So close...

Well my friends, it's Tuesday.  Shelton comes home on Thursday.  Are we ready?  Absolutely, in terms of knowing that home is exactly where he wants to be.  In terms of knowing exactly what we will need and how easy or hard it will be when he comes?  Heck no!  How could we be?  As Burns and I learn more about just how much things have changed, we are also learning what is the most "correct" way to talk about things.  Should we say paraplegic? Mobility challenged?  Handicapped?  Only Shelton will know what most appropriate way that he feels we can talk about these things are and only time will tell which terms seem most fitting and which become more offensive to him.  In reality, the term we use shouldn't matter but somehow it does.  However, I digress.  In preparing for our now paraplegic adult son to come home, there is absolutely no way we could be fully prepared for what this will entail.  We have a checklist and know the basics of what we need to do, and more than anything we've covered it in prayer but other than that...we're learning as we go.  We've gotten the assistive things he will need to have here at the house to do the basic things he will need to do like, you know, shower and stuff.  The chair lift to help him get upstairs hasn't been approved by insurance.  *sigh* So on that, we just wait.  Apparently, this is normal.  Some days I want to scream at the top of my lungs..."YOU TAKE $1000 A MONTH OUT OF MY SMALL TEACHER PAYCHECK AND THIS IS ALL THE HELP WE GET????" And other days, I can be more patient.  The patient days are fewer and farther between lately.  Pray for understanding as I wade through the insanity that is insurance.  I should stop and say, I am blessed and thankful for the fact that I have a job and my family has access to insurance.  I know many who are not so fortunate.  On the days I want to scream out my frustrations from the rooftops, the sweet Spirit within me reminds me of this blessing and calms my heart.  In good news though, our anxiety about what might happen now that Shelton is 18 and is not a full time student in regards to his eligibility to stay on my insurance have been relieved.  After much investigation we have learned that we have quite a bit more time in which he can be carried by me before an alternative must be found.  This is definitely good.  Over the next 48 hours, we will clean, put the finishing touches on the ramps needed around here, get his laundry done and install the temporary modifications needed for his bathroom.  I will also be doing two days worth of sub plans and making multiple phone calls.  It will be busy, but it a joyful busy.

Burns went to CareNow late last night, to make sure that what he has been fighting off lately isn't contagious.  They gave him a steroid shot, and plenty of antibiotics and this shouldn't delay anything in being able to bring Shelton home, but it does mean that he is missing more work, and he has already been out a lot.  We are blessed that he has such an understanding boss, but hate it that he is missing so much.  Prayers are going up that after he shakes this that we can all stay healthy for a while.

Continue to pray my friends.  Pray that we would all be sustained emotionally and physically in the first days and weeks of Shelton's homecoming.  Pray that his frustrations would be at a minimum as he experiences sustained life in a world outside of the hospital that does not cater to him.  Pray that we would know how to help, supporting in the ways we should without doing so much that we hinder his progress.  Knowing that fine line is going to be tricky, to be sure.  We continually pray for each of you.  That your prayers offered up for us would bless you as you hear how the Lord has and is continuing to answer them.  As always, know that from our family to yours, we are eternally thankful for you.

{Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.  And be thankful.  Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.}  Colossians 3:15-17