Before I Forget: Pray for Carey Penrod, our friend, that his numbers will be high tomorrow and that his family will know the best course for him. We love the entire family and they appreciate your prayers. Our path has been a cakewalk compared to theirs...
Long Version:
Saturday: Brace felt stronger today than he has in a month.
Our extended family drove miles and miles to come and visit Brace for an hour. (Leslie, Ben, Curtis, Sara, Bryan, Heather and Dylan). 15-minutes before they arrived Brace was ready for sushi. Most of these trips are fruitless. He tries to take one bite and it doesn't work. This was the case today but luckily we got the sushi that is my favorite instead of his. The extended family both came bearing Christmas presents which is always fun. Leslie and Ben stopped by Walmart twice to pick up meds, Qtips, and veggies for Karen. When Leslie and Ben arrived I was getting sushi and Brace was asleep. They weren't worried, they walked in. Leslie was in the kitchen slicing and dicing veggies for Karen when she arrived with the sushi.
The highlight of the day was a 30-minute trip to the Altisima park to drive Ben and Curtis's high speed remote control planes. (100 miles an hour). James and Kjarstin wanted to join us for that. Both Ben and Curtis did a lot of tricks, but Brace said the highlight of his year was to watch Ben's plane crash. (that is what you would call Brace's sick humor) Sorry Ben.... We bought a folding chair for Brace and Karen and Leslie and Ben were keeping an eye on Brace. They saw Brace standing up and getting a little wobbly and Leslie said, it looks like it is time to go home and he agreed.
Then after a nap he said, I'm ready for Chinese dumplings. A great restaurant in Lake Forest that Julie and Bill Brown took us too. So off we went and he was able to eat two boiled dumplings. Hurray!
Sunday:
I really struggle wanting to get out of bed these days. (I'm not depressed as much as just emotionally tired) It is usually because I wake up to do pain meds with him, but last night he didn't even wake up so I can't blame it on that. Lisa Brewster said she would go to church with me today. I think if I hadn't committed to go with her I might not have made it today. Thank you Lisa.
It was a great day at church with good lessons, good talks and good fellowship with members. Life is always better if you go to church. Thank you to the Wilson and Stone boys for coming to bring Brace the sacrament at the house. That is such a tender mercy that doesn't go unnoticed.
Kjarstin and James made us some fancy soup and a beautiful strawberry and chicken salad. Brace was able to eat salad for the first time. I think he got three bites in. He finished his Dr. Pepper too. The nurse says they don't count as his liquid count because it has caffeine but he loves how it tastes and he finished it!
When we came home his eye was hurting and hurting. I called Fawn Penrod for advice on what to do about the eye infection and left a message with the opthamologist rather than the optometrist. I gave him some additional pain meds and fed him so more formula (now that he is not loopy he can do gravity feeding through his tube which is so much faster than the pump) and we got ready to turn off the lights.
Brace and I just said our nightly prayers. He said the prayer tonight and I was reminded why I love him. He is a man of God and when he talks to God you can feel God in the room. I have always loved listening to him pray. When he worked at Euroline, most of the time they asked Brace to bless the food. I know why... he knows how to pray. He prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for our many blessings. We have so much and when you go through something like this you remember. I just cried and cried good tears of love during the whole prayer.
Last Thursday: As I said before, I was a mess on Thursday. I just bawled basically all day. Lana Goodwin, said something that made me remember that we are so blessed. So to make it to Friday I listed a few of our many blessings...
Blessings
- Brace and I like each other. My Grandma Leslie always said Jesus said you have to love everyone, but you don't have to like them. I have always remembered that. (I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't really say that) The moral of the story, Brace and I have each other and life is blessed because we are together.
- We have three great girls that love us and like being together.
- We are so proud of our missionary daughter, Penelope. In Dad's prayer today he thanked God for all the blessings we receive because of her selfless service.
- We love our extended family. (sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews and cousins)
- Brace has an amazing company that has been terrific, more than terrific. We love the whole gang at Marantec.
- Kjarstin has been able to run Glee alone and two voice teachers have been teaching my students while I have this new full time gig. (If you ever wondered Kjarstin and I are business partners - she doesn't work for me)
- We are members of a Christian church that believes that God can talk to us, comfort us and give us guidance. That's the only way I am making it here.... (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
- We live on Chimney Rock Circle. Oh how I love our neighbors.
- We are part of the Foothill Ranch ward (church) who constantly reach out to see how they can help.
- We live in this amazing country where our voice matters.
- We have fantastic health insurance. Blue Cross PPO. We basically have paid $3000 and they paid the rest of the 650 million dollars worth of treatment. Thank you Marantec!
Thank you's
- Webber boys for continuing to take out our trash on trash day.
- Bob Demmon for bringing it back in.
- Fawn for taking my call and addressing my fears.
- Kayla Debellis for bringing food.
- Lara Caufman for allowing me a little emotional escape on Saturday.
- Jim Hope and Kim Tobler for driving this Monday and Tuesday.
- The Lake and Ashby family for making his Saturday.
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