Kris update: An answer to prayer!

Dearest friends and loved ones!

You’ve heard the expression, “Be careful what you wish for,” I’m sure. Well, I’ve been wishing and hoping and praying ever since we left San Antonio on October 8th that I could go back during the week of November 8th. This week is going to be very important for a number of reasons for Kris, and I wanted to be there. So I worried, I prayed, I stewed, and I hoped beyond all hope, but – deep down – I knew it wasn’t going to be possible. The budget just wasn’t going to stretch.

Last Wednesday, I was talking to Kris’s Air Force case manager and told her my plight. She said let’s see what they can do. Because of Kris’s disability, her special needs for care, because she is having some real difficulties now with muscle atrophy and not being able to hold her head up straight, for very important appointments coming up in the next several days, and because the military just happens to have funding available to assist when necessary, I will fly out of Orlando at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. Kris’s husband, Russell, will pick me up at the San Antonio airport shortly after 12 noon! My ticket is paid and I am just absolutely praising God, thanking the Air Force, and I’m overjoyed! Prayers are answered. No doubt about it.

Kris has an appointment this Wednesday at BAMC to meet with a neurologist to see what can be done about her neck. It has become increasingly more difficult for her to hold her head up. That will certainly affect swallowing, her balance, and her focusing ability. It’s difficult to look straight ahead when one’s head is turned to the side and down.

In addition to all that, the director of therapy at the VA Audie Murphy Poly Trauma Center is now going to evaluate Kris to see if they can possibly help her to better communicate consistently. As I have so often said lately, her speech therapist (Susan) has really worked so very hard with Kris. But there are just some things that likely require more in depth study and, hopefully, the newly opened Center will be able to help. Meeting with the director, Dr. Johnson, is going to be a big step, I’m sure, and I really wanted to be there with Kris.

So... thank you, thank you, thank you to Kris’s Air Force case manger, to the military for making this trip possible, and thank all of you for your prayers in general. And, more than ever, I thank God for hearing this prayer (among so many others). I’ll return to Florida on Tuesday, November 15th and will no doubt have lots to share with you in the next update. In the meantime, the attached photo of Kris speaks for itself. Courage, strength, determination. George tacked this photo of her up on our medicine cabinet mirror just after her accident in April 2010. It’s still there. It still gives us hope!!!

Blessings and love,

Carol and George