Searching

In searching for peace in the middle of a crisis, it can always be found but usually not before the Lord wants to show me something He's probably been pointing me to for many months that is most of the time pretty hard to swallow.  In my searching over the past week, what I have found is that I need to just shut up and listen.  Not just to Him, as that is something I've always known that I need to do but also to those around me.  I don't just have a story to tell that God will bless others with...I have a story that has impacted those around me in marvelous ways and through that impact there are things for me to learn as well.  If you know me, you know that shutting up is pretty hard to do.  I'm learning.  I'm in the early stages of learning.  But I'm being purposeful and I'm letting the Spirit hold my tongue when it needs to be held instead of barreling through into rocky territory as I'm notorious for doing.  I'm also praying for the patience to listen.  It isn't easy, but it does bring peace.  And that brings me back to what started this whole post in the first place.

As far as the Thackers are doing, we're making it.  Daily routine living is getting much easier.  Shelton hasn't been having too many complications physically and is able to do far more than his therapists had expected for him to be doing at this point in the game.  He is still in some pain, mostly nerve pain similar to the pain of shingles, which I know from personal experience can be a bear.  This will not last forever.  In fact, we could be nearing the end of the road as it is expected to only last anywhere from 3-6 months.  His back does begin to ache by the end of the day.  Other than the obvious fact that we hate it that he is in pain, it brings us to a dilemma on how to help him manage the pain.  We do have some hydrocodine that was prescribed to him, although I also know from personal experience that it does very little to relieve nerve pain.  How much do we give?  How do we keep it from being an addiction risk?  How do we ask him to not take the pain medication when we have no idea exactly what he is feeling physically, yet knowing that it might be the best thing for him?  These are all things we are praying through.  Please pray with us, will you?  We are also praying for his days.  It is hard for him to stay busy and we are praying that working on getting his GED to be able to successfully put high school behind him to move onto something bigger and better becomes something that he is self motivated to pursue.  We know that there are many dangers in idle hands and empty time.  We continue to pray about the best way to handle this.  We are also becoming weary of every solution creating new problems.  For example, the chair lift should be installed early next week.  This is critical as the only bathroom that really suits him is upstairs and it is too hard on his body for him to get himself up and down the stairs each day.  It isn't that it is too hard for him, as I feel I should clarify.  He can do it, but the repeated actions of him lifting himself up each stair is putting bad strains on his shoulders that he needs to have in good shape for a very long time to come. So, as I said...the stair lift coming is a good thing and we wait for it with much anticipation.  However, it is not a wheelchair lift.  It is simply a seat lift.  He will transfer from his chair to the lift and then will need a separate chair upstairs to transfer into when he gets there.  At this point we don't have one that is suitable for him to use upstairs.  Also, because of the way that our house is laid out, leaving a chair available to him at the top/bottom of the stairs creates a serious traffic-flow problem.  Sigh.  One problem creates a new opportunity for us to show our mad problem solving skills.  This seems to be the story of our lives these days.  It is a good thing that we are some pretty creative people.  None of these things are deal breakers, none of them are necessarily bad but we grow weary in knowing that nothing we encounter these days is just a simple fix.  Pray for stamina as we continue to break through walls and overcome things that some might say would seem impossible.  We know that we are more than conquerors in Christ, even over the little things and we must claim this daily.

Our poor, sick little birthday boy.

Other than the the biggest things we have a few other little things going on.  Today is Cooper's sixth birthday.  I cannot believe we've already had so many years with that little man.  It's crazy to think about.  Our celebration plans were big for tonight, but we had to put them on hold because as it turns out, Cooper has strep.  Poor little guy is pretty pathetic.  Hopefully those antibiotics kick in and he is all better before we know it.  As always, thanks for following along and for loving us enough to pray. I hope this blog finds you all to be doing well.  God bless...

{...In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.}  Romans 8:37-39