Raising Hands To The Lord

Another milestone in La Donna's development ...

OCCUPATION THERAPIST "MARCIA"
has been working on La Donna's hand and arm to facilitate some meaningful movement in them. The signals from the brain are coming through, but the tone (stiffness/tightness) has hindered the movement.

Marcia has worked so that La Donna is now able to lift her hand to her nose, and she is able to open her tight fingers a remarkable distance. How wonderful it is to have therapists so skilled in the healing arts that we continue to see improvement almost on a daily basis.

We raise our hands in praise to the Lord, but also in praise to His servants like Marcia in the healing ministry. She puts a real smile on La Donna's (and Nelson's) face.

LOVE -- POPPO

The Boys (Dustin and Garrett) are Coming Home!

For those of you who have kept up with Dustin and Garrett, we are excited to say that Dustin is scheduled to come home in late February and Garrett will be home in March! Don't send any more packages because they won't be able to get them after 1/31/09.

Lori (my sister) and I are now "official" Operation Love photographers. OpLove is a non-profit organization that does photo shoots of deployments, homecomings, and in-betweens for our deployed servicemen/women. We started with Kari, Garrett's girlfriend who is such a pretty, sweet girl, don't you agree?

My next official shoot will be in Oahu, Hawaii! It will be Dustin's homecoming! We are so excited to be there.

Thanks for all your prayers, cards and support while they've been away. Just a couple more months and they will be back in the USA!

A Bad Taste in Dad's Mouth

Mom has a ton of Christmas decorations and their house also was blessed with goodies to eat throughout the Christmas season. Christmas was definitely one of our best this year. However, you wouldn't know that from the look on Dad's face!

Aphasia (or more accurately, dysphasia), mom's speech disorder that intereferes with proper selection of words, can have a distasteful effect on communication.

Mom and Dad had this little decorative white star hanging around their house all Christmas long. It was on a little plate in the kitchen and one day, Dad inquired as to what it was. 'Cake," mom answered. Oh yum, Dad thought, I think I'll have a bite!

Dad took a good size bite and started to chew and immediately had a serious shock to his tastebuds! It was a spitting, mouth watering, "what in the world?!?" reaction! It was soap, not cake! It kind of smelled like the "Irish Spring" version.

Here's the funny part: We laughed and laughed and I finally asked Mom, did you think it was cake or did you know it was soap? She said she knew it was soap but the word cake came out! So imagine her shock when Dad took a bite of it?

This whole incident has given us countless laughs and continues to do so as I write this. So, my warning to you is, anytime you come to my mom/dad's house, make sure you confirm what you're eating. It might not be what you think!

P.S. Payback is hell. I got my mouth washed out with soap a couple of times. Now my dad knows how it feels! Ha!