Pictures from the past month!!

This was taken while Bill was still at the rehab hospital, they had him transfer into the passenger seat of a 4 door sedan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we first started to figure out what kind of vehicle we would need when Bill came home, we thought maybe he could transfer from his wheelchair into the front seat of a 4 door sedan. So his therapist Allison helped him get into this car at the hospital. It was very difficult for her to get him in and it took a long time. Needless to say, we quickly learned that this type of car would not be an option for us!!

This is a picture of our 3 kids and our 2 foster kiddos that were living with us when the injury happened.

While Bill was in rehab, our foster kids came for a play date. Our kids miss them so much and they ask about them all the time. Treasure had been asking her new foster Mommy to come see us so we set up a play date at our house. It was great to see them after nearly 2 months. I never got to say goodbye to them because I was at the hospital when they left our house and life was crazy after that. It was wonderful to have them in our home again and to see all the kids playing. We hope to stay in contact with the current foster family and have play dates each month so the kids can still see each other.

This picture was taken on Sunday February 5th, the day before Bill was released from the hospital!!

The day before Bill was released from the hospital, his doctor gave us a “day pass” to take Bill to church and out to lunch in the van we were borrowing. The previous Sundays Bill was able to come to church but he had to go with the recreational therapist and on the bus from the hospital. This is a picture of Grace and Daddy at Applebee’s where we went for lunch after church!! (Thanks again to those of you who gave us gift cards to create these special memories with our family!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids were so excited that they could come in and snuggle with  Daddy whenever they wanted now that he is home. This is Isaac getting some snuggles and tickles with Daddy. The pillow case behind Bill has Goofy on it and it is funny how it looks like Bill has goofy ears!! Just one of the ways we keep things light and laugh around here!!

Ethan and Daddy eating together at the dinner table!!

The second weekend Bill was home we had a BBQ with my siter-in-law Kat and her kids, my grandparents, and my Mom.  It was so great to do something so “normal” at our house.  Bill doesn’t sit at the table to eat very often because the goal is to keep him off his back side as much as possible so he usually eats in bed.  This was a special occassion to have Daddy sitting next to Ethan at the table.  It was a great afternoon and evening hanging out with family.

The girl cousins were sticking together and hanging out on Grace’s top bunk!!  They had so much fun playing dress up, Barbies and styling hair.  So much girly fun, Grace was in absolute heaven!!

We have a solution for our transportation issue

Praise God for He is so good!! We were so blessed to borrow a beautiful converted wheelchair van for the first two weeks that Bill was home. It allowed me to have one less burden to be concerned with and was truly an amazing gift. But, that van needed to be returned so the owner could sell it as it was worth nearly 31K and Karen (the owner) needs that money since her husband has passed away and she no longer has his income.

Amazingly, the day she was coming to pick up the van I called her and asked if we could keep the van for just a few more hours so we could go look at this turning seat that I saw online. I mentioned in my voice message to her what we were looking for and then Bill and I headed over to Pacific Mobility Center in San Marcos to check out the Bruno Turny seat (google it to see what it is). It seemed like a great alternative to buying a van that was converted to hold wheelchairs. We need to be able to get all 3 booster seats into a vehicle and it wasn’t working very well with all three of them on one bench seat.

So we got a quote to see what is would cost to install this seat in our front passenger side of our van…..$6820!!! YIKES!! But, it still seemed much more reasonable than purchasing a van that was 15K or more with all three kids sitting next to each other and a vehicle designed around a wheelchair. We don’t believe Bill will be in a wheelchair long term so we don’t want to buy a vehicle that isn’t practical for us when he is done with the wheelchair.

When we left Pacific Mobility I had a voice message on my phone from Karen. She said she had a Bruno Turny seat in her other van that she had purchased from Pacific Mobility in 2006. She said her husband used it about a dozen times and then had several more strokes and was no longer able to use it so they got a wheelchair van. She offered to give us the Bruno Turny seat in her van and only asked that we pay for the labor to have it removed and her old seat installed. What an amazing blessing, but it seemed too good to be true. We didn’t know if it was even possible to take it out of her car and install it into our car.

