Anderson Observer

First I want to say to every one -  thank you.  Thank you for your prayers, your words, your support....thank you for being faithful in this journey with us.  Some of you, I know and know quite well, others we know each other - maybe not well but we know each other, and then there are others whom I have not had the privilege of meeting before.  Whatever category our relationship falls under, it just means so much to me.  I can't explain it - I am just awed that you care enough about our family that you are helping carry us through this.  This is the way I see it - God is in control of this whole journey and all of you  are God's earthly angels that have listened to His voice and His command to walk through this with us.  And for your love and commitment to us, I am forever grateful.

Jake went to therapy and we picked him up a little early as we had some special visitors.  Coach Swinney and Coach B. Scott came down to 
Atlanta.  They flew into Peachtree Dekalb Airport which was only a few miles from Pathways and we met them there at 2 pm.  We parked our car and the three of us started walking to the terminal area.  I  looked through a window and saw these two familiar smiling faces watching Jake as he walk toward the building entrance.  The joy and pride in their faces as  they watched him walking on his own looked like two proud dads.  Clemson has always made us feel like we are family and they just continue to show their love and support of Jake and our entire family.  I wish that I had recorded the words that were said by these coaches as they spoke to Jake directly about his life and his future and following what God has planned for his life.  I know they have very busy schedules but they felt that it was important to come down and see Jake.  Why?  Simple - they just care - Jake will never make a play for them - but they see and know that God is working in Jake's life and they know that Jake has more value than just being a football player.  Thank you for being the men of character that you are.  

We are going home tomorrow and I can't wait.  When we leave tomorrow morning to take Jake to therapy we have to be packed for the weekend as we are suppose to spend the day with Jake in therapy.  So I need to get busy shortly and start packing.

From my devotion:  "Come to Me for rest and refreshment.  The journey has been too much for you, and you are bone weary.  Do not be ashamed of your exhaustion.  Instead, see it as an opportunity for Me to take charge of your life.  Remember that I can fit everything into a pattern for good, including the things you wish were different.  Start with where you are at this point in time and space, accepting that this is where I intend you to be.  You will get through today one step, one moment at a time.  Your main responsibility is to remain attentive to Me, letting Me guide you through the many choices along your pathway."  Wow - that is so awesome!!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

It may sound like the same old thing over and over but it is far from that......I ask you to pray hard and pray aggressively for Jake.

1.  Pray that Jake will be able to speak, read, and write.
2.  Pray that Jake will be able to grasp and release with his right hand.
3.  Pray that Jake will walk heal to toe.
4.  Pray that God will guide Jake to use this test in his life to have a great testimony.

Remember we are shooting for the moon! 

It is Wednesday night and Craig is getting Jake ready for bed.  We have our routine each night - medicines, the hand splint, cast for foot, and leg brace.  Craig takes Jake to therapy in the morning and I pick him up in the afternoon - this gives us both a little bit of down time which is great for recharging the batteries.

Most of you remember our friend Tim Robinson - the football player who was injured in a game on October 9 in Mobile, Alabama.  Tim is here with his dad, Ben, and Toby.  Toby is the brother of the head football coach at Tim's high school.  Toby did not know Tim before the accident but was in attendance at the game the night of the accident.  After the accident, God told Toby to stay by Tim's side during his recovery.  Since the accident in October, Toby has not left Tim's side.  If you see Tim, you see Toby.  Tim requires a lot of care - Tim does not speak, can not feed himself, only slightly moves his right hand, and is not able to handle any of his personal care.  After Tim goes to bed at night, Toby's other work is just beginning.  How do we know this?  A couple of nights ago, Craig was walking out of the Family Apartments to walk up the street to CVS.  Toby walked out at the same and they start walking together but Toby is on a different mission.  He walks up and down Peachtree Road finding the opportunity to share his faith and to further God's word.  Toby is bigger than life - he is a 6'5 African American who has an infectious, magnetic personality that just draws people toward him and his message.  So Craig joined him on his mission - what a twosome - if any one had seen these two on Monday night, they were certainly an odd couple to say the least.  Yet, Craig was awed by the number of people that would call out to Toby when they would see him coming.  Where do you go at 11 pm at night on Peachtree Road in Atlanta?  One of the places they stopped was an all night barber shop that Toby frequents just forming relationships with the people and they just see Christ through Toby and his words and actions.  After the barber shop, the next stop was a food establishment where Toby had been witnessing to a 19 y/o employee named Rashaad.   This is just another experience and influence in our lives where we can say that we will never be the same.  We are around people that we may never have met in our lives who are witnessing & serving God with such a sense of urgency.  What is the urgency?  As Toby told Craig, " I had to go and see Rashaad tonight because I will not see him for the next 6 days and what if he were in an accident and died before I knew that he had nailed his salvation down."   No - we will never be the same - and I don't want to be the same person that I was.

