Psalm 121:1-2 "I lift up my eyes to the mountains-where does my help come from?My helps come from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."
I realized today that it has been a hot minute since I last updated everyone, which is partly due to avoid sounding redundant in my posts. Wayne continues to have good days and days that are a struggle. So far he seems to enjoy his PT, OT, and speech therapy. At this time, he only has therapy about 1-2 days a week. The day after therapy seems to be his "catch up on rest day" because it wears him out. Some days he drives me crazy because he tries to do too much and he gets hurt. But I've learned to give him space and let him learn on his own, although I may toss in some gentle reminders to take it slower.
Wayne continues to make us laugh. The other day, he was trying to find the word he was looking for in the conversation. Instead of finding the word, he found two Spanish words that kind of meant the same thing. He hasn't used Spanish or thought about Spanish since high school. Today he was teaching me how to change a tire (no, I never knew before). He's a hard-core teacher. We swapped all 4 tires on two cars. He laid on the ground to show me how to place the jack under the car. Unfortunately, he then couldn't get back up. Since we were in our driveway, a stranger passed by and saw Wayne struggling to get up. She offered to help me get Wayne up. I know that wasn't easy for Wayne to accept help from two women, but he continues to laugh through it all. Tonight we were watching "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back". At the end of the movie, Jack is being helped by two women. Wayne looked at me and declared, "See, even Jack Reacher needs help sometimes from women!"
On a serious note, Wayne is still struggling with hand tremors. He also has been struggling with leg weakness/wobbles. His therapists suggested a cane after two falls. Thankfully, he has been using the cane, even though I know he doesn't like it. I know each of these steps and losses aren't easy on him, but he is slowly adjusting to his new normal. We all hope and pray that it is temporary, but we are preparing ourselves in case it isn't temporary. Because the future is unknown, we do our best to try to find light hearted moments in all of this hard and make memories with our kids. Although we did quite a bit of this, we are so much more intentional since our Inheritance of Hope retreat last year. It impacted our whole family in ways they will never understand. In fact, Naomi and Abigail are getting ready to serve on another retreat in about two weeks. Please pray for the families that will be served and that they will feel the love we felt last year.
One recent intentional activity was taking Micaela and Joella to the zoo. We had to drive to Cincinnati to pick up Abigail from the airport and we decided to make a fun adventure out of it. It was a beautiful day at the zoo and it felt like all of Cincinnati was there that day. I have decided I am not a huge crowd fan. I preferred when we went last fall and had the zoo to ourselves.
Baby manatee
Joella loves silly photos
Bo is so worried that I am leaving him again. He hopped in the car and sat on the seat like he was another passenger. We had to give him a treat to coax him out of the car.
Wayne has fallen a few times and this time his leg was beat up pretty bad. Sophia got to practice her medical training on her dad. This was the accident that finally got PT involved and said he needed a cane.
More injuries and struggles (trying to get his socks off, which is a struggle)
Sophia left today for Hawk Mountain for field medic training. She has been practicing packing her bag.
Micaela and I enjoyed splitting a shave ice when we were out running errands. We were purchasing her school supplies while Wayne was at PT.
Wayne rocking his cane.
Wayne had a project to do (hide the TV cables and plugs). Since he couldn't do the work, he taught Shan and was the foreman.
Enjoying the beautiful weather and hours in the pool! Joella would stay the entire day in the pool if I allowed her.
Wayne and I had to make a trip to Home Depot to get some parts to help finish up the TV project. I'm so proud him using his cane! It helps relieve my stress.
Micaela, Shan, and Sophia participated in the 4th of July parade in Lexington with Civil Air Patrol. They all came back completely worn out from the heat and marching.
Even though I planted my seeds late, my garden is starting to produce. I love picking fresh fruit and vegetables.
To help Wayne with eating, we recently purchased adaptive silverware. We hope that this will help with his hand tremors and eating.
Learning how to change tires from Wayne. In the middle of the project, Sophia had to leave for Hawk.
All packed and ready to go! She will come back stinky and her bag will be filled with dirty laundry.
Grace snapped a picture of my earrings a sweet friend sent me. "The bigger the earrings, the harder the day." I think I may have to buy some bigger earrings. I have been using my stress away essential oils and exercise to offset the stress.
Prayer Requests:
- Please pray for Wayne's therapy and all of his weakness.
- Please also pray for Wayne's MRI that is coming on 7/14. This will be a very important scan since it determines our next steps.
- Thank you for praying for Shan. His leg is all healed up and he went back to work yesterday.
- Please pray for Sophia's safety at Hawk Mountain. I still don't know how my daughter enjoys spending days in the forest roughing it.
- Please also pray for Grace. She leaves Sunday to head back to Life Action Ministries. She will be working and training at the summer camp and then they will hit the road to travel again.
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