A Brighter Outlook

Things are looking so much better since my last post. This week when I talked to the hospital social worker after the weekly staff meeting about each patient, my dad was doing much better. His insurance seems to have worked out so hopefully he'll be able to stay where he is long enough to meet his goals- a huge relief. The social worker said not to start knocking out walls or doing major house reno's yet because hopefully my dad will be able to do some walking, so our bathroom doesn't necessarily need to be wheelchair accessible, although it's still highly likely we'll need a ramp for him to enter our house. His outlook seems much brighter and he's been progressing faster than they'd initially anticipated, so they increased some of his goals. I know his recovery will be full of ups and downs, but I am grateful that this week was mostly ups. Things are still out of control with his diabetes, but hopefully will improve soon. I spent a lot of hours this week working on his social security disability application and I'm still not done. I'm trying to find the determination to finish it up- this paperwork process can be a beast. I was talking to Ben a lot trying to piece together the last 15 years of my dad's employment history, and for each job there are about 40 questions to answer. At one point we just started laughing at the ridiculousness of assessing how many hours he spent sitting/standing/kneeling/bending/stooping/reaching/lifting etc. etc. etc. to answer all of these questions.

It's been interesting for me to start this new year knowing this huge life change is on the horizon. I'm usually all about making goals and striving to improve, but it's so hard to know what our life is going to look like that I'm hesitant to set many goals knowing that I may have no time or energy to devote to them. My realistic goals for the new year are to meet everyone's needs, trust in the Lord, and be happy during this experience. If we can make it through accomplishing all of the above I'll feel like it's been a success.

In other news there has been joy to document. When we read the Christmas story from Luke on Christmas Eve we then asked Addie to retell it after we were done reading. She could not remember that Mary and Joseph were the couple of the hour and kept referring to Mary and John. She also cracked us up when she taught that the wise men brought gold, Frankenstein, and myrrh.

Since Christmas the kids have been busy enjoying their toys. Current hits include Addie's markers which see daily use and Sam's fire truck and "big boy doll house" in the form of a firehouse. He keeps asking if I have a fire for him to put out. Pat tried to tell Sam of course I had a fire because I was so hot. Sam looked at me and seriously said, "You're not very hot, mom." Obviously his understanding of the word is a little different, but I have to agree, with my current schedule of showering and the fact that I can count on one hand the number of times I've done my hair or put on make-up in the last month, I'm not very hot in either sense of the word.

Speaking of the last month, Charlie is a month old today. The months pass so much more quickly when a baby is out of you than when they're in you. He's big and strong and doing so well. He is such a blessing in our home and I find myself wishing him to grow up and stay little all at the same time. He's letting me know that he's ready for me, so I'd better leave the computer.

Thanks again for all of your support. I feel the prayers of so many for our family right now, and I'm so grateful to know that although things seem hard, I'm not in this alone.