Missouri Loves Company

Thanks to those of you who have inquired about how we are doing, and what we are up to this fall. Miss Lea continues getting better. I think she is progressing so well because we have gone to visit her family in Missouri a couple of times this summer, and she gets to be around all her cousins, nieces and nephews, and, particularly, her sister, whom she loves dearly. She loves being with the family, and it gets her out of her normal routine of medicate, sleep, eat and do strength training, sleep. We are going to go back to Missouri, again, for a two week visit with her sister in mid-October to do a little genealogy research together on Lea’s family. It is fun, now that her sister, Kathy, has taken an interest, and we enjoy being with her and husband, Danny.
 
Lea is actually beginning to put on a little weight now, and she looks much more like herself. The skin covering the scar tissue over her wound is actually starting to build up a little fat, but is still quite elastic. Dr Mah had mentioned in a recent note that he would have expected that build up of some fat on the skin graft to happen by now. (Boy, has he been right-on all along! Thank God for working through him!)
 
She has many scars all over her, as you know, that show no matter what she wears, and she is self-conscious about them, I’m sure. The most evident, and hardest to cover up, is the tracheotomy scar below her Adams apple. But, those, too, pale in comparison to where we were this time last year! Attached is a photo taken of her today, after church, which shows how lovely she is becoming. The little bruise on the left side of her chin is from dental work she had done last week . . . prep for a crown on a tooth broken three weeks ago while eating popcorn (dentist’s best friend).
 
I thank God every day for the blessing of being with her, and try to make her every day special and uplifting. She won’t remember a lot of what we do right now, because she is still on an anti-depressant. So, I try to push her only as far as she seems able to handle. I also continue working periodically on the journal of our days in Hartford, so the story of those miracles can be shared with others. It is tough having to live that all over again, but putting it together for publication is likely the only way the story will get told. Any way, I feel led to get it ready for publication, and hope to complete it this fall. Thanks for keeping in touch. God bless.