What a month it has been! We are home. I am sitting in a chair in our front room working on getting my mind wrapped around all the events of the last few weeks and months. Many tears have been shed, many prayers answered and so many people have supported us in ways we can never truly repay.
The trip home was daunting to think about, but once again we managed just fine. Dad drove into the wind and we avoided as many potholes and road quirks as we could. Every time we stopped I walked for a good ways and was so encouraged by the nice weather. It has been in the seventies and although the wind was blowing it was beautiful weather to prance about in the sunshine. I opted for pajama pants and a tank top which were comfortable but the tank did not cover all my bandages so as I pranced (with the aid of a walker of course) around in the wind and the sun for the first time in almost two weeks I am sure it was a sight to behold...
The car ride and the days we have had without children has given me much time to ponder. I have nothing but great news in almost every detail of our journey in the last month, but just like the news of an attack in Brussels breaking into a ball game there have been stories of pain and sadness from our network of friends and loved ones which have broken through our news feeds of phones. We rejoice in all God has done for us in these last few months, but we recognize that in our season of joy there are many with sorrows still. With those thoughts in mind I will try to bring you back up to date and perhaps do our first re-cap post.
Only months ago we were finally given the hope of a fix, a real long term solution. My back had long been a problem for our family. It made everyday seem like we were just surviving. In fact that was my only real plan. I was going to survive... until I didn't. There was joy but little hope and an abundance of stress. We have always known in our heads that the goodness of our God was enough. We always trusted that the goodness of His plan for us was sure and that nothing of our struggle was missed, in fact it was ordained. I have said as much before, but we would not be the us we are now unless God had led us how He did "then". Our darkest days were some of the few times we saw the true brightness of His presence. It was in these valleys where life didn't make sense and the future was anything but sure that we learned to lean on and long for the peace and joy that came in spite of all we could see and the faith that let us taste the goodness of the things we could not.
We wept. We yelled at each other and sometimes the kids. We would often throw around the phrase, "You have no idea what I'm going through". And then eventually we would hug and cling to each other and look beyond the darkness to the keeper of the light and source of true joy. We knew joy in the midst of sorrow. We had peace the the midst of storms and we had faith which had to be given us because there was obviously no way it could be mustered from our sorry souls ready to faint. This all comes flooding back as we see a mountaintop but dear ones are suddenly in the valleys or perhaps still bogged down and not able to break from sorrows so abundant. There is hope. There is joy, but it is not in the absence of pain or sorrow. In fact, most times for us it mingled in with all of the realities of life and we carried both. The best news is that as I recount to you our joys know that the God we serve is one who will make all things right. It may not happen when or how we wish, but by His very nature our God restores broken things and is the mender of the the most broken hearts.
I am in awe of what God has accomplished in the restoration of a back. Even though there is a long road of recovery yet to go we have seen miracles which we could never have imagined just a few short months ago. The plans for child care, travel, surgery, and a million other little things have kept falling into place and in the whirlwind of the last few weeks we have never been more sure of the goodness of our God and the love of our friends and family. As scary as such a major surgery is we were never in doubt that this is where our journey led.
The Surgery on the 14th went better than expected and the screws and rods are installed from T3-L2 which will likely give me the most range of motion possible. The doctor leading the surgery even made the comment afterwards that since I did not even require a single blood transfusion I almost didn't need to go to the ICU at all. When I fist woke up in ICU the pain was beyond what I imagined or could easily describe. As I woke up the nursing staff was washing blood out of my hair and I was begging for more pain killers. Later that day I would find out the reason for the hair wash is that during surgery they did end up pulling traction (by putting a screw in either side of my head and the cranking on it like it was the middle ages). The next few hours were difficult as it would mean standing for the first time, then sitting in a chair for a few hours. After I was moved to a normal room the evening of Tuesday the 15th things were starting to settle in a bit. My oxygen levels came up and I had somewhat resigned myself to the amount of pain required to get up and move. I was a bit overconfident and overdid things with some moving and walking so I did have a day that I spent trying to recuperate. It was on the recuperation day that we switched to a new muscle relaxer which did wonders. The biggest pain point is the muscles which have all been stretched incredibly far and some of which we newly back where they belonged after having to be moved out of the way to add hardware. The rest of the time was spent resting in between learning how to use some fancy, and some not so fancy, tools to put on socks or use the rest room by myself again. We made it to the hotel on Saturday the 19th and then having rested another day or two left for home home today on Tuesday the 22nd.
We stopped by and saw the girls on the way home and that was so good for their mommy and daddy's hearts... It may have been good for them as well. We will have another day or so to see how rehab is working here prior to them coming home full time. I am sitting in a comfy chair that is on lone to us from some dear friends from church. It will stand me up and also lays all the way back so I could sleep here and give most of the sore muscles a break for a few days. Stacey and I are looking forward to bringing home all of our crazy kids, but for now we are so thankful for a few more days together adjusting to how life will work for the next few weeks.
We have prayed prayers of thankfulness, we have been overjoyed at the hand of God in our lives. Now as we settle back home we are adding our prayers for sustaining joy and comfort for those that need to be held in those same hands tonight. We serve an amazing God and we praise Him for even the simple things like getting ready to tuck into our own beds tonight.
Thankful,
Jon Michael Moorehead
No comments:
Post a Comment