From Sunny California

We made it! It wasn't a bad trip at all. We left at 7 a.m. yesterday and arrived at my brother's at 7:30 last night, with stops in Salem for breakfast and Grants Pass for lunch. Not to mention, an ice cream cone break at McD's in Redding (justified as a potty stop) and a stop to fuel up in Williams, CA where we headed west from I-5. (Hot! The car's thermometer that registers the outside temperature read 105 degrees).

My sis did most of the driving on the trip, although I drove from Grants Pass over the Siskyous to Redding. During my stint at the wheel, they slowed us down every five miles (perhaps exaggerated a teensy bit) from 70 to 55 mph for road work - irritating! In spite of my lead-foot driving, the Volvo SafetyMobile got over 30 mpg - I was pretty impressed.

I was disturbed to note that my brother has deteriorated significantly since I last saw him at the end of July. He has such difficulty finding the words to carry on basic conversation. Every sentence is punctuated with hesitation, stops, and incorrect or unusual combinations of words (parts of two words run together as one word). During the evening, I had to retreat to the bedroom a couple of times in tears. This is even harder than I anticipated - Prayers, please!

Last night we unloaded just the bare necessities from the car. So, much of this morning was spent unloading and organizing our "stuff." I sat down near my brother after we got organized and I had taken my shower. He said to me, "When it's time to write 'something' about me, I want you to do it - When it's time, I want you." Whoo! I burst into tears and ran and hugged him and kissed his neck as he clung to me. Both of us crying by this point. You know, you read about this stuff and watch stories on TV, but there is NO WAY you can appreciate what it's like unless you've been there. Later, out of my brother's hearing, I confessed to my sister that I'm not sure I can do this - like I have any choice in the matter, right? Prayers, please!

I slept fairly well, but several times during the night I woke up and literally begged God for a healing miracle (for His honor and glory and only within His perfect will). I know that hundreds of people die every day from this awful disease, but we still pray every day for a miracle.

This morning we learned that earlier this week my brother could hardly walk and could barely speak at all. He shared with us that somehow he had been taking more than the prescribed dose of one of his meds. Since adjusting the medication back to the correct amount, he has improved a bunch. In fact, he said he felt so good this morning that he wanted to get dressed and work on a couple of little projects he had been wanting to do. We hope to go with him to a doctor's appointment next Monday - we have questions we'd like to ask the doctor and hear the answers firsthand!


Well, everyone but me is in the kitchen making sliced tomato sandwiches for themselves, so I'd better get in there before it's all gone. However, the tomatoes are freshly-picked off the two extremely fruitful plants in my brother's back yard. The tomato plants are named are Julius and Caeser. I'm not kidding - They really do have names! They also have a "brother," a baby walnut tree named Earl. You don't have to be crazy to be part of our family, but it helps!


Before I go, I want to tell you the story behind Earl, the walnut tree. There was a bag of walnuts (still in the shells) buried under "stuff" in the garage. When my brother and his wife were cleaning out the garage early last fall, they happened on the bag of walnuts. Growing up out of the top of the bag was a spindly, yellowish sprout from one of the nuts. My brother took pity on this little nut struggling to be a tree. He planted it in a large pot on the patio and began tending and watering it, and named it Earl. When I visited here last October, Earl was about 12 inches tall. Now he is a proud tree towering out of his pot almost two feet toward the sky. You go, Earl! It seems like a positive omen in all of this - struggling to live, and winning!


Love you all - Gotta go make my sandwich.


MY TEXT FOR TODAY: Phil. 4:12-13 (LB)
"I have learned the secret of contentment in every situation, whether it be a full stomach or hunger, plenty or want; for I can do everything God asks me to (even this!) with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power."


Or as it says in the good old KJV (familiar and well-loved): "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."