All Things Bright and Beautiful

Paul is continuing to recover from his surgery and we had a really great day on Sunday. His headaches were only around a 4 on a scale of 1-10. He had a wonderful visit with his brother on the telephone and it was obvious he enjoyed the call. I had told him that it was his Uncle Mike's birthday and he said "I should call that guy and tell him happy birthday". I agreed and dialed the number for him. He seemed very clear in his thinking and speech and I was beyond excited about how well he sounded. He seemed to be making progress in his clarity of thought and so we asked his Aunt Bev and Uncle Joe to come visit. I knew they would be thrilled to see the improvement I was seeing. His cousin Courtney also came by. Joseph Tarantino wanted to come over but teasingly said that after both the last 2 visits he made, Paul ended up in the hospital the next day! But he did stop by and had Paul laughing. Later in the afternoon, we were surprsed with a visit from Stephanie Rose, the younger sister of Nathan, who has been Paul's friend since they were 5 years old. She was driving by the neighborhood and called to see if it was okay to quick stop to see Paul, as she had not seen him since a few days after his accident. He recognized her and continued to enjoy all the company that was here for him. He was very chipper and was laughing a lot. Our hearts were bursting with joy, as this was all very new behavior from Paul.

Today though, we seem to be back to last week. He is experiencing a very bad headache and his stomach is very upset. He has hardly been able to stay awake and his hands are staying much colder than they were. I have placed a call to the neurologist to get his opinion. We were told that Paul should be feeling really well by Tuesday. Please keep him in your prayers today so that we can find a quick resolution to this problem. He is scheduled to see the home health care therapists tomorrow to continue his speech, physical and occupational therapies. He will have a follow up appointment with his neurologist on April 4th to get an evaluation and possibly a referral to an outpatient rehab facility. He will need to have the endurance and weight built up to be able to handle a more strenous routine.

One thing we are holding out for is our trip to Chicago for Easter, as stated before. We will get the opinion of our neurologist on April 4th. We will accept whatever is best for Paul, but we remain hopeful that we will be with Kelly when she receives the sacraments of Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation that Holy Saturday. The way Paul feels today shows how hard it is to plan on anything much past a day. We know what the day will be like when Paul opens his eyes in the morning and we ask him how he is doing. Then we plan our day and have learned to accept it as it is.

I try very hard to just focus on the fact that we are one day closer to God's will and how our story will end! Saturday morning, that was the hardest thing I had to do, as Paul woke up very irritable and he did not want to cooperate for love or money. Speaking of money, a funny story about getting Paul to eat yesterday. I was desparate for him to eat a few bites of his lunch. I had made a roast beef sandwich for him and cut it into quarters. He ate 1/4 and I asked if he could eat at least 1/2 the sandwich. He said he was full and could not. I told him that I would pay him $10 to eat 1/4 more. He sat back up on the couch and said, "There's 10 bucks in my pocket". He took two bites of the sandwich and then he said, "You can keep your 10 dollars, I can't eat anymore". Jon of course had thought I was nuts to offer money to get Paul to eat and said he would have to get a second job if we were going to resort to paying Paul to eat..............smile. Later, Brendan Hanrahan came to visit and I was telling him that Paul really doesn't feel like eating and that even a $10 offer didn't help. Paul said, "I did eat half, so do I get $5?"

We have been listening to music by The Cambridge Singers conducted by John Rutter and at one of the songs, 'All Things Bright and Beautiful', Paul commented that he really was enjoying the music. After a few minutes, he said that music means so much to him. We are waiting for the day he will be back into the full swing of music. He told his Uncle Mike that music is everything and it is what it is all about! That was the first time Paul has spoken about music like he used to.

Your continued prayers are what helps us see that all things are bright and beautiful in God's world. We saw a bright light this weekend and it was beautiful.

Peace to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Love,
Jon and Rebecca