Robbie continues to make small incremental steps of improvement in what he is able to do physically and giant leaps of growth in his faith. Every day, he asks for me (and whoever else is in the room, including his sisters) to anoint him with oil and pray healing over him. He usually follows that up with by signing, over and over again, “thank you God”, “thank you God” and then asks us to sing some praise songs. Robbie’s sign for “thank you God” is bringing one curled up hand to his mouth, moving it to his other hand and then lifting it up to heaven. The picture of my son doing this is firmly embedded in my mind. I doubt it will ever drift from my memory.
I have great hopes for him this week and pray that he continues to have good therapy sessions.
We enjoyed having our girls with us this past weekend. They had a good time last week in Fayetteville as they got stuck with their host families in the ice storm. Robbie loves having his sisters around and we are hoping to be able to have them more now that Robbie is doing a little better. Attached is a picture of us going down and getting some cappuccinos together (Robbie, being a true Shackelford, loves his coffee). The girl’s time with us was good but hard as well. They were able to share their struggles some and “release” some of their pent-up emotions.
PRAY FOR OUR GIRLS DURING THIS TIME OF BEING PASSED AROUND FROM PLACE TO PLACE. We are a family that has always loved being together and that is one of the more difficult things we are having to deal with. We’ve not really been “home” since leaving our place and most of our stuff in China in October. It now looks like this transitional time will be even longer. Fayetteville is always a home for us as well and we look forward to the time we are able to leave the hospital, though that may still be several weeks.
PRAY FOR WISDOM WITH REGARDS TO ROBBIE’S MEDICATIONS. Our biggest nightmare situation since we’ve been here was when he had withdrawals from one of his meds. We hope this is the week we can start pulling off of some of them but we are wary of it at the same time (his list of medications is more than a page long).
His spasms have mostly come to an end right now with the exception of his thigh muscles seizing up lightly throughout the day. We are thankful for answered prayers and pray this will allow him to make it through his therapies better.
Again, we thank you for your steadfast prayers and ask that you please continue to pray - we still have a long way to go unless God should choose to give us a shortcut.
Grace and peace,
Ken