One Month

Hi everyone!

Today marks one month since Patti's stroke. A pretty blurry month as well! It hardly seems possible.

For anyone new to the blog let me encourage you to read all of the entries, even though it will take you some time, to get the complete picture of what's going on in our lives. The reason for this is I want everyone who comes here to read about how Patti is doing, to leave with an understanding that, while this is about Patti, it is more about the Lord and what He is doing in our lives.

Patti today, at one month, experienced a new and necessary milestone in her recovery. She began to feel pain in her right arm and leg. This is a great indicator of the body and brain beginning to reconnect. Also, as I was helping her into bed tonight she began to push with her left leg to adust her position while I was lifting her right leg into place. As she pushed with her left her right leg muscles began to fire and try to mimic what the left leg was doing. After a good night's sleep last night, her speech was much better this afternoon and she is beginning to put together complete sentences more frequently. All of this from a woman who through her circumstances should be totally and permanently incapacitated. But through God's mercy and grace is on the road to complete recovery.

I once told my L.I.F.E group, (God bless you guys!) that I learn far more through adversity than I do through prosperity. (Although I wouldn't mind learning in prosperity on occasion!) And among the many things I have learned through this adversity is: 1) God's heart is never turned away from His children and 2) My heart is too easily turned away from God. This is a tough lesson to learn, but I needed to learn it. I now see the love of God in places I never noticed it before. I look at Patti with eyes I never knew I had before. I appreciate my children and their love and faithfulness in a completely new way. I place far more value in the minutes of each day than I ever did before. And I find even a brief moment with a friend to be worth more than I can describe. And I know this is just a beginning. After all, it's only been one month and Patti hasn't begun to report in on her testimony yet.

So, once again, thank you Lord for touching Patti and protecting her when there was no one with her but You. Thank you friends and family for loving us, supporting us and continuing to pray for us in our time of need.
Keep praying for Patti's complete recovery and her patience each day.

Forever in Him,

Mike