May 30 - The Big Day

For some reason, we lost the wi-fi in the hotel, so I was unable to update you during the wedding. However, I'm back, and I'm packin' photos. I'll share a few that I snapped, and maybe a few more at a later date.

First, the thing most of you will want to know. How did Barbara do? How was the weekend? The answer to both is, much better than our highest expectations. We simply had a wonderful weekend, everything was wonderful, and Barbara did incredibly well. As you know from my earlier post, we began our trip to Lexington with a major scare. Due to mishandling at the nursing home, we were afraid that Barbara had broken something in her left leg. Fortunately, it turned out to be a sprain, and the doctor cleared us to go. It started out as a harrowing trip due to the intense pain Barbara was in. But thanks to some good medicine, she started doing much better about an hour into the trip.

While Barbara was even more incapacitated that I'd expected, things still went well. God gifted me with the strength I needed to lift and move her. I consider this to be something of a miracle since I'm really not that strong. I also must credit April and Penny for their extraordinary help. April is a nurse, and took wonderful care of Barbara. Also, Peter's brother is a nurse, and he helped with a semi-"emergency" before April arrived... Barbara's pic-line was coming out, so he removed it the rest of the way. This is a line that allows blood draws and injections without constantly poking someone with a needle.

Barbara actually seemed to do better than me through the time of the wedding. It wasn't until afterwards that she became completely exhausted with a lot of pain. I'm still trying to recoup from the trip, too.

So, thank you for all your prayers that I believe 1) were a part of Barbara's miraculous turn-around, 2) were essential in her being at Jackie's wedding, and 3) helped us during the event. Barbara still has a long road to travel in recovery, and we truly covet your prayers. However, I am mindful that Barbara's mere presence at Jackie's wedding was a picture of the power of God. His fingerprints were all over this past weekend.

I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about the wedding. It was simple and absolutely beautiful. After being a part of escorting Jackie down the aisle, I then assisted in officiating, bringing a heartfelt homily. I've always though Jackie was beautiful, but she's never looked more beautiful than she did on that day. The weather also cooperated, and there were no noticeable glitches. I hope you enjoy the pictures that I've sprinkled throughout this blog entry. I will include some more later.

It was quite an honor to meet so many people who had been praying for us. Peter's mom and dad are such nice people, and it was a profound privilege to get to meet them. Thanks to all of you who shared in this day through your prayers and kind words.

One other thing... I must give praise to God for his help financially this past weekend. I had been very worried about how we would afford everything. However, we ended up paying very little for the weekend, including the fact that thanks to a number of problems we encountered, our rooms ended up being FREE! God is sooooo good!

Barbara is back at Miller's now until her medicare days run out. Please pray that she will make great strides in the days ahead so that she will be able to be closer to "normal" when coming home. Also pray that the nurses and aids will be able to help her in a way that won't cause further injury. We are mindful at how God has been with us. In the final analysis, His blessings always outweigh everything else. I felt led to encourage those at the wedding to take a moment to reflect on God's blessings, instead of things that are going wrong, and to be thankful. I hope you will take a moment right now to close your eyes, consider the blessings of your life, and thank our Father in Heaven.

This is Greg's sister, Stephanie. I told Greg I would write a brief update. He is working on getting pictures to post here.

It was simply amazing to me to see how well Barb did at all the pre-wedding/wedding activities. We arrived at the church for decorating and then rehearsal around 4:30 Friday. Barb happily observed and was greeted by many whom she had not met yet. Her stamina continued through the dinner afterward. We feasted on a wonderful dinner, saw some tear-jerking presentations of Jackie and Peter growing up, had some time to share memories/praise of the bride and groom. It was really neat to me that when Greg asked Barb if she was ready to go (it was 10:00 by now), she said she wanted to stay. She had nice conversations with Peters family, and many others in attendance.

The next day, she still had energy left for the big day! She arrived early enough to spend some time with Jackie as she was getting ready. She made it through the photography session (not her favorite time, I understand - she looked beautiful to me!), and then was seated for the wedding. A funny time during the wedding was when her Dad (Greg) was giving the homily, he recalled a young Jackie promising her Mommy she would never leave her. Jackie looked back at her Mom with a coy smile on her face. It was a cute moment, and I think that will be a special snapshot in Barb's mind!

