EVEN QUICKER UPDATE I hope more will follow tomorrow. For now, I spoke with my brother-in-law tonite. He's back in Michigan with his kids, and Anjee is helping at the hospital. Hannah : Jim says she is in "the best-case scenario." She has thrown up once, she's used the bedpan a couple times. People are happy about that! Her tummy looks like a jigsaw puzzle with tubes coming out of it all over the place, but organs are beginning to function, and that's great! She's off the ventilator. Earlier in the week, when she first came out of a coma and could speak, once she found out where she was and what had happened, her only concern was for the rest of the family. She wanted them to all be ok and better off than she was. Pray that no infection or abcesses will occur anywhere in her body and that these internal injuries heal effectively. Ruth: Originally it was thought that she'd be released today and brought back for surgery on her ankle. She needed 2 pints of ...
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QUICK UPDATE 48 hours have passed, Hannah is still alive. Prayers for that are being answered. My sister Anjee saw the Smith's (Don & Ruth's) wrecked vehicle when she was in Rockford yesterday. She says this was a head-on collision with both vehicles going 70 mph. There are now only 6-8 inches between the front seats and the dashboard in Smith's minivan. It's a miracle Don and Ruth are alive. This morning when I said "It couldn't be any worse," a friend told me, "Yes, it could." She was right. These children could have been orphans. Thank God for angels and airbags. Here's an update from my mom: 1p.m. Thurs. Anjee had taken her 3 kids and driven down to Rockford on Tues. morn. She has returned home and I just talked to her. Hannah has been taken off the life supports her lungs are weak (Jim, who sat with her all night said she was coughing every 10 minutes). She had numerous other injuries; the tip of her pancreas was crushed; a ki...
LIFE is FRAGILE After spending the weekend in Michigan with my sister, Anjee, her husband, Jim and their family to celebrate the 80th birthday of Jim's mother; Jim's sister, Ruth, her husband, Don, and three of their children headed back to Minnesota on Sunday night at 9:00. Sometime after midnight, on I-90 near Rockford, IL, an oncoming vehicle crossed the median and slammed into the family. The driver, who had alchohol content in his blood, and had also been on his cell phone, was killed. Ruth and Don were taken to separate hospitals: the son Isaac, and Don to the same, Ruth and the two daughters to another. Don and Issac are at Rockford Memorial Hospital and Ruth, Hannah and Zophia are at Rockford Memorial Hospital - a childrens specialty hospital. Injuries: Don - broken hand, cracked ribs, messed up ankle in a cast. Released today. Issac - broken toe and bruises. Monitoring him for fused vertabrae problem he has--he was to avoid all contact sports because of the damage an i...
WRITERS GROUP I attended it last Thursday, and squeamishly raised my hand when they asked, "Who brought something they're working on?" Others noticed that "the new girl" raised her hand, and I was ushered to the empty chair in the center of the semi-circle. I explained what I was up to with the book of Ruth, and then proceeded to read it aloud. After four pages I got some valuable and positive feedback, and they asked if I had more. (Yes! They wanted to hear more!) So I read them 2 more pages. They seemed to really like it, or else they were good liars. Sometimes I can't tell with people. Regardless, I was encouraged. The best thing was that I'd been struggling with these very pages for months. As I looked at them Thursday afternoon, knowing I couldn't present them as they were, but not knowing what to do with them, I realized I hadn't taken this problem to God. Oh sure, I pray about it all the time, but I never really asked God for a solution. S...
GOOD NEWS! Because it's "Resurrection Sunday" I can't help but think all these things in my life have God's mark of redemption on them! I'm so grateful that He has already won! And I'm in Him, and He's in me, so I've already won, too. By the way, the picture is of "Lola," Lisa and Joe's new dog, part Pug, part Boston Terrier.100% cute. Didn't Brad take a great picture? This Thursday I'm planning to attend writers group. They might spin off some smaller groups. I think I'd really benefit from a smaller group, so please pray that God will open that opportunity for me. This weekend I might be experiencing my first "IC" flare. I am hoping I only have a bladder infection, but since I was diagnosed with this disease in October, it might be a flare up of the disease--"IC" for interstitial cystitis. It hasn't bothered me much, but from what I've read about it, it's the bladder infection from hell. F...
WRITING AWAY Well, not really, but I'm getting there. Time has been a problem lately. And energy. The no caffeine, no sugar, no carbs phase of our diet had Tom and I dragging. We're feeling much better now, though, and also feeling slightly lighter. We're also walking almost every day. Tom has me doing 3 miles, and he does 4 or 5. Yesterday I went to an author book signing at Barnes & Noble. I found out some people in my church had a book out, so I wanted to meet them. It's always a risky thing--introducing yourself to strangers--but my feet got me in the store, and then they walked me right up to the display and that was that. I meet a delightful, encouraging couple, Bryant and Cindy Heflin. Turns out they have a connection to the writers group I've attended a couple times, too. Here is their website for your perusal: www.ProclaimHisGlory.org Here is the website of the author I heard speak last month at the writers group: www.WayneHolmes.com These are for my r...