Reunion Week!

It has been another busy week and sorry again for the delay in updating the blog. This summer, our hope is to update the blog once a week unless something more urgent comes up or prayer is needed.
Eric received some e-mails from friends from High School last week which came as a nice surprise. They were encouraging to him and brought back many memories of his younger days. Last week we were also able to have dinner with our dear old friends, the Campbell's who we haven't seen in about two and a half years. It was so great to see them again and see how much their kids have grown up. You can always tell how long it's been by how much the kids have grown when you don't see people. Kids grow and change so fast! We laughed so hard we cried talking about old times together. We knew them in our first home where Zach was born and our front door was lined up directly with their back door about twenty feet apart in a trailer park so we had some crazy memories of life in a trailer park with young children. Kelly used to watch Zach when he was a baby and the recent weather reminded me of the day she called me at work during a tornado watch and said they were all in the bathtub! Those were the days!! Our families have been blessed over the years and we are so grateful.
Zach is still playing baseball and his team is doing great and they are 9-1 with three more games this week plus a few makeup games coming. He loves to play and has been testing his skills at pitching this season. Madison finished her swimming lessons at the Y this week and she passed to the next level! She has come such a long way this year as a swimmer and we hope to be spending lots of time by water this summer. She prefers cold weather so when it is hot out, she likes to be in the water.
We also did more lift chair shopping this week returning to Talsma's and Art Van. We decided on a chair at Art Van which is the largest we could find for Eric's size and had to order it. What decided it for me was seeing Eric and Maddie sitting side by side in it all cozy. It is a very wide chair and I love that the kids will be able to cuddle up with Eric when they want to. The good news was they were offering 20% off that week and ordering the chair would have a better warranty than the floor model which ended up being the same cost with the discount. Plus we got to pick the color and fabric this way too. The only downside is it takes 6-8 weeks to deliver.
We will receive a portion of the chair back from Medicare for the motor and the rest will be covered from the trust fund from our fundraiser! Praise the Lord!!
We again want to express our deepest gratitude for all of the work that was put into the fundraiser and to all of the people who came out to the event and for all of the love and support we have received. All of the money that was raised is in a trust fund for Eric for future needs such as a lift chair or a van or other things that aren't covered by Medicare or the VA. What a comfort to know that we will be taken care of in the midst of the changes that may come with this disease. That is a huge burden lifted from us just because people care and God used them to help us!
Saturday was a work day after Zach's game because we had an open house today. I was planning on painting the porch this week and never got to it and thought I would do it when I got home and clean the house too. My parents showed up at Zach's game and came over before going to festival and my dad ended up painting the porch and some of the trim for about 4 hours in the hot sun while my mom and the rest of us cleaned like crazy all day from the basement to the garage and the yard. Thank you mom and dad!! Thank you also to Dan J and his son who have been mowing our lawn this summer!!
The open house brought about 6 couples through one who was interested, but have a house to sell. We have another showing set up tomorrow so hopefully we can keep the house clean.
We had an ALS Support group this afternoon and we are just plain exhausted!
I know I keep saying this, but next week things should be slowing down with school being done. I think we will sleep in til noon for the next week to celebrate summer break and to catch up on our sleep.
Eric has been very fatigued this week and I have to say somewhat discouraged. Every morning he wakes up and he still has the disease. He knows that God has the power to heal him and he told me he always wakes up thinking that maybe this will be the day! We got our report from the ALS clinic this week again which is always very discouraging. She noted that there is marked weakness in the right side of his face and fasiculations in his tongue. What does this mean?? It's not something that he notices so it would be almost better not to know those things if there is nothing that can be done about it. Please keep us in your prayers! Have a blessed week!
Lori and Eric

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 16
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.