The Asher Update

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November 02, 2005

Asher at Pathways, November 3, 11:00 PM

asher has now been at pathways for outpatient brain injury rehab since October 10th. he is doing well. we had our family and team medical meeting with all of his rehab therapist last week and they have estimated his exit date to be around november 22. it could go a little longer depending on how well he is doing. we have found that as long as you are showing improvement insurance will continue to cover the costs. in this same meeting they also presented us with the possibility that he may be referred back to shepherd's spinal injury outpatient rehab. after he finishes at pathways. if they do this then that will mean that they think they can do more to help asher to be as independent as possible as a quadrapalegic.

the thought of staying longer is really hard on all of us. to date asher has not been to chattanooga since june 27, when we brought him to shepherd in atlanta in an ambulance while he was still in a coma. i don't think he will completely believe that he is not living in a dream until we do take him home. which, incidently, we all are more than ready to move back home. our lives have taken on a certain dreamlike quality themselves.

on a positive note, the longer we are here the better the odds that our house will be finished enough for us to move back into when he does finally get finished with all the rehab he is eligible to receive.

we have moved out of our hotel room and are now living in an apartment. i found out that you can get very short term rental agreements for furnished apartments that are made available, primarily, for business men who have to be in a certain location for 15 days or longer. it is basically the same amount of money to rent an apartment like this as it is to stay in a hotel, so we opted for the apartment, because it provides us with a lot more room, a full kitchen that we can cook in (rather than having to eat out for every meal) and we were able to get furniture moved out in order to make room for asher's hospital bed, wheel chair and lift. in the hotel we were in they were not able to remove any furniture and this barely gave us any room to move around.

having this apartment is truly a blessing. it is located on 14th street about a block and a half away from piedmont park (for those of you that know atlanta). the downside, if you could call it that, is that it is about a 20 minute drive one way to pathways, which is located on Clairmont road in decatur, on the weekends, though, especially on sundays, we can go to the park with asher which makes for really nice outings.

i heard today from our contractor that the walls were being framed up for the addition we are putting on the back of our house for a bathroom for asher. they poured the slab for this at the end of last week, so the rest should come together pretty quickly.

there still has not been an approval by the insurance company to release the money for all of the interior damage to our house to begin to be repaired, replaced and redone. please pray that this happens soon. pray that it all happens soon enough for us to be in our house by christmas. as it is we won't be able to be there for thanksgiving. not being there for christmas is just to hard for any of us to imagine.

thank you all for praying for funds to come in to help us pay for the handicap van we had to buy in order to provide for asher's transportation needs. as i shared in an earlier update the total cost of the van was $45,280.00. as of today, through the kindness of others that has been reduced to $39,578.00. i know there is still a long ways to go, and we are also facing huge expenses with the handicap modifications we are making to our house, but i have to continue to trust that god will make a way under yet more seemingly impossible circumstances and conditions for us to make it over these mountains as well. i have to believe this, especially when i look back and see the mountain range that lies behind us now. and in the case of many of those mountains, i truly did not think that we would ever reach the top, much less make it over them. and yet we did, but we didn't do it alone. god carried us up every one of those mountains, and there is not one single thought in my mind for imagining that we somehow could, or did, climb any of them on our own.

landslides also seem to be a daily occurance, and i am amazed that after the dust settles that we all still seem to be standing upright. sometimes it's like we don't even know that there has been a landslide until after it has already passed. i think that only occurs, though, on the days that we are extraordinarily tired. even on those days when we are the most tired, the most discouraged, it is still possible for me to see so many good things happening for us at the same time. and it is those good and providential things that happen that constantly cause me to question how anyone could ever doubt the existence of god, or how they could miss his presence in the midst of such unbearable circumstances like many of the ones we have been in for the last, almost, six months now. praise god!

continuing to give thanks to god in all things,
and continuing to pray for the peace of jerusalem,

andy mendonsa

| By Andy Mendonsa | 11:17 PM

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