Care Calendar

A number of our friends have expressed the desire to help with a number of things. This has been such a humbling experience for us, and I am even more humbled to be writing this now. It's hard to accept help from others. Maybe it's because I'm a man or just a wretch. I know what a joy it is to help others, but for me it is much harder to receive help. But regardless of my pride, we know we need it. I took vacation today and will again tomorrow to be home with Leslie and the kids. But after tomorrow I will have only one day for the rest of the year. So things like meals will certainly be a huge help to us. And since a number of people have offered to help in this way, we have decided to create at care calendar. This calendar allows people to sign up for specific days and will help in the coordination. Our church family has offered to do this, but we thought this would be a help to them as well being that it will allow people to do so online instead of making phone calls. So to access the calendar, go to carecalendar.org/. The calendar ID is 1026 and the code is 7263. We are still learning this system, so bear with us. But it should be straight forward. Once you log in you can see days that have openings for meals. You can sign up for an empty day and then others will know that day is filled. Your email address will not be made public. We may also need some other help along the way for people to stay with Leslie and the kids while I am at work, and some basic house cleaning. However, so far I and our family have been able to keep up with this so far. If you want to help with these two items, email me and tell me what you'd like to do and when and I'll let you know if we will need the help then. I hope this does not come across as conceited or pretentious. My hope is that this will just streamline the offers from so many of you, and provide an outlet for you to do as the Lord leads you. Thanks to Crystal for sharing this idea of the calendar with us!

Today our friend Marjorie came over and brought some meals and some gum for the kids. It was so much fun to visit with her and catch up on her family and some of our old friends. It was at Marjorie's house, back in December of 1997, where Leslie and I first talked and length and really began getting to know each other at a Christmas party. She also hosted one of our wedding showers. So she gets to claim being one of the "facilitators" of Leslie and me getting together! :-)

I went to the doctor today for my back. It was a helpful visit to understand more about my injury and begin to plan a course of action. The doc thinks that the torn disc may not be the main issue. It is rather, most likely, a bone injury at the bottom of my vertebrae. The fracture, known as a pars fracture, could have been caused by my fall or I could have been born with it. They can't tell. But the type of pain I'm experiencing seems to line up more with these symptoms than those of the torn disc. The torn disc is still an issue, but will heal with time if I take care of it. They want to try some physical therapy and then an injection to see if that will help reduce the pain and speed up my recovery. I've heard enough horror stories from others to appreciate how little pain I've experienced. I've also discovered that a back belt, with some magnets in it, has helped with the pain more than any other thing. It may sound cooky, but it works! Thanks to Curtis for letting me borrow it!

Leslie had a good day today. She still amazes me with how she is handling everything. She still tires quickly, but is much stronger than I imagined she would be this far along in the recovery process.