Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Monday! WOW! What a day! If you read FB this morning Bruce got to go outside and show his PT that he could walk down a sidewalk safely, get in and out of a car, put on a seat belt, go up and down a ramp, walk off of a curb and go off roading through the grass. I must say that he did all of these things with an extraordinary spring in his step, a smile the size of Texas and just a bit of sass! Giving great thanks!  No results from the CT scan or the evaluation from the other hospital. Bruce is beginning to be bored silly. I have talked to him about the new hospital and I think he understands. As for me, the sooner we make the transition the sooner he gets to work and the sooner he is better and can come home. The plan for the hospital we visited today is for him to be inpatient for a while and step down to outpatient. The facility will pick him up at our house, take him to the clinic and return him home. He called me a couple of times today and we conversed well. He also called once and the left the message, “I love you.” Tonight, I went and ate dinner with him. We went back to his room, held hands across bed and chair and went to sleep.

The potential hospital he will transfer to is in the Irving/Los Colinas area. It is completely amazing. There are two facilities. One facility is only the clinic where all of the therapies take place. Their therapies include PT, PT, speech, education and counseling. There is aquatic therapy and if it appropriate there is therapy to relearn to drive. The residential center is about 4 miles from the clinic. It is beautiful! Each patient is housed in a quad apartment. There are two bedrooms in each apartment with a bathroom, kitchen, dining area and living room. It is not a hospital room. The bed is a queen size bed beautifully appointed. The patients are given money each week to purchase groceries and more money each week for entertainment. Patients can leave with family for the movies, church or wherever with a signout. There is a staff member that is with each patient in their apartment during the night. Their goal is to do all they can to transition the patient back into everyday life.  It was amazing. The site administrator was quite the salesman and sold us. I did however promise another hospital I would visit their facility. So, Geni and I will visit another hospital tomorrow. God has not only led us through this journey, but has been in the midst of each and every step. We give thanks and continue to surrender each day to God’s good grace and leading in Bruce’s healing.

“Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

2 Corinthians 4: 17

Well I must admit, this situation feels anything but light and momentary. Now I realize relative to eternity it is but momentary. I have to believe that God will be glorified through this journey and that we are receiving training to view problems as challenges that are just victories waiting to happen. The victories may seem very small, but when we claim victory over the difficulty then none of our time is wasted in fret, worry and fear. Do not think for a moment that I have not been a total mess at times during this journey because I cry twelve times a day. And I have moments each day when I am a quivering tower of jello and am on overload. But the verse tonight has helped me to realize that the only way for troubles to feel light and momentary is to daily, hourly, moment by moment, breath by breath surrender them to God our sustainer and Creator. So my friends, we need to handle all adversity in our lives by trusting God no matter what. God is good and love wins!

Take joy in the journey remembering that hope does not disappoint. Wear comfortable shoes, [ray with a heart filled with gratitude, let us cast our cares upon the LORD and get some sleep. God is up all night anyway so there is no need for all of us to be awake. Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene