The Long Road to Walk

"Home Therapy" - A hand massage for Dad

Well, friends our immediate crisis has passed, and we are beginning the long recovery journey.  There will likely not be much "big" news from here on out.  I want you to know that if this is where you take leave of my wordy updates, you go with my blessing, and we feel no less loved by you.  We have been blessed by your concern, far more than I realized we would be.  Thank you.

Tomorrow Steve's parents head home.  We have been blessed to have them here for two weeks, ministering to Steve in the hospital, loving the kids, cleaning, folding, arranging, and generally setting us up to be on our own after they leave.  They have been a true blessing to us, seeing our needs before we knew what they were.

This week we will have 3 appointments.  The first will be with the doctor who will oversee Steve's rehab.  The second, yet unscheduled, will be his first outpatient PT/OT appointment. The third will be with the surgeon who performed the surgery at UCI.  We're looking forward to hearing where we go from here, and even starting to think through how Steve will be able to get back to work.  Biola has been exceptional, and his team in IT has stepped up to the plate and rallied incredibly during his absence.  They've made him proud.  But I know he will be glad to take his place back among them in the foreseeable future, as is appropriate for his recovery.

Steve came to church this morning--a victory!  It took me 2 full hours to get 4 people ready for church, and we were still late, but we made it!  It was a joy to be back together in our dear, dear church.  We began a summer series on the Psalms, and really enjoyed Joe Henderson helping us to understand the Psalms as they were originally written and understood, and how Christ's sacrifice makes it possible for us to participate in them.  I'm so excited for this series!

To cap off the day, we finally got to use that handicap placard on our celebratory dinner excursion to Islands tonight.  There was a very sweet moment between Steve and Søren (who has been glued to him the last several days).  Søren cuddled up to Steve's elbow and said, "Dad, I'm glad you are home."  The two of them talked in quiet tones about how much they'd missed each other and how thankful they were to be back together.  Steve's accident was just that--an accident.  We would never choose it for ourselves, even if we could go back.  But the sweet moments God has granted us as a result, the intensified thankfulness for our days, our relationships, for God's work in our lives is unparalleled for us to date.  I can't help but be thankful that he is using it to prepare our hearts for the road ahead and the final destination.

A couple lines from Walt Harrah's "Forever With The Lord" say it well for me:
Forever with the Lord!"
Amen! So let it be!
Life from His death!
We live in hope of immortality
Here in this body spent
I with creation groan 
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day's march nearer home