It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends. Here are five highlights:

1. Timothy is home! My little grandson finally got to come home from the NICU yesterday! That will probably be one of the fave fives for the year! 🙂 I was able to go over last night and hold him for a little while – so sweet.

2. Take-out two nights. I asked my husband if he’d bring something home for dinner Friday night, and then he offered to get something on Saturday night, too. It was nice to have a couple of nights “off.”

3. Not having a spider bite. 🙂 I’ve had a red spot with blisters on one leg for the last couple of days and probably would have just waited to see if it went away, but with it being Friday I was antsy about letting it go over the weekend. I was thinking it was some kind of bug bite, but the doctor said it looked like contact dermatitis, possibly poison ivy. It’s on part of my leg that doesn’t have full sensation due to transverse myelitis, so it doesn’t itch or hurt. 🙂 But he did prescribe a cream for it. I was glad they were able to see me today.

4. Antibiotics. My husband had been feeling pretty terrible with a sinus infection, but the antibiotics have started kicking in and he s been feeling a little better.

5. Our doctor’s office for getting me in today and for seeing my husband after hours one night this week.

Hope you have a great weekend!

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

This has been a difficult week, primarily processing the totally unexpected news that our pastor has cancer and a prognosis of 6-12 months to live.

We were also hoping that my grandson, Timothy, might be able to come home from the NICU after going almost a full week with no bradycardia episodes – but then he has had a few more this week, so that means a longer waiting time: they want him to go 5-7 days without one before they release him. One doctor had said he should outgrow them around 37 weeks (gestational age), but that came and went. Otherwise he’s doing great, so it’s just a matter of waiting for his system to mature enough. He’s been in the hospital over 9 weeks so far.

With grief on the one hand and disappointment in a couple of areas on the other, it has been a teary, weary week. Yet it is a good exercise to look for blessings large and small whether the week has seemed good, bad, or mediocre.

1. An outpouring of love and support. After our pastor’s news was made public, his Facebook page plus our church’s was flooded with promises of prayer and expressions of love. Plus it has been a blessing to see the different verses, hymns, or thoughts different church members have shared trough the week that have been a help to them.

2. My pastor’s message where he announced the news of his cancer. It might sound strange to list that as a favorite of the week. The news was not a favorite, no, but the message was one of the best I’ve ever heard and just what we needed. If you can make the time, I’d encourage you to listen to it. It’s real and raw emotionally and hard in some ways, but it was a model in how to deal with devastating news spiritually.

3. A thoughtful gift. One of my blog friends sent a little gift for Timothy this week. I neglected to ask her if she minded if I mentioned her or showed a picture, so I’ll refrain for now, but her thoughtfulness was a bright spot in the week.

4. Hydrangeas. I planted a small hydrangea bush two years ago and I think this is the first time I have seen blooms on it except maybe a few small ones. I didn’t get a picture because they’re on the back of the plant facing the wall – but hopefully this is a sign there are more to come!

5. Surgery avoided. One of my sisters in TX had to go to the hospital yesterday with extreme pain due to what they think is a bulging disk in her back. They thought she might need surgery but decided to try IV steroids first.

Favorites this and every week are the bedrock truths that no matter what happens, God is real, He loves us, His promises are true, His will is good.

I hope however your week has gone that you’ll be able to trace God’s hand of blessing in it.

(P.S. I can’t believe I forgot to mention Father’s Day completely until I saw it on another FFF list! It seems like much longer ago than this week! But we always enjoy getting to shower my husband with a few tokens of our love and to have the whole family together [one via FaceTime] for a visit.)

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends. Here are a few of mine:

1. No “events” since Sunday – meaning baby Timothy hasn’t had any bradycardia episodes since then. The heart rate drops are the main thing that’s keeping him from coming home, and it is just a matter of his system maturing enough for them to stop, so hopefully he’ll be stable enough to come home soon.

2. An infant CPR class. I’ve never had a CPR class of any kind, but the NICU was offering this for free, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to take it. I hope I never have to actually use it, but hearing the instruction and actually practicing makes me feel a lot better than trying to figure it out from a book.

3. Rain. We finally got some good, soaking rain this week instead of the occasional short shower.

4. Good parking spaces. This may sound silly, but sometimes I pray that I’ll find a good parking space when I go up to see Timothy. I don’t mind walking when I have the time, but sometimes my available time to visit is short before I have to get back for Great-Grandma’s caregiver to leave, and I don’t want to be circling 5 levels of the parking garage or walking half a mile (seemingly) when my visiting time is limited. There is a small parking lot near the entrance I go in, but it is pretty busy in the daytime. It is neat to see God answer that prayer on those days with a space in that lot.

5. Back to normal. Both the weekend and weekday caregivers for Great-Grandma were on vacation last week, and we had a good substitute, but it is a relief to have the regulars back.

I almost skipped the FFF this week, partly because of busyness but partly because I could only come up with one item at first. It hasn’t been a bad week, but nothing really stood out initially. I’m glad God brought these things to mind.

 It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

Since this is where I’ve been sharing updates about my little grandson, Timothy, I’ll go ahead and share this here. He had a bit of a setback this week with a higher number of heart-rate drops (bradycardia) and apnea than before, and some pretty deep ones (requiring more than just jostling him to bring it back up to normal), so they put the oxygen cannula back on. He had a couple of tests earlier in the week and those may have tired him out too much. I’m not sure how much longer he’ll have to have the oxygen. The doctors have said that usually by 36 or 37 weeks from conception the heart rate drops will start to fade out as his system matures, and we just passed the 36 week mark. Then he’ll have to go for 5-7 days without one (we’ve heard different numbers from different doctors) before he can go home. The first neonatal doctor we talked to told us this would be a journey of ups and downs rather than steady upward progress, but the downs are still discouraging. But — hopefully he’ll be ready to come home soon. Every day is one step closer. 🙂

1. Stability. After everything else this week, Timothy is holding steady now, and we hope he can come off the oxygen soon.

