July 16, 2012 -- One Year Anniversary!

This evening we celebrated Max's 9th birthday and toasted Tom's 1 year anniversary of his brain aneurysm.  Truthfully, it has been very hard to look back at last summer and remember all that happened.  All the hospital visits and the sleepless nights wondering if Tom would wake up at all.   Tonight, seeing Tom playing with his grandsons, toasting his grandson's birthday, mentioning his own "anniversary", and still making jokes about things, was such a blessing for me.



I have not updated since March, and there have been a few notable updates.  A few months ago, Tom finished his physical and occupational therapy at the out patient facility close by.  He had met all the goals he needed to meet, and no longer needed therapy!

He finished his speech therapy at the end of June.  He enjoyed going a few times a week to meet with his therapist, but his time there was finished.  He still has issues with short term memory and time frame issues.  He has all of his long term memory from "pre-aneurysm."   It is amazing when he gets talking about an old job or customer, because he remembers everything, and he is the "Tom" of last year!  He is still making slow progress, so we may not know for years what he lost completely in the aneurysm.  At this point he cannot drive or work.

All in all, he is doing well, and Nancy and Tom are getting used to a new "normal."  Please continue to pray for more healing, more progress, and more understanding for Tom. 

In the fall, when Tom was at Marianjoy in Wheaton, I went to the weekly family meeting.  Almost every time as I drove out of the parking garage to go home, the song "Blessings" by Laura Story came on the radio.  I still have trouble hearing that song without tears.  I later found out that Laura Story wrote the song after her husband had gone through a brain tumor and many surgeries that left him with vision and memory deficits.  Her husband was not completely healed either, but she still can see the "blessings" from a horrible situation, and she still has hope.  What a blessing this song has been to me!

Blessings by Laura Story

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise



Thanks so much for praying for Tom and our family and for taking the time to check in on us today!

Brenna