Lifting Up Dad From Our Knees.....: 2008

Friday, June 20, 2008

On the move!

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update. Jim and I are doing pretty good. Each day brings change and challenges but we have much to be thankful for.

We are on the move, again. Last October we left our house of 9 years and moved into a small ranch with no idea if this would be our permanent home or just a stepping stone. Much prayer and thought has been involved, as well as counsel and it has been decided to move to a new home back in the same area we moved from. The packing has commenced. I do believe I should have this moving thing down pat. This will be our 20th move in our 37 years of marriage. Maybe I should write a book on how to move under stress, listing 10 different reasons and how to survive each one and clean out your house at the same time.(He-he) We have to use the material we are given, right?

Jim is more himself each day and has retrieved many of the talents he possessed before the accident. God is good. Other areas have been hard for him but we try to remember that each day is a gift.

I think of you all, often and remember your kindness and prayers.

Sue

Friday, April 18, 2008

Spring has finally come! With it comes hope, renewal and rememberence.

Hope. Hope for tomorrow and more time to be with loved ones, more time to tell others of our savior, more time to live a life of compassion, more time to make a difference.

Renewal. My heart. New beginnings, personal growth, recommittment to Him, to family & friends, my eargerness to share a smile.

Rememberence. To last year at this time and all God provided. To the many family and friends who gave me hope and renewal when I was stuggling to stand. Rememberence for all I have, more than I will ever need. Rememberence for what is important...and what is not.

Spring is such a gift from God. Can't you just breath it in?

We are doing good. A few new challenges have arrived but...compared to last year, well, no comparison. But, still challenges. If led, please keep Jim in your prayers.

Thank you all. Happy Spring!

Sue

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Hello Everyone!

I have spent the better part of this evening reading post and responses from last year at this time. Memories came flooding back. Wow! I am once again blown away by all our Great God has done for us and thru all of you. I am, again, humbled by the prayers, love and great deads done on behalf of Jim and my family.

I miss communicating with all of you and hearing God's love poured out thru your scripture reminders, words of encouragement and songs of healing. It sounds so selfish to miss what we were given in such abundance.

I was thinking about the celebration of love that this month represents. That word is bantered around easily and for many trite reasons. Yet, God tells us it is the most powerful gifts of all. It can break the hardest resolve, bring a criminal to his knees, heal a broken heart, encourage the faithful and faithless, bring about a miracle.

We, the Maley family, has been part of and witnessed the miracle of love. A year ago today, Jim could not even open his eyes with little prospect of that happening. Tonight, we sat on the couch, shared coffee and ice cream and watched a movie together. This morning we ran to Loew's to pick out a light, stopped to visit Andy and his family. Each night I have the privalege of a hug a kiss good night.

Life is different and to be honest, hard at times. But I need only to return to this blog and reread all the Lord, family and friends have given us to refresh myself and gain strength to face whatever is ahead.

Happy Valentines month to all of you and May Our Great and awesome God continue to bless and keep you.

Sue

PS. I've asked Jason and Andy to post some recent pictures and updates, so keep watching. Thanks to all of you who tell me you still check this. You are such faithful prayer warriors.

The story as we know it...

On Friday morning (Jan. 19th) around 10:50am, i recieved a call from my brother Joe telling me that he needed me at the house. I asked him what for and he told me that dad had hurt himself somehow...he had a black eye, his nose was bleeding and was "a little beat up". I immediatly got into my car and started heading that way. I called Joe back and asked him for more details and he told me that he was having a hard time getting dad up. I told him to call the EMS and he said that he thought Jason had already done that and he was on his way. When i pulled up, i saw the EMS was already there. I walked in and i saw Jason, Anna, Joe and several EMS people along with dad sitting on a gurney. They imediately took dad out in the EMS...not knowing what was wrong...just that something really wasnt right. We followed the EMS to parkview ER and had to go wait. Mom met us there as she flew across town to get there. We had to wait a long time (it seemed like days!) before we were told what was going on. The chaplain kept coming out to "brief"us...but thats all it was, a "brief". Finally, the ER doctor called the family together and told us the news...dad has a broken neck and he is bleeding in and on his brain on both sides....this is very serious. "Its a bad deal" the ER doc kept on saying, but we had to wait until the surgeon would come in and take a look at the CT scan before we could find out for certian what was wrong. Dr. Young finally came in and said that he had looked at dad and his scan. Dr. Young was very "matter of fact" with us which was good. We needed that! He told us very similar things to what the ER doctor told us. He said that dad had broke his neck, C2 to be exact. He also said that he was bleeding in several areas in his brain. He needed brain surgury immediatly. On a scale of one to ten...with ten being the worst...dad was a "plus 10". Dad went into surgury and was there for 3.5 hours or so...he came out of surgury fine but we found out the damage was worse than they had thought. They had to remove some of the damaged area and he would be on life support. We were told that the next 3-10 days are life and death...or very critical. What we think what happend is something as follows: Dad was sleeping down in the basement which is a normal thing. Between 8:30am and 10:30am, he tried going upstairs. This info is a little sketchy because we werent there, but based on some of the info that we have seen, we think that he tripped on the stair going up and fell...hitting his right eye on the stereo and then hitting face first on the ground. This created the damage that we are aware of. We spoke with the cardiologist today and found out that dad has also had a heart attack with in the last eight days, but they have not figured out exactly when. There is a thought that this might have caused the fall be we are uncertain. Dad is in stable but "second to second" condition. If and when dad comes out of the "coma" state, there will likely be many months of therapy that needs to be done, plus until the brain issues are resolved, they can not even think about looking at his broken neck. To sum it all up...dad is in very bad condition. We thank you all for all of your prayers and support and all of the food and gifts. Your love for my dad and our family is amazing and we are extremely grateful. We will continue to update you as we know more. Please continue to pray!! Pray for dad (jim) for healing. Pray for mom (sue) that she can continue to be strong. We do know that we most likely havent seen the worst yet. This is when we need your prayers the most. Please feel free to enter your thoughts on this blogspot as we will update you as we know more. We are very thankful for the love you all have shown.

Lifting Up Dad From Our Knees.....