Greetings,

We continue to be amazed at all we have to be grateful for and we are most thankful for family and friends.  We couldn't run this marathon without all of you lending a hand, praying, encouraging and crying with us.  

We enjoyed a 10 day visit from Rachel back from Spain while she waited for her visa.  It was a special uninterrupted time.  She left before Thanksgiving when we shared a few days with five of our eight children in my childhood home for relaxing and delicious meals, learning about distant relatives and decorating for Christmas.  

UPDATE ON ROD:  

Back in late August Rod began experiencing a huge change in his affected right side; extremely heavy leg and terrible pain in his right shoulder, which we thought was frozen shoulder.  In October we visited the ER  where they did a CT scan, EKG, MRI and a sonogram on his right leg.  Fortunately, everything tested great however, we still were baffled over Rod's sudden regression.  Recently, we met with a nerve Dr. and his educated guess at the sudden change in Rod's affected side was that Rod experienced another stroke.   This was the first suggestion that made sense to me and a bit of relief to move forward.  Because Rod's dissected carotid artery is not completely healed he is not out of the woods so we continue to pray and take each day as it comes.  His leg is still extremely heavy and tires much more quickly than before and yet he is pushing ahead to exercise  and build strength.  Emotionally this set back is hard but we are persevering as we await for feeling in his right foot and hand to return.  

Part of his regimen includes the gym for biking and weight machines, walking in the neighborhood,  hitting a pickle ball :),  stretching, speech exercises, and lots of creative ways to attempt to get his right hand involved. Additionally, he receives hyperbaric chamber treatments twice a week and chiropractic care.   There have been several days where we have had 4-5 appointments and it can be exhausting.  All in all it is a full time job for both of us!  We're so grateful that I can be here for Rod.  

This Thursday I am getting away to visit my sister for a long weekend.  Woohoo!  After 5.5 months I'm grateful for my first time off for more than 24 hours.  Thankfully the kids are covering me for the majority of my absence. SO SO GRATEFUL!  Thank you again for all of you who have so generously given to us in our journey.  We are GRATEFUL for you. :-)

Love,

Laura

PS. I ran into issues on CB's end trying to upload photos, so no photos for now.  I'll try later for some fun family photos and photos of Rod hard at work and play.