Hello to all of you! We hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving Day yesterday. We need to update you a bit on happenings in our family and changes in our last Orphan Sunday presentation this Sunday, and also ask if you would pray for our family.

This past Wednesday, as our older girls and I were all working like crazy in the kitchen to begin our Thanksgiving food prep, Erin went to the basement to look for something for me and fell. She was very disoriented after the fall and we still aren’t clear about exactly what happened, but the fall was bad enough that she broke both the tibia and the fibula in her right leg — just above the ankle. We spent much of that day in the ER where they determined that surgery will be necessary to re-set the bones. They wrapped her tightly in a splint and sent us home to wait for the swelling to subside.

Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday at Children’s Hospital. Although Erin is thirty-one, she is actually like a much younger child in many ways because of her developmental disabilities, so we are very thankful that they continue to treat her at Children’s Hospital.  We don’t, yet, know what time the surgery will be because she is scheduled as an “add-on.” We have been told that we need to be ready to leave the house by 6:00 a.m. but that it might be afternoon before we actually get the call to head down to Children’s. (Feeling a little grumpy about this piece.)

While we are more thankful than we can say that her injury wasn’t any worse than it is, and that her pain, while bad, has been manageable, we are all struggling in a number of ways with this new challenge. Erin is a very key member to our team — especially when it comes to keeping our laundry done — and not only is she completely incapacitated, but she also requires total care at the moment. This has greatly impacted our daily routine.

Also, we have had an incredibly long and intense period of appointments and surgeries, and we were finally nearing a break in this grueling onslaught — starting next week. The fact that we are now looking at another unexpected surgery, a long recovery, and many more appointments has hit us pretty hard. We are tired, and while we love our life so much, we felt like we were very much in need of a little rest period during the holidays. We trust God even with these things, though, and believe firmly that nothing comes to us without passing through His hands.

“The moment tried and sifted faith disentangles itself of ‘second causes’, and rests in God, that moment the bitter and unlovely bulb bursts into the sweet and beauteous flower, laden with the dew and bathed in the sunshine of heaven!”
~ Octavius Winslow

So please pray for our energy, our attitudes, good spirits of cooperation from the kids as we all help Erin to get through this very tough time. She serves our family with an incredible servant’s heart day in and day out, and in some ways we are thankful for this opportunity to shower her with care and a little bit of pampering, but it is/will be very hard. We pray that God will give us all the strength to do this faithfully and lovingly without complaining.

Because of this unexpected turn of events, we’ve had to modify our last presentation this Sunday. Meghan will go to Living Hope and share her story, but the kids will not be there to sing, and Scott won’t even be there to do his little part. Greg Godwin, our son-in-law and Administrative Assistant for The Shepherd’s Crook, will be there to share a few words in our place this week. Thank you to all who came out the past two Sundays to be a part of Adoption Month with us. We hope to have a link to a video of Meghan’s talk soon. We’ll keep you posted about that.

Lastly, Scott had a birthday on Tuesday. I know that most of you already know what a great guy he is, but if you’re interested in hearing my perspective on life with him, I wrote a tribute to him on my blog  — “What Kind of Man Would Do Something Like This?”

We’ll post again in a few days and keep you posted on Erin’s surgery and recovery. Thank you so much for praying for her and for the rest of us.