Update Christmas Day 2009 Day 47

Dear friends,

Merry Christmas! Santa Claus must have had a rough time getting down my chimney (but I'm quite sure he stayed very clean thanks to Courageous Kevin), because my kids had the biggest, best Christmas ever. Someone out there, and you know who you are but I don't, donated a Dell laptop computer to my Hannah Rejoice. I mean a full size one, and in her favorite color, yellow! Now, you've got to understand that this was her dream gift, and one we told her we could not get until maybe when she went to college. She is a wonderful writer, and this will be the modern day pen and paper for her great American novel. Not only that, writing is therapy for her, and as I can attest to, there's nothing like words to help with post trauma. Whoever you are: if you have children, I pray God will so fill their hearts with joy and blessing they cannot contain it. If you don't have children, I pray all the love and generosity in your heart is returned to you like a bee to the hive. Again, I can't pay it back, but I promise you I will pay it forward. So many of you shopped for my kids with a list, and wouldn't take a penny from me for the gifts purchased. People I don't even know bought cologne, video games, socks, Lego's etc... on and on. Cousin Tommy radically blessed Stephen as did so many other family members and friends. Now if a person can be killed by kindness, I've already died ten thousand times. The Great One says, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." How's that for you, people? No way you can out give God. No way. He gives back in His own way. You watch and see.

Benevolent Brother Bob outdid himself with a very special gift package to us. Included were Met's garb for each one of us, ice cream sundae dishes and a gift card to Stewart's (second best ice cream in the world), and best of all: his own personal writings including a beautiful song composed for us. I'm going to ask him to email the song so you all can read the words on the blog. The man can write, he surely can. My heart practically exploded reading his Christmas message! Isn't it amazing how God puts people together? Some write, some build, some heal, some sing, some clean, some cook, some push, some pull, some make boat loads of money and give it away. But all are needed. And all are loved.

Boat loads of money. To all of you who gave through the Advent Conspiracy, and just sent checks or gave us cash, listen to me carefully. I can barely stand up thinking about it. How does one express gratitude of this magnitude? Very soon Steve's No Fault insurance will exhaust. He's a multi million dollar man, believe me. When our regular insurance kicks in, it only covers so much, so far. I will be pulling from that pile of money to pay for therapy, co pays, medicine, ambulance rides etc... And what a pile of money it was: with the matching funds we will be getting some fat check. And to you my dear matching donor, I can't wait to see you in heaven where your identity is well known. You and I are going to dance a jig and holler together about the greatness of God. You are invisible to us and those amazing Guilzon's (who by the way, got all they needed plus some to build their clinic!!), but you are right in God's line of sight. Surely you will reap what you have sown. Amen.

I thought you might like a quick medical update which I've wanted to send for a couple of days but just couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to share. We saw the great Dr. Bagchi on Wednesday. It was a 2 hour appointment. The xray tech almost passed out when he saw the number of broken things he had to take pictures of. Well, the long and short is Stephen is healing well, and I only have to change his dressings once a day now! Praise God! It's a long process, and that alone saves me lots of time. His ugly flap wound looks "great" to the professionals. Dr. B. said "you've been lucky, everything's gone well with no infections". OK Bob the Builder. Luck? Still, gotta love that man. 2 months now (or so) to wait for the right side to bear weight. We've already picked off a whole month. His pelvis and shoulder (straight fractures) are already healed, so we can begin range of motion on his shoulder. The splint is off the right arm, so he can work it a little. Dr. Bagchi says it will always be stiff, and not real useful. But who really knows? He should have died. Judging from the chest moving up and down, and the smile on his face I'd say no one really knows. Steve's right tibia (the one with the external fixator) has shifted slightly. It's very hard to get them to hold perfectly. Dr. B.
said that part will heal a little crooked, but it's too risky to go in now and re-cut the bone. Ouch! Stephen simply said to me "well, let's just ask people to pray it will straighten out". OK. Miracles certainly haven't been in short supply around here. In 3 weeks we go back for another check on those bones. As Ezekiel says "Can those bones live?" Absolutely.

I wrote a song after 9/11 called "Emmanuel". One verse and the chorus goes like this:

You're Emmanuel, when the mountains fall into the sea,
You're Emmanuel, when the river's rushing over me
You're Emmanuel, when the mighty towers fall away,
You're Emmanuel, at every hour on every day...

You're with us, with relentless passion
You're with us, with a fierce, unyielding love,
You're with us, with a Father's grip that won't let go,
You're with us, you're with us, Emmanuel.

He's been with us through the worst, and He'll be with us all the way. As dear sister Laurie said to me way early on, "If this mountain won't be moved, we're going over it." We have, we are and we will. Note the pronoun. Remember, full life restoration is the goal. To work, to walk to excel in school, to make a public spectacle of the spiritual darkness, to give God great Glory.
Are you all still on for this great adventure? I know I don't even need to ask.

I love you with all my overwhelmed heart.

Your friend forever on the pilgrim road,

Loriann