Updates and A New Prayer Request

Overall Maggie is continuing to improve everyday.  She is sleeping better at night and goes to all of her therapies with a smile on her face.  The staff here go out of their way to make it fun for her and that certainly helps.  Here are a few shots from the last week.  

(As you can see from this picture, she is still having a little trouble with her eye muscles when focusing)

Maggie's speech and cognitive ability seem to be returning the fastest.  Her left leg is slower to come along.  She steps erratically with that left foot so they have placed a weight on her ankle to help her with control.  I would say her left arm is the slowest to improve.  It is getting better but she still doesn't use it voluntarily.  

Maggie's WBC count is steadily dropping and this is most likely due to her IV antibiotics.  Today they decided that she cannot participate in pet therapy because of the risk of infection.  They are calling Hematology and Infectious Disease back in to address their concerns and determine what is best to do next.  You can pray that her WBC comes back up and if you are the least bit sick, it is probably best to stay away.  

The big 3 are getting ready to go back to school in 10 more days.  Even though I am spending every other day with them, I don't feel completely connected.  You can pray that my time with them next week is sweet and that we get some real eye to eye time.  Trent and I are planning to go on our first date in 2 months this weekend.  Trent's mom is coming in to help out so he and I can get dinner together.  I am looking forward to that more than you know. 

Our tentative discharge date is still August 28th.  I pray she is walking independently by then and using her left arm more. I don't want to take her out of the hospital immunocompromised either so I would really like those WBC counts to come back up.  Thank you for praying and caring for our girl.  

On a side note:   I was talking to Jack this week about what it looks like to not just obey God because you are supposed to but to be authentically transformed into the kind of person who naturally obeys God.  We talked about it in comparison to people who step up and help others when the world is watching and it brings them attention compared to those who step up when they have nothing to gain.  I was able to use the generosity and selfless sacrifice of so many of you to illustrate over and over again what it looks like for someone who loves Jesus to respond to a need out of the overflow of being transformed.  Your sacrificial and even sometimes anonymous love of our family has demonstrated to my children what it means to be a true follower of Jesus.  They have seen it and they are better for it.  Thank you for being my village.