2. This:

I got to hold him for the first time. 🙂 I thought I couldn’t until he got out of the NICU, but when they offered, I said yes!

3. Paying it forward. When I stopped to get my weekly pass for the hospital parking lot, the attendant told me someone had “paid forward” a weekly pass for the next person who needed one. That’s the first time anything like that has ever happened to me, and it was a blessing.

4. Pitching in. Last weekend Jason and Mittu were expecting company and needed a few little things done around the house before they came. Their guest bed had broken when they moved plus they’d ordered the crib but hadn’t had a chance to put it together, plus with recovering from childbirth and then spending time at the hospital, they were understandably behind on some things. Jim, Jesse, and I went over last Saturday morning so they could help put things together and I could help with whatever else needed to be done. I had originally thought I wouldn’t be able to go because Grandma’s (I guess I should say Great-Grandma now!) caregiver was going out of town, but that turned out to be the next weekend. It was fun to be able to help in a concrete way and to do it all together. Plus they ordered pizza when we were done. 🙂

5. A four day weekend. Monday was Memorial Day and Jim took Friday off, too.

Hope you have a great weekend!

 It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

After all the busy-ness of the last couple of weeks, this one has been refreshingly relaxing, at least since Sunday. Here are five favorite parts of it.

1. Jesse’s graduation party. We enjoyed visiting with a few friends and then munching on leftover goodies for the next few days. 🙂 Plus after the flurry of housecleaning in preparation for it, it was nice not to have to think about all of that for a few days.

2. Chinese take-out. After the party my son and daughter-in-law offered to pick up Chinese take out for dinner. It was lovely to just crash and relax afterwards.

3. Timothy (baby grandson in the NICU) is at 5 lbs. now! They’ve said going home is “on the horizon.” I think they’re primarily just waiting for his heart-rate drops to stabilize: he’ll have to go 5 days without one before he will be able to go home.

4. Catching up on sleep. Much needed, much appreciated.

5. Catching up on my Feedly account of the blogs I try to keep up with – though I am behind again now. 🙂 But I should be able to catch up again over the weekend.

Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend!

 It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

Wow, it’s been another whirlwind week. Hopefully next week will be a “normal” one. But overall it has been a good week, and here are five favorite parts of it:

1. More progress for Timothy. I decided to go ahead and share my grandson’s name, since his dad has on his blog (he has some helpful posts there about dealing with life in the NICU). He turned one month old this week! The first part of the week was rough, with more heart-rate drops than I think he’d had in a day to date, but as of yesterday he was having only 1 or 2 a day and he is in a crib now instead of an incubator.

2. Jesse’s graduation from Community College with an Associate’s degree.

Plus, we’ve been planning a graduation party for him this coming weekend, so we didn’t have any kind of celebration planned for graduation night, but Jason and Mittu brought over a cake and balloon and made some goodies. It was just the right touch to celebrate on his actual graduation night.

3. Mother’s Day. My family always makes it a special day, especially my husband. Grilled steaks, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and some sweet and thoughtful gifts, as well as having the family all together (my son in RI was there via Face Time), made for a great day.

4. Projects done. For some time now I’ve been wanting to make a DVD for Jim’s mom of a slide show of photos set to music, something I’d never done before (either the slide show to music or the DVD), and I decided to try to do it for Mother’s Day. I thought seeing the photos bigger on the TV screen would be helpful to her. Somehow (thank God for His help and direction!) I was able to figure out the film part, and Jim was able to burn it to a DVD. Then I had wanted to make a scrapbook of Jesse’s school portraits and class photos for his high school graduation two years ago, but wasn’t able to, so I decided to try to do that for a graduation party we’re having for him tomorrow. Got it mostly done last night (now just to clean house and make food for it!).

5. Found gift cards. Jim had given me a couple of gift cards for Michael’s at Christmas, but I haven’t been able to find them. I just came across them this week.

I apologize for not being around much this week, either here or on your blogs. Between regular life, caring for Jim’s mom, hospital visits to see Timothy, graduation, Mother’s Day, and these projects, as well as preparing for Jesse’s party tomorrow, my time at the computer has only come in small bits lately. But after tomorrow there are no extra events on the calendar for a while, and no new projects to do (at least that I know of right now), so hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with you then.

Happy Friday!

 It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends. Here are five favorite parts of the last week:

1. Stability. My little grandson in the NICU was having a lot of trouble earlier this week with apnea and bradycardia (episodes of breathing rate and heart rate slowing down). They put him on a CPAP machine, and the episodes are infrequent now. They have no way to predict how long he’ll be on it: they say some preemie babies have these episodes almost until their original due date, while others don’t. Otherwise he is doing well.

2. A finished internship. My youngest had to complete an internship for his associate’s degree this semester. He had to get a certain number of hours in, and I was concerned because he did not find an internship until a few weeks into the semester. But he got it finished and turned in all the paperwork yesterday. That is such a relief!

3. Lesser storms than predicted. Much of the country has experienced severe weather this week. We had thunderstorms one night with predictions of hail and a tornado warning, but thankfully none materialized in our area. My heart goes out to many who lost loved ones or property.

4. Ibuprofen and Icy Hot patches. I did something to my lower back earlier this week – I am not sure what. But those two products made it bearable and enabled me to function. It’s almost completely back to normal now.

5. Good food. Two favorites: Jim made teriyaki chicken on Sunday, and yesterday I made one of my favorite things for lunch, a grilled cheese sandwich with leftover meat loaf. Yum!

Hope you’ve had a great week as well!