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September 23, 2005
Pink Robot Film Festival, September 23, 10 AM
Asher has now had 2 trips outside the hospital. his very first trip out was to target. this was a pretty amazing event and also somewhat ironic when you think about it, that the first chance he would get to leave the hospital, since first being injured at the end of May, was a shopping trip. probably only in america. anyway, asher did seem to enjoy and take full advantage of it. he picked out several items of clothes to wear, including a pinstriped corderoy sports jacket with non-matching pinstriped dress pants. somehow he seems to be able to pull it off, though, when he wears it.
his second trip out was to Willy's restaurant, by piedmont park. willy's is a burrito place where you choose from a large selection of items what you want on it. for those of you in chattanooga reading this it is a lot like mojo burrito in st elmo (and now downtown i understand), which i, personally, have missed quite alot since being in atlanta. so, that fact alone, only added to the treat.
yesterday afternoon, at 4, asher had his own mini film festival at shepherd called the "pink robot film festival," where he got to show 4 of his videos that he had made over the last year preceding his accident. the clothes he bought at target on his first outing were mainly purchased for this event. there was a really good turn out of both patients and staff, which i think was a wonderful encouragement to asher.
tomorrow asher gets to leave the hospital again for another outing. this time it will be to the imax movie theater here. i'm not sure which movie they will be watching. i do know, though, that they don't show movies in 3D like the imax in chattanooga.
asher's exit date from shepherd, right now, is still october 4th. we still don't have a date yet for entering their day program. while he is in this program he will be at shepherd for 7 hours a day and then come back to the place where they will provide us housing and be with us the rest of the time.
one decision that we are going to have to make fairly soon is the type of van that we are going to need to get. this will be based on the kind of wheel chair he leaves here with. in preliminary conversations that we have had with some of shepherd's technical support staff the discussions have been pointing us towards the need to have a full-sized modified van. this is basically all determined by seating height. based on the chair they are considering sending asher home with, in order to have the required 2 inches above his head, we would be required to get a full size van.
another decision that we need prayer for is housing after asher finishes the day program. it is very obvious to us at this point that our house will not be ready for us to move back into when we are ready to leave atlanta. we are going to need either a furnished apartment or house that we can rent with handicap accessability in the interim. not a small order, i know, but God has daily provided for us, in often miraculous ways, all we have needed when we needed it, including courage and strength to continue on. we know that this is all due to the many prayers that are continuing to be prayed for us all around the world.
i know that this has been a long process, and that it will continue to be so. the care that we will need to give asher when we return home will be significant, and it will be without the support that we are presently getting from all the wonderful staff at shepherd. we have been told repeatedly that the closer you get to your release date the more overwhelming the reality of this becomes. i try and keep trying to remind myself not to worry about tomorrow, because today has enough worries. as i have said before this is, obviously, easier said than done.
please continue to pray for asher's complete recovery. based on the magnitude of asher's injuries i know this seems impossible, especially when you consider that there are 4 types of injuries that medical science considers to be catastrophic and asher has had 2 of them. as critical as asher's spinal injuries have been, they are often overshadowed, at times, by the effects of his brain injuries. this, sometimes, makes for periods of what i can only describe as being on an emotional roller coaster (for all of us ). in fact, we are presently on the exhausted end of one of those rides right now.
again, i want to express our thanks to you all for graciously continuing in your prayers and support for us. i continue to give thanks to God for all of you in this. all of you continue to remind me of God's love, grace and mercy that he demonstrates to us every moment of every day. even though we would like to believe that we somehow deserve His love, we don't, and that is what makes the fact that he loves us even more incredible.
praying for the peace of jerusalem,
andy mendonsa
P.S.
4:30 PM
later this afternoon asher had some new local friends stop by. 2 of them had been by to see and meet him several weeks ago and he has really been looking forward to their coming back ever since. it really seemed to brighten up what has been a somewhat discouraging day for him.
thanks guys. you will never know how much your visit has meant.
Posted by Andy Mendonsa at 10:00 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
September 10, 2005
Recent Photos of Asher W/Visitors and Friends, September 10, 10 AM
Asher has had a good week this week. In one day he learned how to dial a phone, write on a computer key board which allowed him to surf the web, brush his teeth and feed himself. It is amazing that some of this is done by attaching a pencil to his wrist and hand splint. Asher was so excited about all that he learned that he called everyone he knew to tell them.
Everyday is a new day filled with both the mundane as well as the challenging for Asher. All of his therapist continue to tell us that he works really hard in all his sessions and never complains. Asher has told all of this therapist that he is determined to be as independent as he can based on his present physical condition.
Asher, who is lying in bed as i write this, has asked me to also share with all of you that he is depressed and sad right now and it is all over girls. he also wants me to share with all of you that he cried yesterday, because he was so sad.
hopefully today will be a better day for asher. 2 of his closest friends, mark and josh are here. they faithfully come to see asher every week. there are no words to describe what their friendship means to all of us.
Mark and Josh with Asher
Asher with his bassett, Henry
A surprise visit for Asher.
Asher and more friends.
Puppy from the humane society comes for a visit and to share a little love.
Blessings and continued thanks to you all. We continue to be carried by all of your prayers each moment of each day. we could not make it without them.
Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem,
andy mendonsa
Posted by Andy Mendonsa at 09:42 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
September 02, 2005
"A Wise Man...," September 2, 11:30 AM
"a wise man listens to the counsel of many." many years ago, when i became convinced that yeshua (jesus) was the promised messiah, i made the decision to devote the rest of my life to serving God. in the course of spending the first year that followed devoting myself to studying both the jewish bible (what christians call the old testament) and the new testament (often referred to as the christian bible) this quote (the one above) has become so ingrained in my way of thinking that have continued to try and heed it's advice down through the years. i cannot think of any instances, where possible life altering decisions had to be made, that i did not first seek out the counsel of those that i considered to possess much greater wisdom than myself. ultimately, though, the final decision becomes mine as well as the ultimate responsibility for the outcome. hopefully, regardless of the outcome, whether good or bad, a certain level of wisdom is gained in the process.
some days, though, i really wonder, as i look back over the years, how much wisdom has actually been gained. certainly lifes many experiences and their outcomes have been recorded, but as to the amount of wisdom that has actually been gained, i am really not certain. what i am certain of, though, is that god does promise to give us wisdom if we ask him for it. soloman, who had the opportunity to ask god for anything under the sun, chose wisdom over wealth and power, ironically, both of which were eventually given to him as well. in the NT it also tells us that we can ask god for wisdom and he will grant it to us (james 1:15).
asking for wisdom has been an ongoing prayer of mine, for almost as long as i can remember, going all the way back even to my adolescent years. there have been times when i have, very foolishly, thought myself to be very wise, which is, without a doubt, the greatest indicator of a very great lack of it. realizing my own lack of wisdom, though, should that discourage me from continuing to pursue it? i honestly pray not. god has promised to give it to me and all of those who ask him for it. in fact god even says that the "beginning of wisdom is the fear of him." one thing i am certain of in this is, that "fear," in this sense, has nothing to do with being afraid. it has to do with recognition and reverence and the desire to be perfected in god's love. "there is no fear in love. perfect love casts out all fear. those who fear are not perfected in god's love, because fear has to do with punishment."
there is so much to be fearful of in these days that we all presently find ourselves in. may each of us be perfected in god's love.
Asher Today.
there are many good things to report. 2 days ago asher's feeding tube (peg) was removed from his stomach. what this means is that asher is eating and drinking really well and he is even gaining weight. the last time they weighed him he had gained 5 pounds. thank you lord.
asher was also given a new swallow test in order to find out whether they needed to continue restricting his diet. very thankfully, asher is now able to eat and drink anything that he wants to. the first thing he wanted was a salad with ranch dressing. apparently he had been craving this for some time, but wasn't allowed to eat lettuce. we got him a salad as quickly as we could and for days asher had salad with ranch dressing at every meal except breakfast. the only way that i know how to describe the pleasure that eating salad brought to asher was to say that it was along the lines of "a quasi religious experience" (my words, not his. they are still taking about his words around here).
asher is now able to drive an electric wheel chair with his left hand. he still has no feeling in his hands nor can he move his fingers, but he can lift his arm high enough to be able to get his fingers over the U shaped joy stick in order to be able to control it. he is still not quite good enough to be able to drive around by himself. that will be the next step though.
they are also working with asher to teach him how to feed himself with his right hand. they have only worked with him a few times on this. it is very difficult for him to coordinate his right arm and hand in order to be able to get the food to his mouth, but he is getting there. a big part of this is building up his strength and continuing to straighten out his arms.
assistive technology has started working with asher on a computer. 2 days ago they tested asher to determine if a voice activated computer would work for him. his voice is still not very strong, which has to do with his being able to produce enough air for that to happen. amazingly, though, he was able to make it strong enough for the program to accept his voice, and voice patterns in order for the program to work for him. he was really tired after the test, but i think very satisfied.
asher's prognosis continues to be one of a quadrapelegic with limited use of his arms and wrists. based on that prognosis his rehab program at shepherd is designed to address that condition. our exit date here continues to be October 4. our insurance benefits coverage for asher, right now will run out by the middle of september at the latest. one way or another we will keep asher here through his full rehab, and possibly longer based on what the outpatient reccommendation is for him once he is finished with his inhouse.
Our House.
looks like work is going to finally begin on our house. the insurance adjustor and the contrator have worked out the details that should allow construction to get underway in order to dry the house back in sometime next week. Thank you so much Lord. it will be so good to not only have a home to come back to, but to also be able to come back home. we really miss our family, the widows, our friends and neighbors, our dogs and cat, our neighborhood, our city, and our home sweet home. and yet there is a certain amount of guilt i feel in that given the unimaginable horror that is taking place for so many in louisianna and mississippi, even with all that we have been through it is nothing in comparrison with what so many thousands are going through there. all my family and i can think of is what those who are trapped in hospitals, especially the patients, are going through. yesterday they had to turn the electricity off in the spinal center here where asher is for most of the day. this was done because of some new construction that is being done to expand the hospital. the hospital used their emergency generator to keep what was absolutely necessary powered, but most of the hospital was without power and very dark, even though it was day time. all of the employees were even told to bring flashlights to work with them, which most them ended up needing to use at some point during their day.
no one was really happy about the inconvenience of having to do without power in most of the building for the day, but we all, at least, knew that it would be very temporary and that by late afternoon everything would be returned to normal. it literally takes my breath away, now, every time i think about those patients who have no assurance for when or if they will even make it out of the hospitals in new orleans alive. especially charity hospital.
what do any of us really have to complain about. how can we all not be thankful to god for the richness of his blessings in our lives each and every day. tragedy, often, strikes so quickly and so suddenly that it is usually without notice. every moment of every day that we live and enjoy tragedy-free is truly a gift from the lord.
continuing to be filled with praise and thanksgiving to the lord, especially for all of you and all the the love, prayers, support, friendship and encouagement that you faithfully and generously continue to give to us.
praying for the peace of jerusalem,
andy mendonsa
Posted by Andy Mendonsa at 10:26 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack