Reflections

I thought about reactivating my facebook account.  I miss the daily reminder of what happened 'on this day' so many years ago.  It shows me how much I forget but it also helps me to remember. Thinking about that made me think about an afternoon last week when my dad was discouraged.  We pulled up my blog and showed him videos of when he could not even move his right toes, much less walk or dress himself or go to the bathroom on his own, when he couldn't swallow, when part of his skull was missing, when he stood for the first time, spoke for the first time, etc. I think sometimes people don't realize the magnitude of just how much his stroke has changed our lives. There were many people praying for him and for that I am grateful, but every day life as we knew it 8 months ago is so different now. I am grateful that he is still here but there is also a degree of grief as we mourn what we have lost from the stroke.  I think some of us are just coming to terms with this concept. Even my dad is mourning what he has lost from this stroke. This "miracle" has left him unable to live normally. While it has affected all of our lives, we can see the miracle from the outside a lot more than he can feel it from the inside. Some days are better than others, that is everybodys fate I suppose. It was nice to provide encouragement to my dad.  It left me thinking about how neat it would be to have somebody record different times of my life and then later when I am discouraged, they could give me a link to a time when I couldn't do then what I am doing now. There is no highlight reel in life.  People often put the best face out there but underneath it all they are dealing with a task or situation that tests their abilities. 

I guess these pictures attempt to paint an outward display of what it looks like when you look back over a more trying time of your life.  In the first picture he was watching as he just started to move his toes, and only with a lot of concentration.  The second picture is him looking back at a picture from shortly after a piece of his skull was removed, but because of the amount of swelling you wouldn't even know it was missing. 

We had a family cook out on Saturday July 2nd .  Grandma and Pop didn't want to be on the road on the fourth of July.  We ate, we talked, we sang. Singing comes easier for my dad.  After watching the video of him singing on Saturday I decided to pull up the video of him singing back in December.  I couldn't believe how much his voice has improved and how much of the right side of his face has come back. 

This is my dad singing back in December. 

    

Here is a video of my dad singing on July 2.  You can see how much more he can move the right side of his face and you can hear how his voice has come back. He sings the same song from above, just a little later in the following video.