So I called Pacific Mobility and asked and they were super helpful and excited for us to have such a gift given to us. Mary Ann got all our info and contacted the manufacturer to see if it was possible. She called me back later that day with great news….we could put Karen’s seat into our van. We would just need to buy the mounting base for our car, a foot rest (because Bill is so tall), shipping and handling and labor. The high end of possible prices is under $1500!!!! Praise the Lord for such a huge blessing!! So now we are taking our van into our mechanic and friend Salvador at Palomar Automotive to get a good tune up and be sure it is running at it’s best. Another great thing about this seat is that it can be moved into another van if we decide to upgrade to a newer van in the future!!

So that is one of the amazing things God has done for us this week. Another huge blessing is some help that I am going to be getting with homeschool for Ethan and Isaac. Since Bill’s injury I haven’t been able to give my all to homeschool but we love Coastal academy and the homeschool program and we don’t want to change, but I knew I needed some help. So I asked the principal, Lori Perez if she could help me find a family that might be willing to help one day a week with the boys school lessons, especially History and Science which are more project based.

Within an hour Lori had found a home school mom who was willing to help. Well it is no surprise that Lori loves the Lord and has been following our family’s story since Bill’s injury. When the boys changed school campuses back in January to Lori’s campus she left me the most encouraging voice message about how she has been praying for us and how great the boys were doing after the first week there. It was such a great message I kept it on our phone and played everyday for a few days!

So today I met with Karen (different from the Karen with the van) who has offered to have the boys come to her home on Mondays to do Science and History with her son who is in Kindergarten like Isaac and her daughter who is in 4th grade. They are such an amazing family that love the Lord so obviously. I was just blown away by Karen’s excitement to help our family. She is one of those people that you can tell has the joy of the Lord just by the words she uses and the warmth in her smile. I am just astounded at how God continues to provide for our family.

Bill is working hard and doing the exercises his therapist gave him to do everyday. We have our days that we are sad, frustrated, angry and we cry together but we have more days of laughing and joking about our situation. The things we now do together are things we never imagined we would share but we do our best to laugh about it and we get through each day. God is teaching us how to choose joy and stay out of the self pity pit by praising and thanking Him for all that we have instead of focussing on what we don’t have.

Please continue to pray for Bill’s pressure ulcer and direction for us as we are now pursuing a case against the ICU for not having him on the proper air mattress for the 31 days he was there which is the reason he developed this sore. We want to handle this in a manner that would be honoring to God and still allow us to be compensated for the financial and physical burdens that this sore has caused us.

Also, continue to pray for healing in Bill’s body, for his legs to start moving and muscles working. We know this is a long recovery process, but it’s great to see progress and every new ablility he regains is encouraging.

We are very grateful for all the meals, giftcards, movies, donations, prayers, cards, emails, and encouraging words that we continue to receive from friends and people we don’t know. God is so good in taking care of the details of our life!!

Dreams of Bill walking

Bill and I both continue to be encouraged by people sharing with us that they had a dream about him walking. It has been a huge source of hope for both of us throughout this journey but it has been awhile since someone has shared such a dream. Then this morning one of Bill’s patients, who is also a friend of mine from church, came up to us after church and said she had a dream of Bill up and walking. I can’t tell you how that blessed my heart to hear that this morning. After nearly two weeks of him at home all my mind has been able to focus on is what he can’t do right now. Instead of keeping the perspective that where he is right now is only temporary and he’s going to get stronger and regain abilities slowly but surely, my mind has allowed the enemy to whisper into my thoughts that this is how it’s going to be forever.

