News At Our House

Now that Jerry is doing better, it seems like there is not much excitement at our house. I have to say that after this summer, I am glad to have less excitement.

We do have a new foster son living with us now. His name is Christian Wong and he is 14 years old. He has some serious offenses on his record and he is not very easy to get along with, but Jerry is convinced we can help him and he has started in with enthusiasm to help Christian overcome his challenges. Here is a funny story about one of Christian's challenges (he is absolutely sure he is always right and he is sure that he is the expert in all things): He wanted to play the farming game (which he had never played before), so we agreed. Those of you who have played the farming game before will understand why this story is funny, for everyone else you will have to go get one and learn to play. Anyway as we got started, he had an option to buy 5 acres of fruit and 10 acres of hay, but he didn't want to go into debt (even though we told him that he should purchase the crops if he wanted to do well). So after about 10 rounds of the board he decides that everyone else is doing better and he ought to buy some crops, so he buys hay (20 acres because he has picked up another OTB for hay), even though we told him that he should get the fruit instead. Meanwhile he has landed a couple of times on places where he had to pay for not having a tractor or harvester so he decides to trade Forrest the Fruit OTB for a tractor OTB (even though, once again, we told him that he shouldn't do it). So then, after several unsuccessful rounds of the board, he gets another OTB for fruit and decides that it would be good to buy it, but he is maxed out on debt and has no cash. I suggest that he could sell some of his hay acreage for enough to buy the fruit, but he decides to sell his only grain acreage instead (even though, once again, we tell him this is a bad idea), his rationale being that he has more hay (we point out that you make more money on grain, but that doesn't influence him). Anyway, to make this long story a little shorter, when the audit is called, he is $200,000 dollars behind the person in 3rd place (Forrest) and $400,000 behind the winner (me, in case you care). I decide that there is a good life lesson here, so I point out to him that in this game, as with life, it is good to listen to those who have some experience as they know how to avoid the problems. His comment was, "I only lost because I didn't get lucky rolls of the dice, not because I didn't do what you told me." All I have to say is that Jerry has his work cut out for him and I hope that I survive him.

The happy news is that Forrest is still with us and he is doing really well. He will be going to high school this fall and he is more than a little nervous about it. He is such a nice young man, we really do love having him live with us.

There is Life After Charts

For those of you who are tired of hearing me complain about how hard it has been abstracting charts, you will be pleased to hear, "THE CHARTS ARE FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Yeah!! We did the last chart at 9:26 am today and then danced and sang for 15 minutes. This was followed by the staff throwing us a pizza party. I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders. We started the process on November 1, 2009 and there were 4,152 charts total and they are gone, gone, gone. YEAH!!

The Best News Ever

Jerry went to his appointment at the neuro-surgeon yesterday. They gave him a clean bill of health. He showed Jerry the brain scan pictures and there are no clots left. He is completely healed. We are so excited to put this behind us.

Life is getting back to normal. William is gone (so sad, we miss him a lot) and for now we just have Forrest. He is a sweetheart and very easy to have around. I am sure we will be getting a new boy soon, but for now this is a nice break.

Thank you all for your faith and prayers and the important part that these have played in Jerry's recovery. Jerry bore his testimony on Sunday and talked about his grandchildren praying for him and the tears started falling. This is not a guy who is tearful often, but it means so much to him that his little grandchildren turn to prayer in times of struggle. We are so grateful that these little ones are being raised in gospel centered homes.