We Can't Say Thank You Enough

Now that the Vanderbilt hospital time is over, we probably will take a break from posting for a while, but before we do, we have many people to thank. Plus, we have a few thoughts.

Our thanks are in no order, except the first, and we can't possibly mention everyone by name, but we do need to mention a few. First, we want to thank God for carrying us through this. There were so many times we were destroyed emotionally and physically. Had it not been for our Father giving us strength, we could not have made it.

We want to thank Alex, our son, for showing us the adult he will be in a matter of months (we count babies' ages in months up to 24; Alex is our baby and will legally be an adult in less than that). We are very proud of our son, who never complained, who prayed for his little sister, and who handled all of his responsibilities and inconveniences so well.

Thank you Jim and Sandy (Julie's parents), who gave their vacation time and lodging to give us a getaway, and provided babysitting so we could get away. Thanks to Charlie & Mary Lou (Aaron's parents), for taking care of Alex and letting us not have any worries back home. Thanks to Brett Hyder, Craig Bennett, and Lee Arrowood for getting Alex to Nashville and back home for us, and thanks to the many who offered to help with this.

Thanks to all the people who came and visited at the hospital. We were surprised to discover how many friends we have in Nashville. Thanks to everyone who called, texted, emailed, facebooked, and commented on here your words of encouragement. We read everyone, and I plan to put them all in a single document to print and keep.

Thanks to everyone who prayed. Julie had the idea of creating a facebook "event" to pray for Audrey. Between the two of us, we were able to invite about 700 people we know who are on facebook. Over 875 joined and said they would pray, and judging from the list at least half were people that were invited by other people. We also know our church, our sunday school class and our small group were all praying. Also, there were a huge number of people who put us on their church prayer list. One friend of ours who travels with a Milligan College singing group said, "You guys are sure well connected. Every church we've been to for weeks is praying for you all." By our own estimate, we believe thousands, if not tens of thousands, having been praying for our family.

Your prayers were heard by God and felt by us. Thank you.

Audrey is continuing to do well. She will be on her IV antibitoitics for about another week. She's still pretty cranky at times, but her personality is coming back, and each day we're seeing more and more adjustment.

I can't complete my blogging about this adventure without passing on an observation. Literally thousands, and probably more joined together reaching out to their heavenly Father in one effort, regardless of what state, country, church, movement, or denomination they belong to. That is the church that Jesus established. I know we have doctrinal differences, and that won't change anytime soon, but please know that while we may have these differences, we are to function as one body, as you have during this time.

We all serve a risen Savior, and we are all mandated to love His children. Thank you for loving us.