Hello Classmates
Life is an adventure. At some points we are bush whacking and can't see the trees through the forest, and other times we are surrounded by incredibly detailed and beautiful passages or grand vistas...2007 has been beautiful and grand...
The year started out with Rod regaining his ability to be up in his wheelchair instead of being in bed most of the day. He finished writing his PhD dissertation and participated in more of the tasks around the house. We decided to seize the reprieve ad respond to an invitation from my relatives in Holland to come and visit in the spring. I hesitated because Mom, who lived 2 minutes away from us in a long term care centre, was really frail. On March 13, Mom was released from the body that entrapped her and joined Dad and Johnny in heaven... I am so grateful that Tobia and I were with her for her last breath to "Sung" her to heaven's gates. I feel her absense -- our family (as you known it) is down to my sister Tobia and I... Tobia is still living in macau with her family. After all the end-of-life responsibilities were finished, I was ready for a get away and our family had a wonderful trip to Holland for the month of May.
Our daughters Anika (13) and Joya (10) learned so much about famiily and European culture in the month we took them out of school. I have included a picture of our canal tour. Amazingly enough, Rod was able to navigate around with his manual wheelchair instead of his electric one, and even tolerated some walking. I thought we would need many rest days, but every day Rod was ready to go out on the road. When we stayed at my aunt's beautiful villa, it was because we wanted to.
We came back to one more month of school for the kids. (School finishes at the end of June in Canada). The first summer adventure was hosting a reunion for 60 people from all over NA who have worked in Bangladesh with the same agency we worked for. Then we went camping, canoeing, tubing down a river close by, picked berries, renovated the basement and did summer camp. As the summer went on, Rod used his wheelchairs less and less. As of September, Rod's wheelchairs stay parked in our garage, and he walks everywhere. The doctors are not able to explain why, after 10 years of excruciating pain -- 7 of which he was in bed 22 hours of the day -- he is now able to tolerate movement, pressure, touch, without his pain levels escalating out of control. He still takes a lot of pain meds, but his activity level has increased dramatically, and he is able to manage his pain. We believe this is a God - thing -- a miracle!!
So...with my kids being older, Rod being more mobile and my parents gone. I have essentially retired from 8 years of caregiving. I find there are spaces in my life that I have not experienced for a long time. For now, I have some catching up to do with myself, but it is amazing how quickly the spaces fill up with the activity that swirls around me. I have started and who knows, I may even make it to a half marathon with a friend of mine.
The activities of our girls keep me busy -- I am involved in Anika's figure skating club as Test chair, get the kids to their flute, violin and piano lessons and make sure that Joya gets to swim club three times a week. I am still the Admin Assistant at our small rural church and as of Sept, Rod and I are youth coordinators. In Nov. Rod fell off the Hayrack and fractured C7 and herniated the disc between C6 and C7, resulting in a surgery to fuse the vertebrae. He is now in a collar for 3 months -- Aah the cost of increased mobility. We are grateful it wasn't worse -- it wasn't a set back in terms of his long-standing health issues. Rod now has dates in January and March to do his PhD comps and defend his thesis at Penn State. If healing continues to progress (and no more injuries happen), he may even be able to return to work. In the meantime, I so value his involvement with our lives at home.
So...as 2007 comes to a close, I feel grateful. The passages this year have been beautiful and the vistas, grand... I am hopeful for waht the next year will bring. I would love to make it to Nashville, but at this point, it doesn't look like it can happen. I will be looking for reports and pictures of the weekend.
with love and best wishes,
Susan
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