THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Dear friends,

It as been another week of recovery - nothing too exciting to report except a slow and steady climb. I have been able to sleep in our own bed for the last few nights. I am not quite as comfortable as in the lazy boy but I am HAPPIER to be in my own bed so it is worth it. I have still woken up at least once a night, sometimes several times, but I find it much easier to fall asleep again because I am not all alone in the living room. I still need rest times during the day in the lazy boy although I am trying not to nap so that I am tired enough to sleep all night. A few times I pushed myself a little too much and ended up having trouble falling asleep. The normalcy of doing things and having visitors is good for me emotionally so please pray I can find a balance in it all. I went to the July 4th parade and we enjoyed a nice visit with the Mitchell family afterwards, which was a blessing and a lot of fun, albeit mostly from a comfy lawn chair!

This coming week is very busy, with Fox Chase on Tuesday, Penn on Thursday, homeschool records to finish, and shore prep to do. Please pray that I can pace myself and be wise in the way I use my energy and time, that I would not overdo, that the information we get from these new doctors would be clear and understandable, and that we would have peace in the decisions we need to make about further treatment. I have still had waves of fear, which are very difficult. As I have said before, I know the God CAN heal me, but I have to also come to grips with the fact that He might not choose to do so for whatever His purposes might be. Pray that I would find comfort in knowing that the Lord knows the future even though I don't, and loves me and my family, no matter what the outcome. I think it's still OK that we ASK FOR HEALING though, don't you? :-)

Kristen helped the kids and I make a lot of progress on the homeschool records, Melissa having started getting some of the kids' reports edited the week before. Actually I didn't do that much yet personally, but once everything was gathered together and sorted I was able to help one notebook at a time from a comfy chair while the kids brought me stuff to do! We will work on this again M T W and hopefully wind it up before the end of the week. I am doing a lot of thinking (Ok worrying, I admit it!) about what we should do about the kids' schooling in the fall, whether we can or should suppliment their homeschooling with a few more outside the home classes this year, how I will be feeling, what we can afford as far as classes etc. Please pray for us in this decision making process, that the Lord will give us wisdom to do what is best for each child and for my own health.

Thank you all for standing with us - for the continued meals and help in so many ways, and mostly for PRAYING for us. We are going to keep needing prayer for a LONG time so please don't stop!

Love,
Karen

ps - We also continue to wait while our insurance company stalls and stalls on paying our loss of income claim from Charles' truck accident over 2 years ago (he was the passenger and hit from the rear by a tractor trailer). We are also waiting for Judge Allen in Phila. Court to rule on our hearing about this same accident (she said 5-7 days and its been 6-7 wks). These two financial stresses are very burdensome and we so wish we could be relieved of this. Thank you so much.