Casting Crumbs

Just a quick note to let you all know that Mom is leaving Hospice House on Tuesday. We are starting to get the house ready for her arrival. Appreciate all your continued prayers.

I’ve been also getting Evely a new bedroom. She turns the BIG 5 years old this week and so she has requested a pink room that looks like a girl. I think she is tired of the boys leftovers and the blue. So Tom and I have spent a good part of the weekend painting. I’m excited to get her room done and will post picks when it’s finished.

Hello everyone -

I was at Hospice House today to visit my Mom and heard some great news. The Dr. comes by each day to see her and check on how she is doing. Mom asked her today how things were and she told Mom “very well….in fact, so well that you can start thinking about going home.” That was quite an amazing shock! Compared to those first days after we took Mom to H.H., she has really come along. She still has a long ways to go, but we are headed in a better direction.

The thought of going home excites Mom but also creates a lot of apprehension as to her care, comfort, meds, etc. So she would appreciate prayer for wisdom and direction as we think about this. They will not kick her out of H.H. and told her to think about next week sometime. However, we do need to begin to make plans, maybe see about therapy and other ideas to get her ready for this major move. Thank you for your continued prayers for my family! They mean more than you could ever know.

It has been two weeks since we moved Mom to Hospice House on New Year’s Eve. That was not a very fun evening for our family, but since then we have come a long way.

The Hospice House really is as beautiful as they had told us! The hospitality of the staff and volunteers is amazing. The building is very homey and doesn’t look at all like a nursing home or hospital. It’s more like a small hotel. The rooms are very large and nicely decorated, lots of bookshelves for pictures and things. She has a big window and a couch, chairs and table, desk and huge bathroom. Three people can actually sleep in Mom’s room every night, but so far Dad is the only one who has stayed. They have big family rooms with fire places, hot coffee, soups and bread and kitchens for our use.

Dad has been living there with Mom and it’s such a blessing for them. They can now really enjoy one another’s company without all the stress of managing medications and all the daily personal care that Mom needs. He seems to be doing well.

Mom, of course, loves on everyone that comes into her room and I think everyone that leaves feels as blessed as Mom does with their visit. She has come a LONG way and is doing pretty well. She isn’t out of bed at all yet, but her appetite has returned, her body is functioning well and she seems to be gaining in strength.

I spoke to her Dr. today and she said that Mom has really settled into a good “groove”. She has stabilized and we are definitely no longer looking at “days” but more like “weeks”. I am wondering if we may see those “weeks” turn into “months”.

Mom has really been a pillar of faith in God. She is really believing that God can raise her up out of this bed and she can walk out of Hospice House if that is His will for her. She knows that she may not, and may go Home to be with Him, but until then we just look to Him for all the answers for her life. Her mantra right now that everyone will hear her say is “NOTHING is impossible with God”. She said she has always known that and believed it, but now she believes it to her core and she is placing her faith there. No matter what the outcome.

I know that many of you were wondering what is happening with her and I hope this helps to give you some more answers for now. Thank you for all your prayers and support! It has been wonderful…

This is a short post to let all of you know of Mom’s progress. We enjoyed a nice quiet Christmas morning together. She was able to sit and enjoy everyone opening gifts.

Things have steadily declined since then. Today her nurse was here and evaluated her and we decided together that it was time to move her to Hospice House. They will be moving her today sometime. This will greatly give us the help we need with 24 hour nursing staff and Dr’s. It is not a nursing home but we hear it has a beautiful atmosphere, very peaceful and quiet. It’s set up more like a house with a family room and kitchen for us. We can stay with her 24 hours a day there.

This is but another step in our journey. This is not hopeless or a dead end for her. She is but a few hours or days away from her real Home in heaven and to be free of a body that is keeping her soul from freedom. I am so thankful for the hope that we have in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am thankful that His blood paved the way for our salvation for our eternal home and hope when we die.

These are some verses that I have read recently that I thought I would share…

II Corinthians 5

We know that the earthly tent we live in will be destroyed. But we have a building made by God. It is a house in heaven that lasts forever. Human hands did not build it.

During our time on earth we groan. We long to put on our house in heaven as if it were clothing. Then we will not be naked.

While we live in this tent of ours, we groan under our heavy load. We don’t want to be naked. We want to be dressed with our house in heaven. What must die will be swallowed up by life.

