Russell Smith Russell A Smith

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We will use it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your prayers, love, support and words of hope and encouragement. We are overwhelmed with the love we have been shown and felt these past few days. And the prayers..... people have parked outside our home, outside of the hospital and have prayed in homes & work places all over the country! And our church..... is truly church, the way God intended ✝️❤️✝️❤️✝️❤️✝️❤️ We are feeling God’s goodness and faithfulness through it all🙏

Here is a little background to catch everyone up. For the past 6 weeks or so, first me, then Russell had been battling a typical virus that hung on & on & on & on. No Covid symptoms that qualified us for testing. Saturday of this past weekend, Russell began to feel worse but could not really explain how. I noticed some very slow movements & speech & on Sunday, some obvious difficulties with little tasks. We went to Providence ER. I had to fasten his seat belt for him. The ER staff was amazing & did a head scan immediately. There were 2 sizeable “abnormalities” easily detected. Further scans on Monday also identified some problem areas in his lungs & he was tested for Covid. And it came back positive, which greatly complicated the path forward in so many ways. The Infectious Disease doc & the Neurosurgeon waited as long as they could and as I type, one of the tumors is being removed. Also as I type, I can hear God’s mighty power in the thunder that is rolling through our community and it is the most amazing comfort 🙏 God is in control. He is good. All of the time!

The surgeon gave us some wise advise, especially since so many special accommodations had to be made. But he said a shorter surgery doesn’t necessarily mean that things went well & a longer surgery doesn’t mean that things did not!

It has taken me several days to be able to express these thoughts but as we proceed on this journey, I will try to keep you all updated as best I can. I love each of you who care enough to check on us & we covet your love & prayers.

Donnis, Russell, Ian, Audrey, Scott & our precious Jude Bug😍