Grandma update!

First, I just want to say THANK YOU!! I cannot even begin to tell you how much your prayers have meant to me, my Grandma and the rest of our family!!! God heard our cries and has graciously answered our hearts desire!! Tuesday night when I asked for your prayers, I was trying my best to focus on the positive, the small signs of progress in my Grandma’s condition, afraid to think of what the future could hold. Wednesday morning, as my mom and I drove to the hospital, we were preparing ourselves for another long day. When I stepped into the room, I said “Hi Grandma, I love you!” and she softly answered “I love you!” back. Tears of joy began to stream down my face… and all I could do was say “Thank you, Jesus”!! My mom and I were so excited!!!! My Grandpa, on the other hand, wasn’t convinced that she remembered him. To hear him reminding her that he’d been living with her for over 60 yrs. yet couldn’t get a nod out of her when he asked if she recognized him was simply heartbreaking. Mom told him to put his glasses on, and as he was still jabbering about how she didn’t recognize him, we heard Grandma whisper “I do to!” with much attitude. Mom and I bust out laughing… she was back, spunk and all!!

As of last Wednesday, she was still very weak, her voice was quiet and raspy, she could barely move her arms, but she was definitely coming back to us!!! By the afternoon, she was telling the student nurses that they were doing a great job, that praise was offered where praise was due, and she wished another one a happy birthday… here she was, caring for others and letting Jesus shine through her in the midst of her pain and extreme discomfort. She is truly an amazing woman.

Each day, we’ve been blessed with more signs of progress. She’s slowly but surely getting stronger. As of last Saturday she was able to sit in the wheelchair for about 30-45 minutes at a time, and we even wheeled her out into the waiting room the other day so she could have a change of scenery. When mom and I were up there on Sunday, she had enough strength back in her right arm to feed herself which was very exciting! They will start hitting the physical therapy and occupational therapy pretty hard now. They were limited to what they could do because of her taking so long to come out of the anesthesia and being so weak. They got her up on the parallel bars on Monday and moved her to a new room on the physical therapy ward on Tuesday. She was excited b/c it had a view with trees (past the parking lot, of course) and Gpa was super excited b/c it had a bed that pulled out into a bed! No more sleeping in a recliner for him!! She’s not too excited about the hard work ahead of her, and gets tired easily, but she’s a fighter and determined to get her independence back.

I have to say, it’s been really cool to see, not only the provision of God, but also the body of Christ in action these past few weeks. My Grandma has so many people praying for her, it’s crazy! And she’s had a constant stream of visitors, which can be tough at times because she doesn’t get much sleep. But between family, church friends, old co-workers, and even a couple of ladies that used to babysit my mom and her brothers back in the day… it’s been a true testament of how many lives she has touched and how much she’s loved. Her children and grandchildren came from all over… Colorado, Oregon, Michigan, Kansas City… and we were all pretty protective. We’ve been joking that the nurses will be glad to see the grandkids gone… we were running into the nurse station about every 30 minutes. All Gma had to do was moan and we were out the door in a flash to make sure she was taken care of! Our church family has really been a blessing, too… stopping by to say hi, bringing us food, praying and reading scripture to her. Both pastors and their wives have been up about once a day to check on her and pray for her. One night, they went out to dinner with about 5 other local pastors and their wives, and they ALL came up to sing Christmas carols to her. She LOVED it!! Between them and my family, we had about 15-20 people jammed into her little room singing… it was awesome!!

She has a long road ahead of her, and can still use your prayers for continued recovery, but I just wanted to let you all know that she is doing better!!! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get the update out to ya, but last week was a whirlwind of long days at the hospital and time with family. I headed back to KC with my Uncle Wayne on Monday, stayed with my sister and bro-n-law and flew back to Portland on Tuesday. Knowing that she’s improved so much made it a little easier for me to leave, not to mention I’ll be back in 3 weeks for Christmas, so that seemed to help, too.

So thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for all your prayers and support!!