Good news!

I got the following email from my brother, Gary. I asked him if I could share this good news here as I know many of you have been praying for Gabriel this past week. He said: "Hi Sis! Yes, please share with anyone who will read. Urge all parents never to take anything for granted regarding their kids. I did. I assumed everything was "cool" with mine. Love you!"

Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:13:58 -0500

Hi Everyone. Here's the latest and greatest. Thank you all for the all the prayers (and some prayers they must have been!!). Gabriel went home with his mom late Friday afternoon. Physically he is well, mentally he's still struggling with short term memory loss. Doctors say that could be normal for awhile condsidering the circumstances. I'll take the "for awhile". The last two weeks were all that can try a parents soul. If I had any kind of any enemy, I would not wish this on them. Bill, I think and hope you're the only one that can relate so closely to this. It's really something else to walk into an ICU and see your child hooked up in every way to machines to keep them alive. I know I'm not writing this all that well. Someday, I'd like to write an hour by hour, day by day account of this in detail, if, for no other reason than to remind me of how terrible a time this was and for Gabriel to read as well. He has no clue about what happened and almost happened to him. Not to worry....I am NOT having a pity party! It's just that I've never been back on my heels like this before in my short life. I just want you all to know that I will never be able to thank you all enough for all the prayers that lead Gabriel back from the edge. All for now. I love all of you. Gary

We had a wonderful couple of days with Mike and Fran. They arrived Saturday afternoon and went home this afternoon. We had so much fun! After supper on Saturday (I made a chicken stir-fry and salad), we decided to go out for a walk. It was Earth Day and everyone was supposed to turn off their lights between 8 and 9 p.m. - it was a lovely evening and we needed to walk off supper. Okay, we needed to DO something to relieve the upcoming guilty pleasure of fresh apple pie and ice cream! We thought we'd been walking for at least an hour, but when we got back to our house, we were horrified to discover we'd only been gone 25 minutes!!! We ate pie and ice cream anyway.

Bern insisted we teach Mike to play Hand & Foot and, of course, we had a great time. Mike was a fast learner, but Fran and I prevailed and beat the boys by about 1,000 points. By 11:00, though, we were all ready for bed! We are getting old!!!

This morning, after a breakfast of fresh fruit, cereal and toast, we went to church. The service was wonderful, as usual, even though Pastor Rene didn't deliver the message. A missionary from Africa was visiting. He was okay, but I was hoping Fran and Mike could've heard our own pastor. They enjoyed the service anyway. The music was great, too.

After church, Fran and Mike treated us to lunch (actually another breakfast). The restaurant was called the Golden Grill and the food was very good and reasonably priced. We've actually been looking for a good place to have breakfast in Welland. they seem to be few and far between!

Now, we're looking forward to Easter. Fran and Mike will pick up James and Emily and Jan & Paul will bring Kate, David and Heather - and possibly Maggie (I hope!). I've been gathering recipes and ideas for dinner. I have my little favours all ready and just need to sort out table cloths and such! Can't wait!