Day #51

Dad got to see Jennifer's beautiful smile when he was in St. Louis this past weekend! This made him happy!

They put a smaller trach in Jennifer yesterday. Mom asked the dr how long he thought it'd be before they take the trach out completely. The dr told her that normally it's about a week or so after they switch the patient to the smaller trach. So hopefully soon she will no longer need this!

They removed Jennifer's external fixator a few days ago. This should help relieve some of her pain & make her more comfortable. They still aren't planning to do surgery on her hip/pelvic bone at this time. They said it appears to be healing ok on its own.

Mom said Jennifer got mad at her today! Jennifer was resting & mom was rubbing her arm. Jennifer looked at mom & jerked her arm away! I've been waiting for Jennifer to get tired of everyone always touching & rubbing her! I always tell Jennifer I can't wait until she can tell us to leave her alone! I guess this was her way of telling mom that today! She also lifted her arm up for the nurse when she came in to take Jennifer's blood pressure! This was a first also! Normally they have to lift her arm to put the cuff around it.

Mom told me about some visitors Jennifer had this weekend. They are parents of a boy whose life Jennifer impacted. Their son was heading down the wrong road, making bad decisions until he met Jennifer. Jennifer turned his life around. He is a different person now because of Jennifer's influence. Hearing these stories make us more & more proud of Jennifer all the time!

I know I've talked about the outpouring of support, kindness, & generosity we've seen, but I wanted to thank everyone again. There have been monetary contributions to both Jennifer & David & to mom to help with her expenses. There have been gifts for the kids. There have been cards, letters, e-mails. There have been offers to help in any way needed. A lady who has been a friend of my mom's since high school gave her a goody bag that contained books, snacks, personal items such as lotions, & other nice things for mom to use while staying at the hospital with Jennifer. It also contained a Veggie Tales book for Josiah! The wife of a man my dad works with, made 2 beautiful blankets for Kacyn. One of them has his name & birthdate embroidered on it! There have been too many instances of generosity to mention all of them, but I want to say "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" to everyone! We can't thank you enough.

In addition to all the things I mentioned above, there have been thousands (if not, millions) of prayers for Jennifer, Kacyn, David, Josiah & the entire family. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! Please keep them going! Jennifer's taking baby steps, but we are celebrating & thanking the Lord for each one of them. We see each & every one of them as getting us closer & closer to having our sister, daughter, friend, niece, cousin, wife, mommy back!

Love,
Lynn