Jake had a wonderful surprise today.  Emily and her mother, Lynne drove to Atlanta and surprised Jake this afternoon.  He was so shocked and it was such a nice break for the middle of the week.  We had a great time visiting with them and we went out for a great Mexican dinner.

From my devotion:  "Morning is a critically important time of day.  You must never face the day until you have looked into His.  You cannot expect to be victorious, if you begin your day in your own strength alone.  Begin the work of every day after having been influenced by a few reflective, quiet moments between your heart and God.  Do not meet with others, even the  members of your own family, until you have first met with the great Guest and honored Companion of your life - Jesus Christ.  Meet with Him alone and regularly, having His Book of counsel open before you.  Then face the ordinary, and the unique, responsibilities of each day with the renewed influence and control of His character over all your actions."   Wow - how much better off would all of our lives be if we started each day off this way......

I may have already shared this with you but it is on my heart again....  Early in the Fall, I was telling Craig that I just did not know what I was suppose to do with my life - this was said thinking about being "empty nesters" in the next 9 months.  I am open to whatever or wherever God leads me during and after this journey.  I think that God is preparing me for something - but I just don't know what it is.... yet.

PRAYER REQUESTS:  
1.  PRAY FOR JAKE TO SAY MANY MANY NEW WORDS.  PRAY THAT JAKE CAN READ AND WRITE!
2. PRAY THAT JAKE WILL BE ABLE TO GRIP AND RELEASE IN HIS RIGHT HAND!
3.  PRAY THAT JAKE WILL WALK HEAL TO TOE!
4.  PRAY THAT JAKE WILL USE THIS EXPERIENCE TO SHARE GOD'S WORD IN WHATEVER WAY GOD CHOOSES.

Hello everyone!  This is going to be a short journal today.  I am actually in the Family Room at Shepherd and I left Jake and Craig in the room; however, they will be fine as they are eating dinner.

Today was a better day.  I loved looking at the beautiful snow - it was just so pretty and peaceful.  We had a wonderful family from the outskirts of Atlanta visit us today.  They did not even know us but had heard about Jake through a friend and started following Jake's journey through caring bridge.  To say life is busy for this family is an understatement as a job transfer and closing on a house, etc... is all taking place in the next few weeks.  However, God had placed it on their hearts to come and visit us.  So this wonderful family with a "feast" of food arrived this morning and what a great visit that we had with them.  There are so many great people in this world and through this journey we are very blessed to encounter many of them.  What a great visit and these people who use to be strangers are now our friends and are committed to praying for Jake and his recovery.   Once again, I am humbled and so blessed.

Craig looked so tired today and I thought he never gets a break so I insisted that he just relax and take a nap.  I picked Jake up and brought him back and Craig was still asleep which was great.  Then, Jake changed clothes and I went to the gym with him and I "assisted" him as he worked out.  Here I am this "young" 51 year old mom helping my son with a dumb bell curl.  Then I am holding his foot up as he does the leg press and guiding his right leg as he does leg extensions.  And he seemed glad that I was there with him.  Again, this is not where I ever imagined that I would be at this point in time - but what an honor and privilege that I could be with him and help him build his body back up.   Afterwards, we went to the 2nd floor where Jake spent the first 6 weeks inpatient to say hello to every one there.

