Happy New Year Everyone. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years’ celebration with your family and friends. We did. I hope Naomi posted our ‘Christmas Card’ where everyone can see it…she sent it to me via e-mail. I’m assuming she posted it. Now that was a trick to get all 10 of us, five of which are children, sitting, looking forward, not crying, and smiling when the camera is sitting on some piled up boxes and it’s taken by a delayed flash that one of the adults pushed and ran over trying to look calm and happy. But after about 10 tries we finally came up with one that was at least presentable. (Madeline had her crazy little face but that just shows more of her cute personality). And you could probably not tell that at least three or four of the adults were sick with either cough, colds, or sore throats. What you can’t see on the ‘surface’ of peoples’ lives, right? And guess who was the most healthy individual of the bunch? Yup, Joshua…all that good nutrition he’s getting from juicing and eating healthy is keeping him in great shape. We’ll never discount the prayers, however, as being an integral if not the most integral part of his condition improving on a daily basis. He needs his naps to stay healthy and he can really see the difference when he doesn’t get them, but for the most part he’s doing really great! We’re so thankful.
We had a slight scare the other night with his eyelids starting to flutter (which was the main symptom before his seizure). So as not to tempt fate and be proactive, this time we thought we would go into the ER before it got worse and potentially lead to a seizure. As it turns out the doctor felt it could be a result of a long day of visitors and no nap and he was just tired. So we’re trying to make sure he gets those naps in. I still get SO scared if I think a seizure is possible (left-over from experiences with Rick I’m sure), but I am calmed down again now and attempting to not live in fear, but assume he is getting better day by day and not focus on what ‘could’ happen. It is one BIG goal to learn how to not live in hyper-vigilence when you’re caring for someone you love. I sure hope the Lord gets me down the road on that one going through this again (round two). If nothing else I will certainly have gained compassion and understanding for those who have to go through similar trials…hmmm, I think I’ve read that somewhere. 🙂
Then as if there wasn’t enough excitement in our Holiday celebration, I managed to drum up a whole lot more and got into a car accident. (At the intersection of Blairs Ferry and Center Point Rd.,a fairly busy intersection) I was going through the intersection on a late yellow light and a young woman turned in front of me. It was quite frightening also. She spun completely around and we ended up hitting and landing side by side on the riders’ sides. My car ‘may’ be totaled, her’s not so bad. THANKFULLY neither of us were seriously injured. I thought I was just a little sore the following day but the second day after, I moved wrong in trying to get out of bed and I couldn’t move at all without a searing pain going up and down my left side. And I had a very bad migraine. So Joshua now became the caretaker and he helped me to his bed (it can go up and down) gave me a muscle relaxer and anti-inflammatory , migraine medicine, and I slept the majority of the day. By that evening I was much better. I’m still somewhat sore but the bad pain has not returned. You know, someday, I’m sure we’ll look back on all of this happening at the same time with some form of humor, but right now I, for one, am ready for a little less of…everything!! Except your prayers…:-)
Lastly, today we had our first appt. with the new Dr. and it went extremely well. She was very attentive, involved and stressed her style as being one of working together as a team. Just what we wanted and need. We left feeling very strong confirmation that we made the right decision in changing. It felt so good to leave feeling supported and encouraged rather than stressed. So thank you for praying for us in this big decision. Which also reminds me that I have some good news about Joshua’s C-2 vertebrae that has cancer present that I asked you all to pray about. ABout a week ago, before going to bed we were praying and I put my hand over his C-2 and it was quite enlarged or swollen. (I didn’t say much about it to him…just asked you all for prayer). Several days later, I went to pray and put my hand on his neck and it was almost flat! I had him sit a couple of ways to see if his position changed things in any way and it didn’t. My only explanation is our prayers!! He will have another PET Scan in February, so we will be able to more clearly compare the affected areas to the last scan. We’ll know more specifics then. But thank you, thank you, thank you…and please keep praying. Each prayer matters and I know is heard and answered in God’s perfect way. As I said before, our prayers are that you will receive GREAT blessing as a result of your generous gifts to us and your prayer…really the giving of yourselves! We are so blessed to have each one of you in our lives.
Prayers that we will ALL be filled with HOPE for the new year…
With Love to you all,
Kristi, Joshua, and Family