Over the past two weeks I have experienced many highs and lows emotionally, physically and spiritually. Through all of the them the Lord has been faithful to show me that He is truly in control and guiding every step of this journey. Once again I have had to come to the end of my rope to realize that He is holding onto me and not the other way around. I get so busy trying to do it myself and then get frustrated when my flesh is not able and my body is weak. That is when my sweet Savior gently reminds me that He is made strong in my weakness. Why do I forget that? How many times does he have to remind me before I never forget it? The amazing thing about my Jesus is He will never leave me or forsake me so no matter how many times I forget, He’ll always be there to gently remind me of His love for me.

If you have had a dream about Bill walking, even if you shared it with me before, I would love for you to share again as a comment on this blog post for others to read as well.

Please pray for the pressure ulcer on his cocyx to heal, for Bill to continue to get stronger everyday so he can do his own transfers (this is a huge goal he has set for himself), for more function to return to his body, and for us to find just the right vehicle to purchase as we will need to return the van we are borrowing soon.

Praise God for the great work He is doing in my husband and our family. Praise God for the amazing way He has provided for our family, it is truly awesome to be blessed by the gifts of others and we are so very grateful. Praise God for the wonderful time our children are getting to spend with their daddy now that he is home. We are very blessed and thankful to serve a living God through whom all blessings flow!!

Adjusting to life at home

This was a week that I could have never dreamed I would live. It has been challenging beyond anything I have ever experienced in my life. There have been moments of sheer joy and those of utter terror, moments of confidence and moments of despair, moments of laughter and moments of sobbing tears.

Bill came home last Monday and everyday since then has been a learning experience to say the least. The kids and I were so excited to have him home and he was excited to be here. The hospital bed was set up in our bedroom with a twin bed next to it for me to sleep in so we get to sleep right next to each other which has been wonderful. Bill has to be in a hospital bed until the pressure ulcer on his cocyx heals. That sore is such a pain in the butt….literally!! It first became visible his last day in the ICU but we are told that it starts from the inside out so really it had been there for quite some time in the ICU, it just surfaced on the last day. It has been an uphill battle trying to get it to heal. The wound care doc that we saw last Wednesday said it was a stage 3 ulcer. He has this crazy contraption on it called a wound vac that is a small vacuum placed inside the wound to apply negative pressure and promote healing. Friday, when I took the wound vac off for Bill’s shower, the sore looked better than I have seen it look all along, praise the Lord for that!! The wound care center told us to keep him off of his bottom as much as possible, it’s the only way it’s going to heal. So this week, he has spent lots of time in bed lying on one side or the other. The great thing is he gets lots of snuggle time with the kids and the kids are enjoying hanging out with dad and watching movies with him.

There is so much more I want to share with you but my time is very limited to post. I will try my best to continue the update on our first week later this evening.

Keep praying for us, this is a hard journey. We are starting to figure out a routine but it is still crazy difficult and exhausting. Pray for Bill’s pressure ulcer to heal completely so he can get aggressive with therapy, pray for details of scheduling therapy and insurance issues to be handled quickly, pray for strength and stamina for both Bill and I. I am so blessed to have a husband that encourages me in the Lord when I am weak.

Here are my posts from yesterday on facebook:

“It has been the longest most draining week of my life, but my amazing husband has encouraged me and prayed for me in my weakest moment and helped me realize that right now when I am weakest, God is strongest. When I felt like I couldn’t make it one more moment on my own, Bill reminded me that I couldn’t do it on my own, but that I needed to fully rely on the Lord for my strength. I love that man, he is so amazing!!”

“My wonderful Mom came over last night and folded about 5 loads of laundry for me. She stayed the night, got up with the kids and made french toast, made coffee, got kids rooms clean and all beds made, cleaned the kids bathroom, went to Costco and got some things we needed at the house, and helped me get all the “stuff” for Bill organized and put away so my house no longer looks like it was hit by a hurricane. She is amazing and such a blessing to Bill and I. Now she is packing up the kids stuff and taking them to her house for the night so Bill and I can have an evening alone!! She will also bathe them and bring them to church tomorrow….I have the best Mom in the entire world…I love you Mama!!! Thanks for all your help, there aren’t enough words to tell you how much you mean to me!!”

