Love

I was so touched by a facebook update I read this morning that I had to share it.  First the backstory...

Aaron and Carrie Hoffman and their 2 children go to my St. Louis church.  They are an incredible family that I've known for probably almost 10 years.  A few days before this last Christmas Aaron collapsed at work and I believe he had a seizure.  They took him to the hospital and discovered a brain tumor.  They let him go home and spend Christmas with his family but then in January he was to come in to run a bunch of tests.  He had surgery a few days ago to remove a majority of the mass.  One side effect of the brain swelling (from the surgery) was that he was unable to speak.  It has been that way for a few days but now here was his wife's facebook update from last night.... 
 Carrie Hoffmann

Today has been a very emotional day for me.

Physically Aaron is doing great. He was up and brushing his teeth when I came in his room this morning. They had removed his bandages early this morning as well. As he stood before the mirror I could see he was upset by what he saw. He has a scar the shape and size of a horseshoe on the left side of his head. For some reason, they had shaved 2/3 of his head and left the rest. I just smiled and told him he was still good looking even though my heart was breaking for him.

Aaron works very well with the therapists while they are in the room and then stops trying to speak all together when it is just the two of us. He is so afraid of saying the wrong thing that he would rather say nothing at all. And, while I do understand this, it is so hard for me to watch him as he sits there, trapped inside his own head. I feel so helpless.

Later this evening the doctor came by with good news. He said that since Aaron was doing so well physically he may be able to go home tomorrow! Shortly after this announcement, while Aaron was in the restroom, I fell to pieces. I wasn't upset that we were going home, I was just overwhelmed. Our God is so good! Tomorrow I may be at home with my whole family once again!

After all our visitors left for the evening, I sat down with Aaron. I said, "I need you to talk to me. I don't care what you say, I just need you to talk to me. You talk to the doctors and you try to talk to visitors, now say something to me...anything." He paused for a long moment, trying to put the words together and then he said, "I love you. I love you. I love you." I am complete.

A little later I said to him, "The therapist said that you might want to try singing. She said that uses an entirely different part of your brain than speech. Do you want to try?" He nods yes. So I begin singing, "Amazing Grace"...

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see.

When we've been there ten-thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
With no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Praise God"

He sang the whole way through with me, over and over, and over. My eyes are closed I am trying hard not to cry and to keep singing the words with him. When we finish the song, I open my eyes. His eyes are closed and tears are streaming down his face... We have both just been touched by the hand of God.

God is using this family in an incredible way.  The faith they've shown is so beautiful.  I hope you've been touched by this the way I have been.

Starting the year off right!

We've hit some stuff on my Resolution List already!  Something on the Plan list and even an unexpected item on the Hope list!!

Jake had his floating holiday on Tuesday. So we had a 3 day weekend together.  And we had nothing we had to do, so it was awesome!  Raeleigh had a fever on Saturday so Sunday I stayed home from church with her and Jake went and played in the worship band.  When he got home I worked on packing up the rest of the Christmas decorations.  Then for dinner we went to Nakatos with these lovely folks...

 

and their pretty lady.

Monday I deep cleaned the living room, since it had fake pine needles all over it.  Later we stopped by Meme and Gramps for a few.  Then came home and relaxed.

Tuesday was my favorite day!  We got up and going right away and headed out for a day of shopping and fun.  We went to Good Will to get rid of a LOT of stuff I had set aside to donate (I've been on a "clean up and organize everything" binge.)  Then we hit up the mall, Target, Best Buy and Lowes.  Raeleigh got a not so great nap in the car so she was ready to get home at that point.  When we got home we laid her down and just ATTACKED our garage.  We still had boxes in there from the move.  Yes the move from almost 8 months ago.  We reorganized some shelves and put some things in the attic and got rid of a bunch of other stuff.  It's looking SO much better in there already.  I think we plan to put in the new outlet for the deep freeze later this month when we are both on vacation.  

Besides starting in on garage organization, one thing I hit on my list was toy organization!  I haven't actually organized them yet but I bought some storage cubes that I plan to put together tonight.  I'm so excited!  Have I mentioned I LOVE organizing?  

The unexpected item on the Hope List I'll keep a surprise but I hope to reveal it by the end of this week.  I am beyoooond excited for it.  Any guesses on what it could be?  I'll give a hint it doesn't have to do with organization.  If you're bright enough, you may figure it out.

The Pay Off

After 2 months straight of nonstop working on the house and getting ready for Raeleigh's birthday. We finally had the big pay off. A very fun and successful birthday party at the new house. Not everything was done. There are still 2 bedrooms that need painted and lots of decor that needs to go up. But everything that mattered was done and looked pretty good I think.

Raeleigh's party was SO fun! We had at least 50 people there. Actually if I counted right we had exactly 50. It was really neat to see all the baby girls there. It's crazy how so many of our friends have baby girls that are all within a year of Raeleigh.

Here is a video of the party. http://vimeo.com/26276211 Enjoy.

You know what's so great now?... Now I can just relax and enjoy my house. It seemed like we were doing project after project with no down time. So these last couple nights we've just sat on our couch eating all the party leftovers and watched TV. And Raeleigh got so many great gifts she's just been playing so much going from one toy to the next.

Next I will be focusing on getting up some decor in the house and I will post more before and after pics. Stay tuned!