Friday again... already

Let's see... where was I? Tuesday was a quiet day. The weather was extra cool (felt good after temperatures in the upper 90's). In the evening we roasted hot dogs over a fire in the backyard fire pit. It was a pleasant day.

On Wednesday and Thursday we spent a good share of our time working on an inventory list of my brother's 40-year collection of Mopar auto parts, which he wants to sell. Poor baby had to crawl around ceiling-level shelves, calling the description of each item to my sister, and I recorded the list with my laptop onto an Excel spreadsheet to catalog and categorize stuff for potential buyers. At one point, my brother's shoe came off and he wasn't able to feel that it had come off. After he came down from his perch, he walked around in one shoe for several minutes before we pointed it out to him. Then, later in the day as he was preparing for a shower he was certain there was an earplug forced into his right ear (one of those little foam rubber thingies), but I checked - there was nothing there! The injured brain can definitely play tricks.

Today my brother had to crawl back up on the highest shelf to look for his shoe. There was another day this week when he came out of the bedroom wearing only one flip-flop, and thought he had put on both. It's so hard to watch him struggle with everyday stuff. We take SO MUCH for granted, don't we?

We have now been here three weeks and I have to say, I am learning some valuable lessons from my brother. He deals with SO MUCH every day, and does it with grace, patience and acceptance. He spills things, he trips over nothing, he sometimes has difficulty maneuvering the zippers, etc., on his clothing, and other demeaning stuff. All this and increasing difficulties with speech and just plain old basic communication. I wouldn't have guessed he could do this well in a situation of this type, but God is giving him the needed strength. Every day I'm more amazed at his accepting attitude. Could I do as well? I seriously doubt it!


Then the other day as I was working in the kitchen, I overheard him on the phone talking to a friend he had worked with for a number of years before his illness. He had called this guy especially to tell him how much his friendship has meant over the years. He explained that he is afraid he may not be able to communicate much longer and wanted to deliver his message before he loses his speech altogether. And there have been calls to a number of others who have been special in his life. Wow! What a lesson that is for me. I want to let my friends and family know how much they mean to me now, while I am able to, and while each of them can still hear what I have to say.

We are still praying for a miracle. Yesterday I told my sister that during the night when I couldn't sleep I realized that we have already experienced a miracle - not exactly the one we requested, but a miracle nonetheless. If you knew my brother before his illness, you would say that he has always been very self-assured, in control, and in general had need of nothing. He had a successful business with a healthy income, a nice expensive home, kids who have all turned out well - the whole banana. He truly had need of nothing. He is now acutely aware that he needs and supremely values the love of family & friends. More importantly, he knows he must rely on a Higher Power for everyTHING and every breath. The changes we see in our brother IS our miracle. However, we are a bit greedy and still pray fervently every day for our brother's healing and total restoration to complete health. May His perfect will be fulfilled! Thank you for continuing to pray with us.

Happy weekend, everyone!
XOXO

MY TEXT FOR TODAY: Ephesians 3:12-19

"When I think of the wisdom and scope of his plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great famly of God--some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth--that out of his glorious unlimited resources he will give you the mighty inner strenghtening of his Holy Spirit.

"And I pray that Christ will be more at home in your hearts, living within you as you TRUST IN HIM. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love, and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God's children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself."