|
|
9/8/03 Covered in Prayer From:
Rob Payne <rob@everydayisprecious.com> Our eyes have been opened to hundreds of loving people on this part of our journey. Saturday, August 30, 2003 we received a beautifully warming mosaic and sampling of people behind the love. My Aunt Sara, after praying daily for Marcy, had the idea to make her a prayer quilt. She called her five children and my mother and asked each to contribute a square for the quilt. My mother knew that there are lots of people praying for Marcy daily and asked Marcy's mother (Karen) to help send quilt squares to other friends and neighbors. It was all a surprise to Marcy. Individually, each family put a little piece of their heart into a square of cloth. Collectively, they created a living, loving testament that will uplift our spirit daily. Each of these families prays for us daily and, through this quilt, sends us a message each day as well. The image below shows the entire quilt. Looking at the whole quilt from a distance, you can see a cross. Looking at each square individually, you can see the love. You can view the detail of all squares by going to the detail page. Or you can see the detail of a particular square by clicking on the square in the image below. Below the image is another gift from God.
Another "God thing" came in the putting together of the quilt. My mother's house was the destination address for all quilt squares. She was uneasy about putting them all together until a stranger named Denise overheard Mom's uneasiness in a fabric store outside Atlanta, Georgia. Denise called fellow church members from the Hiram United Methodist Church in Hiram, Georgia to an emergency quilting bee and lovingly assembled the finished peace. Hanging in our home, it is a daily reminder that we are all interconnected. Together we all make up the fabric of life, a tapestry of love for each other. Your
prayers are answered again. After
a couple of scheduled attempts that were canceled because Marcy
wasn't feeling up to it, we were finally able to get out Friday
8/29. It took until about 4 in the afternoon to get out, but we
packed up Marcy and Darcy and went shopping – Matthew spent
the night with a friend. You may remember form our van purchase story the woman who sold us the van brought Matt with her - the physical therapist that had worked with her husband. Matt read our last email and called asking if he could help – he has some contacts with wheelchair manufacturers. He
gathered up samples of cushions for Marcy to “test drive”
and, even though he lives 90 minutes away from us, brought them
to the house about 9:30 pm Sunday 8/24. Matt has a family, a very
busy job, and is active in his church. But he still made time to
be concerned and to help us – even when we are strangers to
him. If you don't believe in angels, you haven't met Matt. We
were anxious to try out the new cushions, so we planned to surprise
Darcy and meet her at the bus stop the next day when she got home
from school. I was still trying to get Marcy ready when Darcy got
home, but we were able to get her outside. Marcy
stayed in the wheelchair for two hours and then wanted to get back
in bed. The cushion was working well, but it was time to start settling
in for the night. It still wore Marcy out just to transfer
her from the bed to the chair. For the next few days Marcy didn't
want to try again because of how hard it is on her to transfer. When
Friday's mail came (8/30) there was another gift certificate from
our Bible Study class (see 8/22 column
for first one) – this one good at Target. That did it! Marcy
wanted to go shopping. And even I agreed she needed some clothes
that were easier to get on and off. We
tried out an old transfer procedure and it seemed to go better.
Instead of using the lift, we went back to my picking up Marcy.
We used a brace that the folks at Vanderbilt rigged up for us back
in March but was just too cumbersome to use. Now it seems less cumbersome
than the lift. I
moved some furniture and backed the wheelchair up next to the bed.
I put the ventilator on the floor, picked Marcy up, pivoted 180
degrees and placed her in the chair without getting tangled up in
the hoses and tubes. I then mounted everything we needed to the
back of the chair. We
went to Target, to our favorite Chinese restaurant (Darcy and I
had a picnic in the car, Marcy only "eats" through the
feeding tube,) Funcoland, Dillards, Bath and Body Shop, the Disney
Store, and the Hello Kitty store. We
were after 9:00 PM getting home, Marcy was in her chair almost 5
1/2 hours. And her bottom still wasn't hurting. About 8:00 PM she
"told" me she wants to go to a movie with Darcy this weekend.
That really rejuvenated my spirit. Three years ago, I was the homebody
and she was always wanting to go, go, go. For the last few months
it seemed like some of her go had gone. It is very good to see it
coming back.
Monday we were out for 4 hours doing the family grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. We spent Tuesday at home as the floor people worked on the hardwood floors. Wednesday we stayed home waiting on the new headrest for the chair. They brought it about 5 PM and adjusted it until about 6:30. Then (it was Marcy's idea) we had dinner on the back deck. Marcy was in the chair for about 2 hours. Thursday we took another day off. Friday 9/5 Marcy and I took Darcy to soccer practice - which was actually a scrimmage with the best team in the league. Darcy's team won 7 to 5 and Darcy played very well. The coach told us afterwards that Darcy told him she wanted to play well because her mom was here.
We
have had Marcy's wheelchair comfort as our specific prayer request
for quite a while. We see this as another example of prayers of
specificity working, especially when they are constant and fervent. We
thank you for your prayers. For
the last few weeks I've been working on a new section of this site.
Even before the wheelchair prayer was answered, answers to specific
prayers led us to add this new section. About
a year ago, our next door neighbors gave me a little piece of paper
with a phone number. They said, “You might want to call this
guy, he was cured of ALS.” We called him immediately and discovered
he was cured, healed is a better word, of ALS. We have talked with
Ron White many times on the phone and have corresponded via email.
His faith, story, and knowledge are encouragement and edification
for people diagnosed with ALS and their friends. Since
Ron doesn't have a website of his own, we have added
a section to this site to make some of his ideas more public.
We are starting the section with a few of his emails including one
on prayers of specificity.
We plan to add to this section often. We
made it to our scheduled outing to the GI doctor 8/15 to see about
getting Marcy's feeding tube changed to a button. When
we got there, they had another feeding tube laid out on a tray ready
to put in. We asked to see a button. They didn't even have one to
look at. We asked if it was going to hurt to remove the old one.
He
said they would just yank it out. The tube is about the diameter
of a pencil. The doctor said there was a bumper about the diameter
of a silver dollar holding it in place. We
told him Marcy would need anesthesia. He said people normally don't.
We
told him the whole reason we had to do this was because the tube
is painful now. We didn't want more pain. He said that changing
the tube to a new tube or a button wouldn't reduce the pain or bleeding. We
told him that's why we called for the appointment to begin with.
We left without making any changes to her feeding tube - it wasn't
going to help. He
did give us some silver nitrate that I use to cauterize the wound
and keep it from bleeding. It has helped some.
We are now accepting registrations - click here to go to the registration form. If
you own a company or know someone who can donate goods for prizes,
goody bags, or auction items, please contact them and let us know. Which
is worse - showing pictures of our kids or pictures from our kids? We received so much positive feedback from Darcy's art, we decided to show a few that have been added to the gallery. You can click on each painting to see a larger version.
We've
mentioned many times that neighbors bringing dinner has been one
of our biggest blessings. To
be as little trouble as possible, we've consolidated all dinner
related web pages into one area of the site. Go to the Dinner
home page to get recipe entry instructions, our dinner calendar,
the recipe page, and dinner delivery instructions for people who
don't live close by. More “how to help others” columns have been published since our last update:
All
columns are listed on the columns
home page. We have been updating the column home page weekly
on Fridays or Saturdays. If you like reading these, you can save
this page to your favorites and check it on Fridays. We
still have the RV available for sale. If you know someone in the
market for a motor home, please send them to http://www.everydayisprecious.com/rv. Several weeks ago Marcy mentioned that she would like to have more Bible verses on her speech synthesizer. I realized that is her only source for reading material and thought we could go one step further. I had seen in the documentation for the speech synthesizer that it can be programmed to control a computer mouse. If I could get a computer and get Marcy connected to the Internet, she would have another, bigger, window to the world than the TV. A total shock to me, a few weeks ago Marcy - who has never even touched a computer - loved the idea. My Mom and Dad had an extra computer that they didn't mind giving us, but I couldn't get it to connect to our wireless network for the Internet connection. That's when my son (Troy) and his girlfriend (Carrie) stepped up. Both are Microsoft certified engineers. They came from Indianapolis to visit Saturday 9/6 and got Marcy's computer connected. They then networked all 3 computers in the house together. We can now print from any computer and pass files back and forth - it is very cool. I am still working on getting the speech synthesizer to control the computer, but we plan to have Marcy surfing and emailing very soon. The kids are back in school - Matt in 9th grade (first year of high school) and Darcy in 4th. I have learned a lot over the last year and can now see why mothers treat this day as a revered holiday. Specific
Prayer Request: God's wisdom with Marcy's medications and supplements:
yeast and SOD We know that healing comes from God - sometimes through the hands of doctors and other healthcare professionals. We are working on 2 fronts to help Marcy feel better:
After so many other things we've tried with no success, it's hard to get excited about yet another trial. But, having faith in God and the physical manifestation of Marcy's healing, it's hard not to get excited. We continue to thank God each day for your prayer and care. Rob
& Marcy |
