a lot to deal with all at once, and it seemed as though things with my health were getting steadily worse. I would spend the next 2 years in and out of the hospital, have surgery, get treated for some pretty serious infections, lose almost 80 pounds, get so weak and have so much pain I wouldn’t be able to wash myself or dress myself, meet a new specialist or doctor nearly every month, and in general undergo so much testing that I would feel like the human science experiment. All this time later there still didn’t seem to be answers to why my body couldn’t tolerate food, and medications only seemed to work for a little while. Meanwhile I lost 3 jobs in almost 3yrs because I was never healthy enough or couldn’t stay out of the hospital long enough to keep even 1 job. After my Gramie died and I was at yet another friend’s funeral a remark was made “that I needed to go to happy hour or something, as long as it wasn’t a funeral, hospital, or doctor’s appointment.” Oh if only…
Still we continue to be optimistic that the next doctor’s appointment or test will hold the answer to getting me back to my active, funtastic life. As months turned into a year, and now we are moving into year 3, I have come to try so many other forms of healing and lean more on the support of my faith community. The outpouring of love and encouragement has been amazing. People came with food, and scripture, prayer, suggestions to try to help me on the road to recovery. That has been the biggest blessing in all of this for me, finding a deeper faith and even experiencing the joy in suffering. As I come to place my trust in the Lord, I find a newfound hope in my healing. I have hope and trust in the plan that God has for my family. Though this has been a challenge to say the least, it has also been an amazing journey that has blessed and enriched my spiritual journey more than I could every express in words.
All this time as we experienced so much loss and my health was getting worse we did our best to just get through each day and each new challenge that seemed to present itself almost daily. God bless my dear husband because he has been the one to keep this ship afloat throughout all of this. He goes to work, takes care of our daughter, pays the bills, does all the laundry, does all the cooking and cleaning, and takes care of me all without complaint. He’s tried to get a 2nd job, but taking care of me and the rest of our household seems to be more than a full time job at this point. My sweet daughter has stepped up and helped out around the house more when all I can do is sleep and try to make it through the many exhausting appointments. Here we are a few years later and it’s getting harder to bail the water out of this sinking ship, and we realize that this is one of those times you need to ask for help and hope someone comes along with a sturdy life boat. I realize now that having been through so much, we weren’t meant to go through all that alone. I recognize that times the Lord sent what we needed whether we were able to swallow our pride and ask for the life preserver or not.
Thank you for reading our story, and helping us in any way that you are able to. It all makes a difference to me and my family. It is truly humbling to have the prayers, encouragement, and support of our family, friends, and community. You all bless us so….
