Harder Family Adventures: Update 3/23/25: Huge Milestone

1 John 4:7 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born o God and knows God."

Life has been crazy the past few weeks. Between therapies, doctor appointments, school, work, and planning another party (anniversary party for my parents). So, I have failed to give a recent update. I will attempt to catch everyone up on the past few weeks.

Update: Wayne - Wayne continues to do well. He works hard at PT and has even added some exercises at home that is improving his strength. He did stop OT since he hasn't seen any improvement with that despite all the hours of therapy he received. He currently doesn't have speech therapy since his therapist is on maternity leave. He is looking forward to getting back to that when she returns. Wayne also walks 2-3 times a week at the rec center with his friend Jason. They keep each other accountable, and Jason is his ride there. We continue to be amazed at God's goodness and mercy that gives us many more days with Wayne. We will take all that God gives us!

Update: Rebecca - My latest immunotherapy resulted in some negative side effects. I have noticed some random painful bumps on my fingers the last few times, but it was an isolated incident. After this latest infusion, I broke out with more painful blister/callous spots on my fingers. Not to sound vain, but my fingers are looking old and beat up from these weird bumps on my joints and now along the side of my fingers. The most difficult thing is when I try to lift something and it hits one of these spots, it causes a lot of pain. Please pray for wisdom for my team to figure out what steps we need to take next.

My dad is preparing to start radiation this next week, I believe. Two weeks ago, I took him to the doctor to get another piece of skin cancer cut off his ear. They had to do a skin graft where they removed the cancer. My dad is a trooper! I love getting to spend time with him. Please continue praying for him and his upcoming treatment. We are praying for a complete healing!

We are so thrilled with the school the girls are attending. The teachers and staff are the best and we have seen them just blossom this year! Micaela recently helped volunteer at a glow in the dark fundraiser at school for her FCA club.

Joella attended the National Beta Convention in TN. Her team did a great job! She enjoyed getting away on her own with her team.

We have been working hard getting in shape for our trip to China. I told the kids they need to be ready to hike the Great Wall and walk many miles on this trip.

Abigail and Elijah came for a visit for spring break. It was the first time we had seen them since the wedding. We had a great few days with them. I was sad to see them drive away. We are counting the days until we can see them again.

I have been working on some fun food projects. My homemade kombucha is in full swing and I have kept my sourdough starter alive for a few weeks now. I still haven't conquered the traditional sourdough loaf, but my bread maker has made some nice sourdough sandwich bread. I need to watch some videos and see what I'm doing wrong with my other loaves.

My sisters and I decided to throw my parents a surprise 50th wedding anniversary party. My sister, Rachel, was in town to visit my dad and so we thought it was a great time to celebrate this momentous occasion. My parent's official anniversary isn't until August, which helped us pull off the surprise. We kept the celebration small: our family, a few neighbors, and family that lived nearby. It was a lot of work, but worth it all.