Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to give an update on Mom and Dad.  This has been a challenging year and Dad's journey feels very much like a merry-go-round.  

We were so excited to bring him home last November.  Despite the traumatic brain injury, Dad was the same guy and all the nerves were intact.  He can talk when he wants, he can move all of his limbs when he wants, he smiles at jokes, he listens intently to the same subjects he loved before, and  he can still beat Mom in arm wrestling.

However, he can't catch a  break.  Since January, he rotates between home and the hospital with bouts of UTI infections, sepsis, pneumonia, and C-Diff.  It's relentless and cannot be predicted.  He can go to the doctor and get a clean bill of health and be in the hospital hours later with a life-threatening infection.  

Yesterday, Dad was talkative (in a mumbly sort of way) and hardly coughed, but this morning he quickly descended into sepsis with a terrible case of pneumonia.  He's currently in the ICU at Presbyterian Denton.  Mom has barely slept in days, but she'll be there all night.  It breaks our hearts to see Dad suffering each day and to know he could recover if his therapies were not constantly interrupted.

Friends, please join us in praying for:

• Mom's rest.  She works so hard and long each day caring for Dad.
• Dad would heal and not get C-Diff from the antibiotics.
• That this most-recent hospital stay would not set his speech therapy back.  While Dad's not being able to talk clearly is not always a bad thing 🤣, we would love to see him eating again.

In all this, we praise our great God.  Yes, this is hard.  We hate it and the cloud of sadness never leaves our family.  Some say there should be no suffering.  They ask, "If God is so powerful and loving, why would he allow such things?"

However, God has reminded me that He has not excused Himself from pain.  In fact, He suffered more than all of us as our sin was dumped on Him at the cross.  Regardless of what happens, Ray and Jan and family stand with Job and Joshua to say:

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.  (Job 1:21)

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

Love to all of you.