It's been just over a week since we brought Kathrina home from the hospital, and she's doing so very well.

I almost can't believe I just wrote that sentence.

This Tuesday will mark one month since I received the call that my wife was in an ambulance, status unknown. The possibilities of how our life could be changed raced through my mind in that moment. Was she even alive? And if she did pull through, what would she remember? Would she recognize my face? What if she was paralyzed and couldn't ever hike mountain a mountain again, or had had her beautiful, melodious voice stolen from us forever? Dear God please be merciful.

But that was then. Now, as I type this she's standing in our little RV kitchen making coconut chai tea (pictured below). She's weaker than she's ever been, and though her voice is still recovering from nearly two weeks of intubation she's more talkative than ever (which, if you know anything about my lovely, is saying something 😉). According to the speech therapist, The filter part of her brain was damaged, and we'd likely see a more unfiltered version of her personality, and I think it's safe to say that Kathrina's natural personality is to be quite the talker.

Over the past 5-10 years Kathrina has grown into not only a good listener, but a wonderful conversationalist. She didn't just learn to to talk less, but to truly be interested, even captivated, by others. She draws them out in conversation, inspiring friends and strangers alike to bear their hearts with her, and doing the same with them. But with her brain injury she reverted in some ways to her younger, less disciplined self. She's the lively (albeit more easily exhausted) Kathrina I love, but really, really talkative. When we first got home she could go on for minutes without stopping for a breath (at least it felt like that sometimes 😜), and conversations were pretty one-sided. There were a few times when I started getting annoyed with how much she talked, but then I had a check in my spirit. My wife, my beautiful, vibrant, adoring wife, almost died and here I am getting annoyed that she's TOO alive?!

Yeah, pretty lame and ungrateful.

But the Lord is gracious, and gave me the patience to not only endure her loquaciousness, but to find it rather adorable. And over the past couple of weeks she's improved tremendously in all respects, she's walking farther and farther, able to be more active before tiring, and she's far more aware of her talking. In the last couple of days in particular she's made strides in drawing others out more and actively listening (case in point, she spent more than three hours on the phone with a dear friend overseas and it was lovely to hear their back and forth. Also pictured). It's a wonder how we she's doing just weeks after having been in such dire straits.

I feel like there are just too many more praises to share with you all, but I want to. Her balance is amazing, she's very aware of her limitations and rarely attempt anything outside of her abilities (The docs said I might have to lock up sharp objects and install a kill switch in the car). The level of her speech increases daily, her ability to problem solve and handle lists of to-do's steadily improves, and her neck pain seems to be less each day.

On the financial side, we received the bill from the hospital in an inch-thick envelope with more than 20 pages of itemized expenses that apparently cost $3.50 to mail. I was right in my guess that just the room in the Neural Trauma ICU cost more than $10,000 per day. So tomorrow begins the process with CHM, figuring out who to pay first, negotiating bills' and hoping that between CHM, Medicaid, and financial assistance from Legacy we'll be able to cover the majority of her bills. Then the generous donations you all have made to her GoFundMe page will kick in (as well as for covering her rehab expenses), and Lord willing, we'll be able to handle the rest.

It's been an amazing journey of faith, learning to rely on others, and trusting God. While I pray she's never injured like this again, I am incredibly thankful for the growth and maturity I know this trial has wrought in both of us, and I know He's not finished yet.

Bless you all,
Paul

P.S. Here's some random photos from this last week. She's pretty cute, no?