My Mom's stroke

It's been about a month since Beth and I came home from our Bible study to find my Mom passed out in her chair. We got an ambulance to come, 'cuz we thought she was in a diabetic coma... Well, it turned out it was a stroke. A minor one, but still a stroke.

For the first day, she was paralyzed from the neck down on her left side. She started making incredibly swift progress, and by the end of five days they sent her home from the hospital, 'cuz she could climb up ten stairs, the number in our split level house.

It's amazing how far she has come in the last month- we see almost daily improvement. The biggest slow down has been in her shoulders. She just doesn't have the strength she used to have, and has a very hard time picking up my youngest baby, Abigail. This is probably what gets Mom down more than anything other than the sheer frustration of having to deal with her limited arm mobility. We keep trying to remind her of how far she's come.

The end result of this month though is that we are stuck in Fairbanks for another winter!!!! AAAAAAAH! I seriously have to say this is the one thing I didn't want to happen. To be stuck in Fairbanks- To have to weather another frigid winter. To deal with the cold, dressing little children to be safe... The darkness and the inevitable Seasonal Depression. I did not want to be here till next May. I feel so caged ...

God, why did you allow us to get stuck here another winter? I want to get outside! Closer to our extended family and my Texas family... Back to a place of usefulness... and further away from our church up here. Now we really do have to find another church up here... I thought we'd be able to find a place of service somewhere else. This feels so far from what I thought you were doing in our lives...