November / December 2005

Jerry got one last trip to CA the last week of of October. We thought it might well be because we expected Becky and family to visit – and Linda and Charlie to get a chance to come home for a brief visit. We got a wheelchair for Charlie for longer walking trips. It is one thing to walk around RMcD House for some exercise. Other trips take a lot more walking. He was able to go to some church meetings but we usually stay briefly-to avoid any chance of contacting germs.

Jerry got to speak at the annual conference for Arizona organ donor families. That was the hardest 5 minutes speech of his life! How do you thank a group of people like that for what they have done – and honor who they have lost? We don’t know Charlie’s donor family but it had to be someone like them. Because I knew how many people prayed for Charlie, I told them they were the answers to a lot of peoples prayers.

Becky and Kenny and Sammy did get to come visit. Linda enjoyed babysitting Sammy while parents went site-seeing. Kenny went to a technology conference. We aimed for Oct-31/Nov 4 (Charlie and Becky’s birthdays) to get Charlie and Linda permission for a short home visit. She got permission and packed the car that day-maybe to be gone before they changed their minds so it was a few days earlier. They came Friday night arriving Sat 3 am or so and then stayed until Monday mid-day. Charlie came through the door and went straight to his crayons and got them out and went to work like he had been away 3 hours-not 3 months. We celebrated Charlie’s birthday and got to take Charlie to church. We didn’t stay for primary but his teachers were thrilled to see him. We had a lovely Sunday together but it was a really quick trip.

The hospital scheduled an appointment for Nov. 22 but we hoped they could move it up. All Charlie’s tests have looked as good or better than expected so we hoped for the best. Sure enough, he had a final heart catheterization Nov. 14 and the next day the doctor had results to review and report on. They liked what they saw, set up meds and prescriptions and Linda went back to RMcD House and cleaned and packed.

On Wednesday, November 16, 2005, after rush hour, they packed up the van and left for home.
They arrived about 8 p.m!

It was a happy reunion for everyone as we just unloaded the van and piled most everything in the kitchen.

The next few days included little structure, trips or activities. Charlie found his favorite toys- and pets – and enjoyed himself immensely.

We had a wonderful, quiet, “pleasantly uneventful” Thanksgiving with Becky’s family and Linda’s parents.

We look forward to many quiet uneventful days ahead!

As we look back over this web site we see the updates dating back to March and even January of 2005. We have been dealing with this stuff for practically the whole year. Linda and Charlie flew to UCLA July 23 – one week short of 4 months.

Thanksgiving was definitely an appropriate time for the family to be back home together. We have A LOT to be thankful for. We have a huge list of people that we are thankful for. If we tried to list them here we would surely omit some. A lot of small acts of service and kindness. A lot of prayers on Charlie’s behalf!

As Christmas approaches, it is still lots of fun to just enjoy having everybody home – though we should have started earlier preparing Christmas cards and notes of thanks to so many.

If this web site had the mission of celebrating Charlie and updating our friends and family on how Charlie is doing – this may be a final entry for this web site. We are not sure. We will post our Christmas letter and some recent photos soon.

We hope you enjoy the web site – and we hope you keep in touch. Annual Christmas cards are nice but we always look for news of YOU and how you and yours are doing.
Merry Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year!