God has made us for that very purpose. He has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment. The Spirit makes us sure of what is still to come.

So here is what we can always be certain about. As long as we are at home in our bodies, we are away from the Lord. We live by believing, not by seeing. We are certain about that. We would rather be away from our bodies and at home with the Lord. So we try our best to please him. We want to please him whether we are at home in our bodies or away from them.

Our Love to all of you…

Karen

Well, the Christmas Season has crept right upon us and I hope this finds all of you in the Christmas spirit and enjoying all those traditions we find ourselves engaging in year after year. It’s such a great time for remembering and enjoying the wonderment of salvation and the birth of the Savior that provided it for us.

Many of you continue to ask how my Mom is and what’s going on with her now. So this will be a brief update.

She is doing much better for now! She is resting better, eating better and has cut back on the pain meds they initially had put her on. She is in good spirits and continues to trust our Good and Heavenly Father for His will in her life. While the Hospice nurses are doing all they can to make her comfortable and also “prepare” her for the end. She is comforted by the fact that in Christ, her life is hidden and she is already prepared for whatever may come.

She is looking at life as being further down the road now and is sure she will be here for Christmas. That is so nice to see and hear from her! Thanks so much for all the encouragement and prayers.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Many of you are asking about Mom and how she is doing since coming home from the hospital…

She is resting much more comfortably than before, thanks to Hospice and good medicines that can keep her comfortable. She has visits from nurses that come 4 times a week to check on her and make sure that she has everything she needs. They are wonderful and really help us with many things like medications and personal care; I consider them a true blessing.

We are all doing pretty well, considering this is a very sobering time that we are working through in Mom’s fight with cancer. Mom’s spirits are good and she talks of Heaven often. It’s interesting to hear her thoughts on heaven as they come from someone who is looking forward to being there in the near future.

Thank you again for all your prayers and well-wishes as we appreciate them so much and truly feel God’s presence. I am learning that during this Thanksgiving season that it’s not always the easy thing to give Thanks, yet we serve a God who deserves our praise and thanksgiving in every season of life.

I read this today and it encouraged me, so I thought I would share it here.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4.

Hello All,

Mom is to come home from the Hospital today. She is doing some better, had a blood transfusion and some other things done to make her more comfortable. We have gotten some help for her at home too. We are working through a branch of Hospice and their Home Health Care to give her more care at home. She will have nurses coming in to check on her, help with care, meds and manage pain and other things. She can still seek any treatments that she would like to continue through this part of Hospice, but hasn’t made any decisions about further treatment at this point.

I’ll keep you posted as we know more. Thanks again for all the support and prayer. Jesus is very near and we feel and see Him working around us. We are in the best of hands!

Hi everyone -

To keep everyone informed of my Mom and to update you on how we need prayer, I wanted to let you know of her status…

Mom has really had a struggle the last two weeks and we took her to the emergency room on Thursday. She is resting better and finally was able to get some sleep that she has needed for months. We are working with the oncologist to decide what the next route is to be. We haven’t made decisions yet and would appreciate your prayers with that. At this point, we also don’t know when she will be coming home. We will be working to get some much needed items at home so that she can rest better when she is discharged – like a different bed and things.

She does ask that no one come to see her at this time. She would like to be feeling better before having any more visitors.

Last Saturday was the most fantastically beautiful day! It was 75 degrees, sunny and so much fun. We had a family work day outside and everyone was involved. All our trees had dropped their leaves and so we raked, piled, jumped, scooped and eventually they were all burned. Later that night we had a bonfire with some friends and roasted hotdogs and dined on smores.

Here are some of my favorite moments of the day in pictures.

Jaden and Evely jumping in the leaves! Evely said that she didn’t remember ever jumping in them before, so this was a special event for her.

Lost in the leaves….

Julian is officially too “big” this year to jump in the leaves and had a lot more fun burning them. He has become quite the help.

Snickers doing a little leaf sniffing. Our puppy was completely exhausted at bedtime.

Many hands make light work.

“There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been” Percy Shelley

Last night we got our wet pumpkins off the front porch and started carving them. The kids picked out what they wanted and did most of the work themselves. I was impressed with how well they cleaned them out and carved them!