Staffing Changes

This past Friday represented another milestone day for Patti. She has now graduated from the walker to a staff in public!!!!! What this means is that she is now walking so well she can navigate most of the obstacles she will come across in everyday life with balance assistance from the staff. She's not running up stairs, taking escalators or power walking, yet, but she is walking around demonstrating God's faithfulness every day!!

We are still working through our daily routines in our new environment. I must confess there are many days when we deeply miss our dear friends in Louisiana. Dallas is a big, wonderful place and it's where we need to be, but the pace of life and the overwhelming size make finding and getting together with friends a difficult thing.

Prayer requests:

1. Patti's ongoing recovery and strength. There is much work involved. Not only during the day at the rehab center, but she is doing exercises every night and by the time bedtime rolls around she is pretty much exhausted.

2. Sale of our home in Louisiana. Some limited activity, but the market is very soft there. Getting the house sold would relieve a lot of financial pressure.

3. Praise for God's faithfulness!

Forever in Him,

Mike

Insurance Update

We have a resolution! It turns out that the issue with Blue Cross was, as they described it, a billing issue!! Isn't God good! No matter how I want to complicate it, He always comes through!

Patti's rehab facility, CNS, and Blue Cross are now communicating properly and coordinating Patti's care so that we are fully covered under our policy.

Thanks for your prayers!

Forever in Him,

Mike

Picture Legend

A good friend of mine asked for a legend for the picture below, so here it is:

Row 1 left to right:

Mike Jr., Paige Everett-Powell, Todd Powell(Husband), Stephen Everett

On the sofa left to right:

June Everett(My mom), Morgan(Mike Jr.'s wife) and Aidan Everett, Patti, Mike Sr., Abbey Everett-Bowman and Cadence Bowman. Abbey's husband Nick couldn't make the trip due to work - we missed him!

ALSO, you can click on the picture to see a bigger version...

AND, Mike and Morgan now have a blog and you can find them at:

http://everetthome.blogspot.com/

Mike

Easter Weekend

Patti and I hope all of you had a blessed and happy Easter weekend! All four of our kids, all but one of our in-laws and both of the grandkids were with us. This came about as sort of a re-do of our planned time together last Thanksgiving which was so dramatically altered by Patti's stroke.

With travel and work schedules, everyone made it to Dallas in time to go to the Fort Worth Zoo on Saturday. What a great place! It was the first time for me. Even though I grew up in Dallas, my family always went to the Dallas Zoo. I haven't been there in years, but people here say it isn't close in quality and presentation to Fort Worth.

Saturday night we had dinner together at our apartment which, by the way, accomodated the crowd quite well! There were two highlights during the evening. First, we gathered around Mike Jr., Morgan and Aidan and laid hands on and prayed over them as they will be leaving to start a new career in Thailand at the end of May. Secondly, we presented Mike Jr. with a new guitar which comes as a gift from both sides of his family and from his church. Mike leads worship, writes music and performs as part of his outreach gifting.

Sunday, we went to church with Mike Jr. in Fort Worth, grabbed burgers afterwards and headed to their apartment at the Southwestern Baptist Seminary for lunch. We took the grandkids over to the seminary campus, which has beautiful grass by the way, and had a lot of fun as the adults did egg tosses, carries and rolls on the lawn! It was a great time together as a family and we enjoyed it tremendously.

Through the whole weekend Patti did great, as expected! She continues to improve her walking and talking and handiwork!

We are grateful to God for what Easter means to us through the ressurection of Jesus Christ and, this year, we were able to celebrate the restoration of Patti as well.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for Patti!

Forever in Him,

The Everetts

Children of a Lesser Blog

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I have blogged. The adjustment I've had to make has been very difficult. The daily pressure of work and travel each day transitions into caregiving for Patti and homemaking at night and time has become a limited resource making blogging a less frequent event. I hope to become more frequent over the next few weeks as my travel schedule settles down a little.

Having said that, there are some wonderful things to report.

First of all, Patti's progress is steady. We have made some medication adjustments that seem to be helping her accelerate her speech recovery somewhat. Her legs are growing stronger and she spends a considerable amount of time each day walking without assistance at the apartment. Charlotte is giving up more and more control to Patti each day. She is trying to reach out and flip light switches, help hold onto things like jars so Patti can open lids, and generally beginning to behave herself!

We are very encouraged and God continues to minister His peace and provision in our lives. There is still a long way to go and, no doubt, some difficult times ahead. But for those of you who may harbor any doubts, God is totally true and faithful and loves you beyond measure!

Our insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, is still wanting to reduce Patti's therapy each day by 70%. This is very strange as Patti's progress has been continuous and the therapy regimen is obviously very effective. Please continue to keep this in your prayers. Patti works very hard to take full advantage of every hour she has and this would make our life very difficult at this point. If she can't go to therapy each day then I will be required to reduce my work hours significantly or increase our care costs enormously. Either of those are not a good option. Just as, if not more, important is the recovery environment that therapy creates for Patti. It is challenging and encouraging and she comes home every day tired and spent, but satisfied that she has accomplished a lot.

Also, continue to pray for the sale of our home in West Monroe.

Forever in Him,

Mike and Patti