All in all, it was a great day, and Barbara surprised all of us with her stamina.

I reflected back on those days late last year when there were so many unknowns. This event was truly an answer to all of our prayers!! The "kinks" were there (Barb's pain from her knee injury, difficult transitions: she had to be lifted instead of being able to bear weight on her own, these were scary moments Barb approached with much dread), but did not stop Barb from being able to see her "little girl" get married! How wonderful! Let's praise God for answering our BIG prayers in a BIG way!

God was with Greg as well. He mentioned to me that he was surprised that he could lift Barb the way he did during transitions (car to wheelchair, wheelchair to seat, etc). From my perspective, he made it look easy. I know God was giving him the strength he needed for this and other tasks. Let's all remember Greg as well as we pray for Barb, as this is all very stressful, time consuming, draining,...just downright difficult for him.

Before I close this, I want to ask a favor from all reading this. First of all, we are thankful for your faithfulness in "checking in" here, remembering to pray and encourage. I am reminded, though that this could be a very difficult time for Barb and Greg now. This event (the wedding) has been a driving force for Barb to keep going, to work towards. I think now could be a time when they could get very discouraged. What I'm saying is, let's "up our ante" in the encouragement department. Notes of encouragement, visits, calls, any reminders of love and hope to them will help give them a boost right now.

The day after the wedding was pretty difficult. Barb was exhausted to say the least. She was also quite sore. They made it back safely to the nursing home. Once she was settled in bed and rested briefly, she thought that she might like to get up again. Greg said "no way!!!" She is resting up, resuming physical therapy, and preparing to hopefully go home in the near future. More Big prayers, please, for her increased strength, stamina, and desire to push herself.

God is good!!!

May 24 - Yet another bump in the long road

Greetings from Lexington, KY, where we are sheltered in a fine hotelery awaitin' the impending nuptials of our progeny. However, we almost didn't make it. You won't believe what happened.

Some of you got the prayer request, so you may have an inkling of what I'm about to tell you. On the way to Miller's to pick up Barbara this morning, I got a call from a nurse saying that they had called 911 and Barbara was en route to St. Mary's Hospital in Hobart. It seems that while an aide was transferring Barbara from the, uh, er, "potty" to her wheelchair, she experienced multiple pops and cracks in her left knee. She began screaming like a banshee on a xanthine alkaloid compound. When we (her mother and I) arrived at the hospital, she was distraught with pain and anxiety. She was equally upset over the prospect of not going to the wedding as she was with the pain. After several x-rays and many, many prayers, we found out that she had a severe knee sprain, but no broken bones. The good news was that the doctor cleared her to go to Lexington! The bad news is that she was in such severe pain, all transfers would have to be done by lifting her. Every move brought more of those banshee-esque screams. The doctor did prescribe her some pretty good dope, though, and we set off for the long, tedious 6 hour cruise.

Once the pain meds settled in, she began to do better. By about an hour into the trip, she was calm and actually quite pleasant. Jackie, Peter, and his brother met us at the hotel to help carry her out of the Honda, and into a chair, then into bed. As of now she's sleeping rather soundly.

It seems like something has just been pushing against us! In fact, all the way down to Lafayette, we experienced head-on winds that were very hard to accelerate against, and as a result, we got terrible gas mileage out of a normally good-mileage vehicle. On top of everything else, it seems only appropriate for this trip to continually exact an exorbitant price from us.

Thanks for your ongoing prayers. We will need some powerful help in the days ahead, so please remember us.

May 22

Two days in a row. Woo hoo!

A quick update to let you know it was a wonderful day here at the ranch. After a quick flurry of last minute shopping in Merrillville (had to get an ivory dress shirt for the wedding - praise God it actually ended up being free - I had a credit at Men's Wearhouse that I didn't know about), we proceeded on to Miller's and picked up my sweetie (we being myself and Barb's mom, Mabel).

Once at home, our dog Max went goofy loopy crazy getting to see Barb for the first time in almost 7 months (which I think is a millennium in dog years). We had wienie wraps and baked beans for lunch and all enjoyed it (albeit, the company was better).

Barbara did quite well, and we had a great day. It was sad to return her to Miller's, but this is yet another milestone week.

It looks like we have wi-fi in our hotel room at Lexington for the wedding, so I will try to give you updates and maybe even a picture or two! Woo hoo indeed.