Carecalendar for meals!!

With Bill coming home on Monday, it would be an amazing blessing to have a few meals a week so I can focus on taking care of my husband and my kiddos. Here is the link to a great website my sweet friend set up for us.

http://www.CareCalendar.org/logon/94840
(Calendar ID : 94840, Security Code : 2550

The house is nearly ready for Bill to come home!!

This week has been a busy one getting things ready for Bill to come home. Kurt Woelfel from SheaHomes in San Diego donated his time and materials to make our shower wheelchair accessible. Kurt and his friend Mike spent three evenings at our home working in a small workspace with stinky fiberglass fumes and they did it all with a smile on their faces. It was very evident that they love Jesus and they were serving our family as if unto the Lord!! Now we just need a small ramp built to make the transition from tile floor to shower smooth!! Our amazing friend Ben and his dad Charles built the front door ramp and the back sliding door ramp and they are going to work on the shower one this weekend!! Bill won’t actually use the shower until Wednesday when the home health nurse comes so that should give us plenty of time to get the ramp ready!

We also got our king size bed out of our room and moved in a twin sized bed for me with plenty of room for the hospital bed that will be delivered and set up on Monday morning. I can’t wait for Monday night, to finally sleep in the same room as my honey for the first time in 72 days (not that I am counting)! Bill’s first request is that I let him sleep in on Tuesday morning. Right now someone wakes him up at 7am whether he wants to wake up or not and a food tray is placed in front of him by 7:15am. He just wants to sleep in!! We are going to have all kinds of yummy food for breakfast that next day that he didn’t get in the hospital. It will be a wonderful day!!

The garage also got cleared out and organized which will make Bill happy because he and I worked really hard to clean it out in late October, but over the many weeks of him being in the hospital, many things got put out there and never got put away!! So now everything is in it’s place and it looks great. There was an amazing group of our church family here this morning helping my Mom and I get things moved and ready. My Mom did about 10 loads of laundry and got everything clean that needed to be. Tomorrow morning, my dear friend Jill is sending her housekeeper over to clean for 6 hours!! My bathroom and bedroom are very dusty from all the sanding the contractors did in our bathroom so the timing couldn’t be better, it will be so great to have the house so clean and not be tired from doing the work.

The only thing left to do is hang some pictures on the wall for Bill to enjoy in our room and wait until he gets here. He did get a “Sunday Pass” from his doctor and I get to pick him up in the wheelchair van we have been blessed to use and bring him to church myself!! Then we are going to go out to Applebee’s with the kids for our first meal out as a family all by ourselves!! Once again, a huge thank you to those who blessed us with giftcards to enjoy these times together as a family.

I was just out with Bill this evening and he has a bit of a scratchy throat. Yesterday his stomach wasn’t feeling very good and for lunch he only ate saltine crackers and 7-up. He did eat good today so hopefully he’ll feel better tomorrow. He got a roommate late in the day yesterday because the hospital was full to capacity and they had no choice. Unfortunately the gentleman in his room was a stroke patient who was very disoriented. He kept trying to get up out of bed and setting off his bed alarm which of course kept Bill awake. I am guessing the lack of sleep didn’t help Bill feel any better today. Thankfully, several patients were discharged today so Bill’s roommate was moved to another room. Pray he gets some really good sleep tonight and feels rested.

I know tomorrow is the Super Bowl and if you know me, you will know that I don’t really care to watch it. But Bill is going to watch it and I know it would be more fun with a guy who cares about the game or at least understands it!! Just a thought so he won’t be alone when a great play happens… or whatever they say in football.

Only two more nights until my love is home with our family again. Please continue to pray for our family as we make this transition. It is going to be a huge change for all of us and I am realistic…I know it will be wonderful and challenging all at the same time. Pray that we would all have patience and grace with one another. We are so excited to see all that the Lord is going to continue to do in Bill’s recovery as we cross this next hurdle of the marathon.