It's Good to Be Home

We're definitely learning a new way of life around here. Since Josh is supposed to keep his foot elevated for two weeks, and he's on "no-weight-bearing" status for 6-8 weeks, our daily routine is looking drastically different than it did at this time last week.

The first difference you notice when you walk into our house is the enormous amount of geriatric orthopaedic equipment we have now.
And that doesn't even count the all of the bathroom gear!!

Another change you might see is our new eating arrangement. We're big on sitting at the table and enjoying our meals together as a family. But since Josh is limited on being able to come downstairs, we moved our Valentine's dinner up to him. :-)

This is definitely proving to be a challenging situation, but we're making the most of it. Josh still manages some cuddle-time with the kiddos...

...and Jack knows how to add excitement to almost any situation!


Doctor's Appointment (WARNING: yucky pictures attached)
Josh had his first post-op appointment today, and he got a great report. The doctor said his leg looks super for four days after surgery, and he was really happy with today's x-rays. The plate and screws are all in just the right places (too bad they're the only things holding his bones in the right places!)

Part of me wishes that I had taken a picture of Josh's foot and leg before the surgery because it's impossible to know how horrendous it looked if you didn't see it for yourself. I'm guessing, though, that you're probably reading this and thinking how thankful you are that I didn't take that picture. Well, if you're not the "intrigued-with-medical-issues" type, then go ahead and quit reading now. Because here's what his ankle looked like when they removed the dressing today:


We're guessing the shorter incision is about four inches long, and the longer one is maybe 6 or 7 inches. There are also four other smaller incisions around various parts of his ankle. These pictures don't quite do it justice...Josh was really interested to see how it all looked, but they had to take him back to x-ray in the wheelchair because the sight of his ankle just about did him in!

As we've been talking about how everything played out last week, we're realizing that God really protected us and provided for us in so many ways. One of the biggest blessings is that our children slept through the whole ordeal at our house that morning. There was screaming, crying, alarms being set off (OOPS...forgot to turn it off before the paramedics arrived), three firetrucks and ambulances coming down the street with full lights and sirens, six paramedics working at the bottom of the stairs just below the kids' bedrooms, neighbors coming in and out, and many other things going on that didn't exactly lend to a peaceful start to the day.

But they never made a peep.

And that's even more of an exceptional blessing when you know how completely terrified Abby is in this type of scenario. I'm normally pretty level-headed in emergencies, but I have no problem admitting that I was a full-blown basketcase that morning. And I can only imagine how the kids would have reacted if they had seen what was happening.

This is only one example of things we've noticed looking back on that day, and we know there will be countless others just like it in the weeks to come.

Please continue to pray for Josh's recovery. He has to see the surgeon every two weeks until further notice, and we are asking God for continued quick improvement. Please pray for me as I'm stepping into a new set of roles in our home. I need strength and patience throughout these next few months. And there are some others factors that play into this for me...please just pray for my peace. This has proven to be much more of a traumatic experience than I would have ever thought it could be.

And to those of you who have ministered to our family through calls of encouragement, meals, visits to lend a hand with the little ones, babysitting, and other acts of service, we have been so touched by your love. I don't know what to say to people that really have helped you keep going with "life as normal", so I'll just tell you that we love you, we appreciate you, and we thank God for you. Seriously.