Hello everyone! I’m thankful for the opportunity to share with you. Though the words haven’t flowed as well as I wish they would, here’s the latest.

During the past few weeks, we’ve received some encouraging news during follow-up appointments with three of my surgeons and Julia’s doctor in Hershey. Julia was released from wearing her arm brace and is enjoying being able to participate fully in activities now that she is without restrictions. She was very compliant with wearing the brace and extremely happy to kiss it goodbye!

According to recent x-rays, my ribs showed signs of healing and my lungs were well inflated and clear. I still experience numbness and pain on the right side of my chest, but Lord willing these should gradually subside between now and “perhaps” March.

My left wrist has ‘remodeled’ and shows both good healing and alignment. My right arm and right knee also show appropriate healing. Thus, I was also released from wearing braces and permitted to begin bearing weight on/through my arms as tolerated. This allows me to move about with a cane or walker and also work to improve range of motion in my fingers/hands, wrists, and arms. While it feels as though there’s still much strengthening and flexibility to be achieved, being able to move more freely allows greater independence and permits me to help with a few basic household tasks, alleviating so much sitting and boredom. Joanna can be heard at times asking me questions like, “Can you open this toy, Mom? It will be good therapy for your hands!” In her four-year-old way, she is joyfully enthusiastic about recent progress and is warming up a bit more to me; much needed after weeks apart.

To answer a frequently asked question: surgery to repair the Lisfranc fracture in the left foot is still unscheduled. The current goal is to increase arm and core strength, both of which are anticipated to be beneficial during that surgical recovery. To be honest, the “set-back” and potential complications of this surgery are dreaded, but we need to continue on this journey and do so with full confidence in God.

While we’re grateful for continued healing and each step of progress, the joy we feel is swallowed up by the immense grief of missing Lydia. The soul-crushing weight is intense, and I long to accurately perceive what God wants me to understand following such tragic loss. How can or will God use this badly broken heart and body? How do we move forward as a family, feeling so incomplete? Your prayers for this season of deep wrestling and sorrow are greatly appreciated. This gut-wrenching trial has been prescribed for us by our good and just heavenly Father, and we desire to be found faithful to Him in it.    

Gwenyth