April 5, 2020

I have a treat for you today!!!! This girl  is able to text!! She's been texting us a lot recently, and while it's sometimes slow, it's VERY impressive. She has an iPhone 6 with a *tiny* keypad, but has suddenly regained the dexterity to punch away at those little squares.

And.....because she can type, she has a message for all of YOU. This is what she asked me to share with you:

"Thank you all for your love and support. I really can feel it and it's amazing especially when I'm [feeling] down. Also, thank you for [all your] prayers. They help way more than you can imagine. I'm making so much progress, and that alone is miraculous. Please keep prayers and love and support coming because I know you will be blessed too."

We tell Shannon every day that she is being watched over, and prayed for by so many people. She does get lonely, but doesn't feel entirely alone. I know it's because of the angels with her and the love and prayers you are sharing.

Today Shannon told me (and this is HER announcement, but I have not verified this with any medical person) that she might be off the ventilator by the end of the week. As mentioned yesterday, we aren't really getting much in the update area. That doesn't mean we aren't talking to her or anyone at the hospital. It just means the people who usually update us, aren't. If she was off the ventilator by next weekend, that would TRULY be a miracle. She's pretty far from it at this point. She can do three hours at a time without it. By now you know that I am true believer in miracles, so I'm not putting it past her.

Shannon's memory is definitely effected by her injuries, which makes for some interesting conversations. Today she found out (again) that we talk regularly to her boyfriend Scott. She's been told this before, by both us and her boyfriend. She finds it very hard to believe that we not only talk to him, but we like him. Scott has been amazing through all of this. He flew out to Philly as soon as we told him we were moving her back to PA from the hospital in Iowa. He stayed (awkwardly) at our house with our kids he's never met for 4 days before we even met him. Everything we've learned about him so far we love.  So Shannon had her choice of boyfriend vetted while she was sleeping. Scott headed back home to wait out the pandemic shutdown when we learned there was no way they would allow us, let alone other family/significant others to see her. Now they FaceTime every day. And Shannon thinks that it's weird that they can FaceTime. I'm not sure why she thinks that since she can FaceTime us.

I believe she had the day off from therapy today. Her Recreational Therapist called and offered to help her FaceTime us and was shocked to hear she just does it on her own! Instead of helping with that, she helped Shannon get her iPad set up to watch General Conference today- which she loved!
We loved it too. It really helped to buoy us up and refill our spiritual tanks so we can have a brightness of hope going forward for the next several month. We know that you can be joyful, even during trials, and that trials help us learn and make us stronger. And we are finding ways to be joyful. We have to. We need to be strong (and sane) for Shannon. We have 7 other kids, some with their own families that need us to be there for them as well. We can't do that if we sit under a cloud of despair. That's not what our Father in Heaven has in mind when we have trials. Tonight, we sat around our fire pit with 4 of our kids eating s'mores and making a cooperative run-on story. We laughed hard, and it felt so good. I sent a photo to Shannon of our fire, and she said she was jealous, but she knows we are jealous of the tiny fans she has blowing on her and her being hand fed ice chips. :) We are all making the best of the situation.

I know I've been asking for prayers for Shannon to be able to breath without the ventilator a lot, and if she's getting off of it by next weekend, then I completely attribute it to that! So... Please continue to pray for Shannon to be able regain the use of her muscles required to breath on her own, for her memory to improve, for the use of her hands and arms to return to normal, and for her spinal cord to heal. Please also pray for us to be able to find a way to make the necessary changes to our home to accommodate Shannon in whatever condition she is in when they release her from rehab.  We are so grateful for you, for your love, for your prayers, for your faith and hope. We are even more grateful for the blessings we are all receiving from our Father in Heaven because of your help, and ever grateful for the blessings of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Shannon was going to think of a quote for today- but then "some doctor I've never seen before just came in and then some guy or chick sticks around to make sure I don't die"; so she didn't get back to me. She's still alive though, no worries :D

"The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up!"
Timothy the Mouse- Dumbo