You Are Praying / God Is Listening / Lance Is Healing

Sorry I have been MIB(missing in blogging) but I continue to be grateful to each of you who follow the blog and pray for Lance.  He has been home for six weeks and three days and each day has been interesting as we watch....and wait, as we actively help in therapies, as we sleep intermittently, as we pray.  My admiration for care-givers grows with each passing week; it's incredible how many manpower hours it takes to provide a person the care you think he/she deserves.

Lance made two trips to Lexington doctors in past week; last Wednesday he saw Dr Karandikar at Cardianl Hill and today was seen by Dr Owen at University of Kentucky after a CT scan was done.  Both doctors gave favorable reports on his progress and noted that a full-scale inpatient rehabilitation is in future.  It is still hard to predict when he will be ready and when it may begin, but obviously, you are praying, God is listening, and Lance is healing. 

I've watched Lance take his first steps as an infant and run a marathon(one year ago this weekend).  I've listened to stories about running 1.5 miles, eating a dozen doughnuts, then running 1.5 miles to the finish line in Krispy Kreme Challenge races in North Carolina and Kentucky (he actually won the 2010 Lexington event).  Finally, after many months passed, Lance shared details of how he walked over a week on a lonely path in Turkey called Lycian Way.  He took off in August and he traveled alone, both against published recommendations.  All of these were interesting "steps in his life" but none brought more excitement than his three "walks" since the accident.  The first two were with therapists Sue and Trish.   #1 was 10 feet - from bed to family room door.  It was slow and manipulated with the ladies manually moving left and right legs.  # 2 was 30 feet - from his bed to the kitchen, where he rested on his forearms as he leaned forward on the counter.  # 3 was 21 feet with Shauna and me alternating right and left legs but this time was different.  Several times as we shifted weight to right foot, the left leg twitched and shakily moved forward - likewise with the right.  Celebration followed, especially as we recalled the number of weeks we watched the left leg lay lifelessly on the bed with the foot turned in an un-natural position.  Excitement and dancing now replaces some worry as we remembered fastening a velcro boot or bivalve night after night on that left foot and leg.

Today was another first.  Of all the trips we have made in the van, this was the first one in which he actively looked out the window at the sites.  I narrated as we drove to Chandler Med Center, especially as we moved along the streets of Lexington.  We returned home a different route and he watched closely as we drove by horse farms on a beautiful spring day.  While at the hospital we moved between buildings; he was enjoying the day so we stayed outside all we could.  He took all the people, all the confusion, and the changing conditions in stride.  This paragraph describes observations that are less tangible, but extremely important from my perspective.

Tonight as I lay down I feel very blessed.  I am blessed with friends, and Lance is blessed with friends, and all of us are blessed with people who care - some we didn't even know before the events of Nov 28th.  Max Lucado said, "The people who make a difference are not the ones with the credentials, but the ones with the concern."  I thank you for your concern; thanks for caring....and praying.  I thank God for hearing our prayers AND for His miraculous healing power.  All the glory goes to Him for what is happening right in front of our eyes.

Psalms 33:22 "May Your unfailing love rest upon us........since we wait with HOPE for You!"

-John