Updates

As always, we've had a lot going on.

It seems God knows just when to provide help when we need it most.  My parents were here staying with us for 3 weeks.  During those few weeks, we needed them a lot.  A lot of us got the stomach flu and David had a week of horrible headaches.  It is so great to be able to actually stay in bed all day when the stomach flu has descended on you and not worry that the kids are destroying the house or each other and meals are being served! Since they've left, things have simmered down to a dull roar.  But when we were at couple's retreat this weekend, God provided help again through David's brother and wife when we needed it a lot.  God is so kind.

David has been really struggling with headaches.  Just when I think I've figured out something that helps him, it changes.  Right now we're focusing on prayer, neck strengthening, essential oils and nutritional supplements to be our main battle weapons.  The headaches really are a beast.  They are mostly every day, day in, day out.  When David gets the real bad, unbearable headaches, he gets really anxious and doesn't seem to have any coping mechanisms for extreme pain.  I feel so helpless while he cries out for help.  He's no longer tolerating most of the heavy duty pain medicines that they give him at the ER, so it's not a very good option.  I'm learning that over stimulation and too much social activity combined with not enough rest becomes a trigger for bad headaches.  Being a young, naturally active person, this is hard for me to reign things in and say no to too many activities because it will just be a nightmare that's not worth it if I don't.

This last weekend, we were able to join a few other couples at a couples retreat in Minnesota.  It was a challenging weekend in many ways, but worth the time spent building each other up in our marriages.

A few months ago, I started reading a book called The Ghost in my Brain by a man who experienced some devastating effects in his life from a "mere" concussion.  It's a fascinating documentary of life inside his head, reeling from the effects of the concussion.  After almost a decade of struggling with his brain not functioning like it used to, he found some doctors in Chicago that helped him immensely.  I was able to speak with one of them on the phone a few months ago and scheduled an appointment with the optometrist for David next week.  I'm so excited to see what she can do for David.  I hope you'll join me in prayer for these appointments with her, for her to have wisdom how to help David heal more, according to God's will.

In the last few months, I've noticed a few positive gains in David's cognition.  Lately, I've been noticing that when we are driving, he knows where we are and how to get places.  A year ago, when I would ask him if he could tell me how to get to the mall from our house, he wouldn't have a clue.  He would know some street names and highways but not know how to connect them.  He surprised me this weekend by telling me what highways and streets to turn on to get up to the camp.  A couple years ago, we went to family camp at the same place and I knew that his family had gone there lots of times so I thought it might be an automatic thing to know how to get there but he couldn't even tell me what road it was on, let alone directions.  He also surprised me this weekend by telling me that he liked going to speech therapy because it gave me a break from "tending him all day long."  I couldn't believe it.  He usually is always saying he doesn't want to go to therapy and asks his therapists if he can have "nap therapy." haha!  I was just amazed that he realized that I got a break when he left and that I needed or might want that break.  A year and a half ago, he took some neuro psychological tests.  I remember one of the tests specifically.  He did really bad on it.  I could tell he wasn't figuring out patterns and wasn't switching gears in his brain at all.  Well, he was tested again a couple months ago with a lot larger battery of tests over a few weeks time.  The same test came up and he did fantastic on it!  I asked the person administering the test what that particular test was testing and she said executive function.  It was encouraging to me to see that was so significantly improved.  I've also noticed he is becoming more aware of others and can hold a conversation better without fixating on one subject as much.  He is evolving into more and more of a leader in our family and it's wonderful to watch and see how the Lord is shaping him and healing him.  It really is like watching a potter fashion a piece of clay into a beautiful vase.  It's hard to see what the Lord is doing most of the time.  It's uncomfortable and hurtful a lot,  but behind all the molding, pushing and poking,  the Lord is shaping my husband into a man of God who is a man after His own heart.

"And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make."

Jeremiah 18:4