“The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord.”  -Proverbs 18:22 courtesy of www.BibleGateway.com. I am one of those lucky guys who found a treasure. Emily and I just marked our two year wedding anniversary and I am remembering how much more fun it is to be on this side of that day. Not only that but getting the chance to think again about how crazy it is a bum like me ended up with a babe like her.

Sunday, August 9th, I led the Bible discussion at the church meeting in Sturgis on John 9:1-5. It had been a while since I’d done any Bible research and I had a blast diving into it. For some reason, up until now, I’ve never used Bible commentaries but I saw The Matthew Henry Commentary on the bookshelf in my parents’ house and read what it had to say on the passage. It was great! The actual leading of the discussion was interesting and fun as well. I like Jesus!

This past Friday we pulled our last corn tassels of the summer. It was a good summer job but its nice to be done with the six-o’clock mornings for a while. That evening we also got to spend some time with my brother, his wife, and their girls! If anyone is ever in Kalamazoo I recommend Schwarma King…you won’t be sorry. Over the rest of the weekend we were able to have a wonderful visit with one of my best friends, John, and his wife and daughter. John introduced me to mountain biking. I can see why people get into it! Emily and I had a great time chilling out with them, eating lots of good food and catching up on life….one of those things ya gotta do when you leave for a year at a time and when you come back your friend has a one year-old that you’ve never even met.

Yesterday evening we took off to head down to Florida where one of my other best friends, Marty, is stationed with the Navy for a visit. After sleeping in a parking lot for a few hours south of Nashville we hit the road again this morning and arrived safe and sound to his Huckleberry Finn paradise right outside of Pensacola this afternoon. So far we’ve kayaked around his bayou, shot bottles out of the water with a .22 and toured the area complete with Marty warning us of where the cops hang out and stories of his escapades talking his way out of tickets. Can’t wait to see whats next.

Its crazy how fast the summer is wrapping up. I’m a little bummed I wasn’t able to go camping up in Ludington with my 2nd family but I guess that’s life. After we’re done here in Florida we’ll swing through Tennessee and Kentucky for visits with Emily’s extended family. It has been a while since I’ve had a good, long road-trip and so far its been awesome!

A week ago today I discovered free money. Well actually its not quite free money but its pretty stinking close. I went to CSL Plasma in Lansing and sold them my plasma.

I had heard of getting money for plasma before but the thought of doing it myself came to me only recently after reading Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard. My mom suggested that I’d enjoy the book and I really did. Its about this guy who wants to find out if the “American Dream” of being able to move up the socio-economic ladder was still possible. One of the things he does in the book is sell his plasma, which, got me thinking!

Well I found CSL on the internet and decided to go in the next time I was in Lansing. It was weird at first in there. There was a front desk with medical looking files all stacked behind it like a doctors office and a waiting area and everyone was wearing doctors coats and stuff. To the left, unlike a doctors office, there was a wall of glass where you can see the “donation” floor. A bunch of bed-chair things with people in them with tubes of blood flowing out of their arms, into machines, and then back into their arms minus the plasma. “Wow, this is like a human factory or something” I thought to myself.

After declaring my desire to become a “new donor” one of the first things they did was check the inside of my elbows along with another guy who wanted to be a “new donor.” I passed but the other dude had a ton of needle marks and the lady told him he couldn’t “donate” until “that cleared up.” Its so sad to come face-to-face with human suffering, especially when its self-inflicted.

Anyways I then underwent a series of questions and a physical. Throughout this process me and the lady who put me through it had great conversation. At the end of it all it was determined that I was exactly what they were looking for and filled the “new donor” job requirements perfectly. In fact it was determined that I had ‘grade A’ plasma and would be receiving the top tier of reimbursement out of three. Each “donation”, which I can make up to two times every seven days nets me $35. Thats $280 a month! Crazy right?

I was also marked as having “yellow” veins. Each new donors’ veins are inspected and labeled as green, yellow, or red. Green veins are large and easy to stick. Red veins are small and the phlebotomist has got to have mad skills. Even though Sam, the very nice lady who put me through the physical, said I had super great veins she said it would be better to mark me as having “yellow” veins because then nobody that was a crappy sticker could stick me but that I wouldn’t have the difficulties of red vein people. She explained to me red vein people sometimes have to wait forever for the really talented stickers to make it to them when there are lots of “donors” that need sticking all at the same time.

I could literally go on and on about the experience it was so interesting to me. Suffice it to say I went out to the “donation” floor, got stuck and hooked up, and had wonderful conversations with the technicians and other “donors” throughout the duration of my “donation.” At the end I was given a slip of paper with a four number code on it and Sam showed me how to work the “reimbursement” ATM in the lobby.

What a great way to get money that I can then give away to the missionaries we support, the Student Statesmanship Institute (an organization that we support), and the Couple to Couple League (another organization that we support). Actually at $280 a month I might need to find some more! I hope I don’t sound prideful about making charitable contributions. I’m really just excited about finding a new way of getting money that I don’t need myself and can instead give away.

For those of you who have questions about “donating” plasma I’d be happy to tell you more about my experience. I was really impressed by the system that CSL had set up. Needless to say, after learning about the process, I wasn’t worried that my blood would mix around with bad blood (you know what I mean) and somehow cost me my health.

I’m looking forward to my next trip to Lansing so I can “donate” some more plasma and donate some more money!