I feel a little helpless in adding anything intelligent to these! Isn't Joy doing great!?!?~ A

January 05, 2007 at 08:34 AM EST
Hi Everyone!! I'm sorry that i didn't update last night. Mom and I got home from the hospital around 8:45, returned a few phonecalls then I crashed out on the couch. I'm pretty sure my mom has super human strength as she stayed awake for a few more hours. However, she is still asleep so i'm letting her sleep in. All in all yesterday was a good day. Dad seems to have a bit more strength as he was able to pull himself up in the bed easier. He got a quick visit from the doctor and was told that radiation may begin in as little as 2-3 weeks. They hope to start dad on a liquid diet soon but they need to hear bowel sounds and see some gas/air in his colostomy bag. Until then, it's just ice chips. He's still on the epidural for pain and that will probably be stopped today or tomorrow. So continue to pray for that. He sat up in the chair for a tiny bit yesterday maybe 5 minutes or so and that took a lot out of him. But he did have quite a few guests yesterday, and then got all cleaned up, so i'm sure he was pretty tired to begin with. I hope they try to get him up in the chair earlier in the day today when he's feeling well rested. Mom and Dad's moods seemed really good yesterday. Mom even commented that "today didn't feel as bad as yesterday". I'm praying that we can all say that every day. Dad seems to be accepting things which can be a really hard thing to do. We talked for a bit yesterday and I was telling mom and dad how when Dan and I went through a really rough patch for 2 years many well meaning Christians would say "God won't give you anymore than you can handle" and I'd think to myself "well, What's wrong with ME then, cuz i AIN'T handling this!". I asked a good friend of mine where it said this in the scriptures and he told me no where! God says that we won't be TEMPTED beyond what we can handle. Then he told me the most amazing thing. God will CONTINUALLY give us more than we can handle, because if we could handle it we wouldn't need God. When the troubles in your life have passed GOD will have the glory, not us because people around us will know that there's no way we could have done it on our own, only God. It's to give Him the Glory. When i finished sharing this with mom and dad, mom said "and that's Joy's sermon for the day! (smile)" I guess there's more than one preacher in the family :D Please continue to pray: - for no infection - for the "swimminess" in dad's head to go away so that he can be upright for longer periods. This is good for his lungs to not be laying down so much. - this one will sound a bit funny..but for Dad to begin passing gas, I know I've never prayed for that before! He needs to start having some gas in his colostomy bag to prove that his bowels are working then he can start having fluids. - continue to pray for healing. We know that God can choose to perform a miracle in this situation, so we will continue to ask Him for one. Your prayers, messages and visits mean so much to all of us. To know that there are literally people around the WORLD praying for Dad is an incredible feeling. Thank you to all the Saints that continue to hold our family up in prayer. ~Joy (on behalf of the whole family)