Thanksgiving Update

Psalm 9:1, 2
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart;
I will tell of all Your wonders.
I will be glad and exult in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

Patti enjoyed a wonderful family time yesterday with Mike, Morgan, and Aidan and Todd and Paige in attendance. We really missed Nick Abbey and Cadence and Stephen, but had a good time in spite of it. Patti's days begin with breakfast and then a relatively non-stop therapy schedule the rest of the day. Her speaking is improving very slowly, but her writing and reading skills are progressing very rapidly. There is a lot of focus on restoring feeling and function on the right side now and Patti intensely looks forward to the work. She does not like the early morning or evening hours when it is lonelier and there is less to do, so we've been doing her speech homework and other exercises at night as often as we can.

She really enjoys looking at all of the cards we have up on the wall. We talk about who sent them from time to time and we have gotten all kinds of comments from the hospital staff about how loved Patti must be to have so many decorating her wall. We miss being home!

For those of you have prayed for Pastor Phil who was in our last post as a prayer request, please take a minute and praise God for his homegoing. He stepped into the arms of the Lord Thursday afternoon and, no doubt, had a most incredible Thanksgiving feast. Back in the early eighties I had the privilege of spending a lot of time in prayer with Phil and enjoying God's anointing on him as a worship leader. My every remembrance of him is as a dedicated servant of the Most High and a seeker of God's face. He will be missed down here.

Finally, I got a chance to look at the actual MRI which was taken on Patti on Wednesday. The image shows just how large the stroke was, but, as reported before, the center and deep parts of her brain were untouched. (Thank You Lord!) There is an intense area at the front and one at the back of the left side, but in between it is very sporadic. (Thank You Lord!) The doctor indicated that had it been a persistent clot and blockage, there would have been extreme damage with a far smaller chance of recovery. This is particularly true since she was alone for such a long time when it happened. But apparently the clot rapidly dissolved sparing her the kind of damage that might have occurred. There is only one way to expain all of this...and His name is Jesus!