We got up and got everyone ready and went to see Selah this morning before we left. The kids all have a little bit of a cough or runny nose so they stayed outside just to be safe. It is so hard for me to leave her to come home overnight. She was calm and her tone was great today and I just wanted to grab her up and bring her home with us!
We've been driving some country roads most of the time to come home and avoiding the interstate. It's less miles but you can't go as fast which drives me crazy! I'm a Type A+ personality while Jon is a type B all the way! Opposites Attract in our case:) So we stop at the same Golden Corral in some little town, I think it is Eustius Fl and I swear I don't know how people eat while staring at our family! I can get very sarcastic and there are days when it is all I can do, to not make a public service announcement along the lines of...."I will throw mashed potatoes at you if you look at us for more than 3 seconds!!!!" Ok rant over.... I try to tell you all I'm not real spiritual....LOL I just think "what would Madea do???" If you don't watch Tyler Perry's Madea movies you are mising out.... they are just so real and funny to me, I guess I can relate to them!
We drive by Merle Haggard Juniors house every time we go that way. We only know it is his house because he has signs up saying that....BTW, He is not the singer it is his dad that is/was. For some reason that cracks me up too... I just don't get it....
It's bittersweet to be home. Unless you've lived away from home for months on end, there is nothing more relaxing than being at home! With all your junk! I immediately put on my stretchiest old sweat pants and junky tshirt! It just feels so good not to have anyone around. But on the other hand, we can not stand being away from Selah. It's one thing to be at the hotel a few miles down the road...but to be 4 hours away is hard.
Some have asked why don't we just bring Selah home...at this point, she is eligible and needs 24.7 care. We can not even get an agency to give us a few hours a day. That is why we are waiting for it all to be in place. If we chose to leave right now we would have NO nursing care whatsoever and we just can not do that! We are really hoping for some answers this week, by Tuesday. If not, we will have to push for answers. We can not continue living like this and my husband needs to get back to work. It's complicated for us. Jon is preaching each Sunday at the chapel and at our church. He is glad to be back at least that much but he needs to get back to work full time!
God has been so good to us through so many different people....we are just awed by the kindnesses shown to our family! As you know Mandarin United Methodist has paid for/contributed points so our hotel bill has been covered!! On top of that they send us meals almost every night:)
As well as they have sent us gift cards and gifts....they are an amazing bunch of happy folks! If you live in the Jacksonville area, and don't have a church home, they are a good group of folks who are ready to welcome you!
We got home today to a friend who sent us videos and games! And another friend wo sent us prayer shawls, I'd never seen one before, thank you they are beautiful! We also received a check from the Correctional Foundation a great group that my husband has been a part of for years! That was a blessing!!!!! And I want to thank a friend from NC who sent me a gift to go and get a massage a few weeks ago. I went and felt pain free for a couple of days and plan on going back:) We've been blessed by so many different people over these past 5 months.....we can only say "thank you" and promise to "pay it forward" as we reach out to others!!! It's been over 24 weeks since we left home and 23 weeks since the accident.....thank you for everything during this time!!
Thank you for your continual prayers for Selah and for our family. Please pray specifically that she will continue to hold her head up more and that she will get stronger. Pray that the Ritalin will work and the fish oil will continue doing its job! Pray that the right nurses will be put in place and that we can get word this week of when we are coming home for good!!! I ache to be home with all my family together but I also know that we have many respondsibilites and live outside of town, we do not ever want to put Selah at any risk by doing something dangerous just to be home. I learned my lesson. I really pushed for Sam to come home as soon as was possible when he was a newborn and that was a BIG mistake! I just thank God he lived with all the issues he had and with NOTHING in place to help me! So having learned that lesson, I am more cautious. I also know if I just say "forget it" and come home, Selah will NEVER get the things she needs...how do I know that? From Sam....after he was already home, our pediatrician tried his best to get us some nursing care and never was able to get even one hour a week and Sam was on three machines!!!! So we pray and wait... Up until the last few weeks I have really been content where ever we were at and never tried to rush anything but it's been so long and now we are so close to home....it just makes us want to be home. It would be one thing if she was just progressing and getting hours of therapy...but that is not how it is at all.