When we returned to the room Craig looked refresh and it was a nice break for him.  We then went downstairs and played ping pong.  I am happy to say that I beat Craig in two games and I asked Jake what he had to say about me beating dad.  Jake responded "beat every day."  He texted Emily earlier and said "what you do."  I asked her if she thought he copied it from the blackberry and she said that he would have had to go back a little ways and he normally does not do that.

I worked with his hand tonight and he was really getting tired.  I had him picking up objects and placing them in a container.  Jake could pick them up and there is maybe a slight release - it is really hard to tell but we will continue to work on it.  

I need to get back to the room now.  I look forward to sharing a couple of interesting stories with you on my next journal but they are too lengthy for tonight.

PRAYER REQUEST:
1.  Pray that Jake will speak more and be able to read and write.
2.  Pray that Jake will be able to pick up objects and release them.
3.  Pray that Jake will be able to walk heal to toe.
4.  Pray for a full and complete recovery.

REMEMBER WE ARE SHOOTING FOR THE MOON!

It is Sunday morning and we are home in Anderson since Friday at 4 pm.  We really do treasure every hour we are home - it just feels so good.

On Friday evening, Jake, Emily, Craig, his friend Will and his cousin John went to the movies.  That is a normal activity for Jake but having his dad go with him is a bit out of the ordinary.  Yet, until he gets the skull replaced, either Craig or I will be with him at all times.  There is absolutely no room for error in this area - so many things are beyond our control but being cautious is one thing we can do.  The next morning we were sitting around and Craig and Emily were discussing the movie - just how strange and confusing it was.  Jake kept sticking his hand up with 3 fingers and then we all started the guessing game as to what he was trying to say.  Finallly I said just take your time and let's give him time.  Then he said "long" indicating that the movie was almost 3 hours long.  My therapist friend, Debbie, is coming over this afternoon to work with his right hand so we look forward to that.

Before I forget, many of you have asked which devotion book that I use.  I believe the one that I have quoted from in the journal is "Streams in the Desert" by Cowman and Reimann.

From my devotion:  Speaking about the Bible story as to how David defeated a lion, a bear, and then Goliath.  "Normally we think of a lion not as a special blessing from the Lord but only as a reason for alarm.  Yet the lion was God's opportunity in disguise.  Every difficulty and every temptation that comes our way, if we receive it correctly is God's opportunity.  When a "lion" comes to your life, recognize it as an opportunity from the Lord, no matter how fierce it may outwardly seem.   May the Lord open our eyes to see Him, even in temptation, trials, dangers, and misfortunes."

My mom passed away a week ago today.  The day after her service, we were back in Atlanta continuing with Jake's therapy.  I have not been able to reconcile the loss of my mom and the situation with Jake.  But what I have been able to do is to put my heart and mind in God's hands and I know and trust that He is control of my life - it is the only thing that I know to do - it is the only thing to do.

We are going to church today for the first time since Jake's stroke.  I had no idea until a few minutes ago that the service today is a "healing service."  There are four services and we are gong to the 4:15 service today.  I get chills when I think about it - PRAY for Jake and our family as we attend this service today.  I am asking God to heal Jake - I am begging God to heal Jake - whether God chooses to do it today, tomorrow.... What I do know that God's time is the right time because this journey and His purpose in this is much more than Jake having and recovering from a stroke.  And for this to serve the full and complete purpose that God has intended, it has to carried out in God's way which is His timing.  Yet I still struggle watching my son struggle - as a mother, my heart breaks at times....  But my faith tells me, God is already planning and celebrating the victory from this storm that we are in.  Amen.

PRAYER REQUEST:  Pray for healing for Jake - pray that the words will start flowing from Jake's mouth.  Pray that Jake will be able to pick up an object and then set it down and release it.  Pray that Jake's ankle will loosen up so that he will be able to walk heal to toe.  Pray that our family will use this event to serve God and further His kingdom.  Remembe we are shooting for the moon! 

It is Thursday afternoon and we are sitting in the apartment while Jake is "chilllin" and watching television.  It has been a good day as Jake had an outing at therapy and he went bowling.

