Thankfulness, a new tool for Mama, Honduras

Mama read a thought to me the other day. “What if you woke up this morning to only what you had thanked the Lord for yesterday?” That was a sobering thought for me. I have not been very thankful of late; too burdened by work, projects, trying to encourage Mama in her painfully slow recovery, ever increasing medical costs, business startup issues, etc. I have been very conscious of my portion in the struggle but not so conscious of my portion in the grace, the mercy and provision constantly showered upon me and Mama. We really are blessed. Just because we struggle in some areas of our health and finances does not mean we are lacking in God’s blessings. I have spent a lot of time crying out for help (which is a good thing because I need that help) but not so much time singing His praises (which is a better thing because He deserves my praise). We tend to go through life expecting to God to smile down on us while we do very little to cause Him to smile because of us. I would like to bring a smile to God’s face today. Maybe when you read this it would be a good time to do a spot check of your attitude of gratitude. Mine needed a little fine tuning…and I am not that unique.

Mama came home from the physical therapist yesterday with a brace specifically designed to bend her knee. It will not be cheap to rent the device but if it works it will be worth it. The brace attaches to the leg above and below the knee. It has a mechanical joint that can be increasingly torqued to bend the knee joint. Mama puts on the brace, tightens the mechanical joint and sits or lays down while the tension holds her knee in ever increasingly bent positions. The principle behind the brace is sound. Gradual, constant tension will stretch the tendons and muscles to increase the range of motion – hopefully without much pain in the process. Doing so under constant force should be far less painful than bending the knee in more sudden bursts – as was being done. The caveat is that to tighten the lower portion of the brace, Mama requires help. The tool designed for that purpose is not easily used by the person wearing the brace. For now, Mama is wearing the brace for an hour or two at a time so, I can help her every evening. The goal is that by the end of a week, she will be sleeping through the night in the brace with enough tension to get everything stretched out and functional. By my calculations, we have six weeks before we leave for Honduras. For Mama, everything revolves around that trip.

That date comes up in conversation every time Mama and/or Victoria talk to Cori and the kids. It did last night as Mama and Victoria talked with Cori and Savanna. Savanna is just now recovering from over a week of sickness. Probably a type of flu. Even last night she did not look very good, but her fever has broken, and she appears to be on the mend. We are tankful for that. No one else got the severity of symptoms that Savanna did but they all had something similar. Now, praise the Lord, they all seem to be past it and Cori may finally get a good night’s sleep. Speaking of the trip to Honduras, I am not sure how many suitcases it will take to get all the items we are accumulating into the country. I am seeing at least two suitcases right now – if we pack really carefully – perhaps three if we actually try to meet the weight restrictions. I suggested to Mama last week that we start to arrange the items to gauge just what is needed but that has not happened yet. All in good time. There are three of us traveling so we have the option of each taking one checked bag already. If extra bags are required, it will not be prohibitive in cost for each of us to have a second checked bag. I am not sure we have that many suitcases available, but we probably do. Right now, the issue is too far out to fret over.

We are all excited just to have the opportunity to take the trip – regardless of the minor additional costs.