We are always trying to find something to do after therapy and I looked at the local sports schedule for options.  Clemson womens tennis was playing Georgia Tech and Tech is only a couple of miles away.  We love watching tennis and this was some really great tennis as Clemson is ranked 12th in the nation.  It also provided us with a little taste of home with it being Clemson and one of the starters for Clemson, Laurianne Henry, is from Anderson.  We got to talk to her after her victory which was a lot of fun!

Besides being able to keep all of you up to date with Jake's progress, one of the things that I love about caring bridge is that the journal is a way for me to document the progress.  Oftentimes, I can look back and see what he was doing a week ago, two weeks ago, a month ago.....  It may seem like I am providing such minute detail but the progress, especially in speech, comes in small doses.  I want to have it all documented.

Speech/Language:  When we picked Jake up from therapy on Tuesday, he was trying to tell us something.  Then he said "eat."  And we asked him what he wanted to eat and he clearly said "hamburger"  so our next stop was "The Varsity."  Later that day Emily asked him what he was doing and he said "just chillin."  That same night, he was in bed and wanted to get out of bed because he could not sleep.  He kept pointing out to the den area and I asked him what he wanted - he was very frustrated and finally he said "in the recliner."  It was mumbled but definitely could understand him.  Also, when we got out of the car yesterday and we had walked a few feet away, he stopped and said "phone."  He had left his phone in the car.  Last night he and Emily were texting and he texted "clemsa."  Jake was watching the Clemson Maryland game on tv and he was letting her know what he was doing.  Then she called him on the phone and he was a bit distracted and he was saying "uhmmm yeah" and then finally he said "game."  In other words, he was not ready to talk because he was watching the Clemson game.  She told him to call her when the game was over and he called her later and said either "night" or "sleep" - Emily could not remember which but all she knew was that it was said very clearly and he was letting her know that he was going to bed.  Today she texted him asked him what he was doing and he texted back "smoothie."  We were having a smoothie at Planet Smoothie.  I don't think that he copied it from any where - I was sitting with him at the table while he was texting - who knows - there is no rhyme of reason to this process.  But it is progress...

From my devotion:  "It is possible for believers who are completely willing to trust the power of the Lord for their safekeeping and victory to lead a life of readily taking his promises exactly as they are and finding them to be true.  It is possible to daily cast all your anxiety on Him and experience deep peace in the process.  It is possible to have our thoughts and the desires of our hearts, purified in the deepest sense of the word.  It is possible to see God's will in every circumstance and to accept it with singing instead of complaining.  It is possible to become strong through and through by completely taking refuge in the power of God and by realizing that our greatest weakess and the things that upset our determination to be patient, pure, or humble provide an opportunity to make sin powerless over us.  The opportunity comes through Him who loves us and who works to bring us into agreement with His will, and thereby supplies a blessed sense of His presence and His power."
Amen!  This speaks directly to me.  I still struggle with my faith being strong enough - this is a daily struggle - just taking God at his word and not having fear, doubt, and impatience.  I probably did not have myself "armed" enough prior to this event.  If I knew then what I know now...if  if  if.....  but,   Life was going quite well and maybe I am having to play catch up now in the midst of a storm for my walk to be stronger.  I loved the way that the message was presented in my devotion:  "We are able to have as much of God as we want.  Christ puts the key to His treasure chest in our hands and invites us to take all we desire.  If someone is allowed into a bank vault, told to help himself to the money, and leaves without one cent, whose fault is it if he remains poor? And whose fault is it that Christians usually have such meager portions of the free riches of God?"   

PRAYER REQUEST:  I don't ever want my prayer request to sound repetitious because they are so important and so needed.  Please pray that Jake will be able to find more words - he is trying so hard - and that he will be able to put sentences together and express his wants and needs.  Please pray that Jake will be able to pick up an item and then be able to release it.  PRAY FOR HIM TO BE ABLE TO RELEASE!!
Thank you so much and remember we are shooting for the moon and a full and complete recovery.