Pictures from the plane

We've arrived safely in Hawaii

Aloha from Hawaii!
We arrived late last night after a long day of flights. The airlines were really good to us and very helpful with the wheelchair. On our last leg of the flight, we were upgraded to first class from Seattle to Maui because Eric could not fit into our seats. It was a six hour flight and we were treated like royalty. The seats were huge and reclined back so we slept a good part of that flight. We met some really nice people on that flight too. It was just beautiful flying over the Rockys and the Cascades, then the Pacific ocean seeing it through the clouds. When we came upon the islands, it was so green and just breath taking with the ocean and the mountains. We were so excited to be here! We took a handicap shuttle to the hotel and the people here are so friendly. We felt very welcomed at the airport and when we arrived at our hotel. The bellman named Byron personally assisted us to our room and has been so helpful and kind. We had an ocean view room we got to at 9pm Hawaii time (3am our time). I could see part of the ocean out our balcony but Eric couldn't see the ocean from his chair so Byron got us a room right on the ocean today and transferred our stuff for us. The room is so amazing. I am listening to the ocean crash on the shore right now and Eric is sleeping in his chair. It was good that we moved too because this morning, I turned on the shower and a cockroach the size of Montanna scurried across the floor!! I about jumped out of my skin. I have never seen a real cockroach that close up. Byron said he calls them 747's. I have a picture if you want to see, but I didn't want to post it on the blog since we have so many beautiful pictures already. Anyhow, it has been very muggy here the last week they said because the trade winds have not come in so this brings out the cockroaches. I pray I don't see another one this trip. The resort is so serene. We laid by the pool and looked out at the ocean today and then Eric watched the Red Wings at the outdoor lounge with some people we met. I walked along the ocean and people were snorkling around sea turtles in a cove. I am so amazed at God's beauty here. It takes my breath away. We watched the sunset tonight and one man said it was the best sunset they had in the 9 days he has been here. Thank you, God! God has been our Jehovah Nissi this trip and has gone before us as our Banner. We are so blessed! We ate at a restaurant on the beach tonight and Eric saw this shirt he really liked so I went over to them to ask where they had gotten it and I kid you not, they took it off their back and gave it to us. They were from Hawaii and here for a sailing race and the shirt was from the race. People here just live life to the fullest and radiate love. We plan to go down tomorrow morning at 8am and see them off and then there is a church service on the beach. We are truly having an amazing trip so far and we've just begun. Thank you for those of you who have prayed for our safety. We will update more later. I've already taken 97 pictures so it is hard to choose what to post.
Mahalo!
Lori and Eric

Hawaii bound!

Well,
some of you may know this and some of you will be saying when did they plan this? About three weeks ago, we (Eric and I) decided that we should take our dream vacation to Hawaii. We have accumulated points through a credit card we setup from our time share so I called to see if we had enough points to go to Hawaii and we had enough points to go for 5 nights and the promo was for a 6th night free! We have always said if we sold our house we would take this trip and here we are! We got a good price on flights and we plan to mostly stay at the hotel which is right on the ocean. The kids are staying at the house with Eric's mom and we leave GR airport at 7am tomorrow. We are really excited to be taking this trip! Please pray for our safety as it is quite a long day of flights to get to Maui. We will arrive at 6pm which is midnight your time on Friday. We will try to update the blog with some pictures if we have internet while there. We will be home on June 5th.
Aloha!
Lori and Eric

A night with our Harley Friends and MDA

Last Friday was the Black and Blue Ball for MDA to raise funds for research for ALS and many forms of Muscular Dystophy and to send kids to camp. Black and Blue meant to wear leather or blue jeans or your Harley gear in which department we are lacking. MDA asked Eric if he would come and share his story of living with ALS that night so we were off to the event which was very well put together. There was a silent and live auction, dinner, speakers, free photos on a Harley (as you can see above my first time on a Harley) It was a wonderful night and I was so proud of Eric when he spoke in front of over 400 people about how the only way he gets through life is with God's help and by our faith. He talked about ALS and thanked them for their help that night and shared the hope we have in Jesus Christ because he knows where he is going. I know that God spoke to someone that night through his testimony. We also met some inspiring people like Alex who has Duschanes Muscular Distrophy who sat at our table and spoke so well and brought tears to our eyes. Life is such a gift that we take for granted. We also had a woman named Elizabeth at our table who spoke who had lost her husband 11 years ago to ALS. We meet people like this all the time who inspire us and encourage us.
We had a good weekend despite some difficulties at night sleeping. The kids are keeping us busy as usual with ball schedules. We are looking forward again to some sunshine this week.

Please keep in your prayers on Wednesday this week a friend, Gloria from our church who is having a serious surgery on her trachea. Gloria gets short winded easily and she still was at our house a few weekends ago spreading bark with her family. That inspires me to not look at things you can't do, but to keep doing what you can.
God Bless you all!
Lori

But until that day.... we will worship you always! a tough night

We had a tough night last night. I was having a hard time going to the bathroom last night (constipated) worse than I have ever been in my life. Not sure if I want to share this but just being honest. It exhausted all of my strenghth and caused a lot of pain. It even affected my walking with Lori's help. I say this not to say poor me, but to share insight what is going on with us while living with ALS. I realize that I can't eat the same food I enjoy so much like cheese and bread so I plan to change my diet again to more fruits and veggies. It was hard for Lori too because she couldn't help me. Lots of tears were shed last night by both uf us. Every time we have a night like this, we awake with God's mercy in the morning. Today and another time we had a rough night, our alarm came on with the song "There will be a day with no more tears" by Jeremy Camp. What a powerful song that gives so much hope! Lori got up and googled the song and found this powerful video made by Jeremy Camp (you may recall that he lost his wife to cancer) and we watched it with tears streaming. Even Maddie came over and put her arms around us. Zach was still sleeping so we will share it with him later. Anyways, take three minutes to watch this video and then read the words of the song below as a powerful reminder from God that the burdens of this place will be no more when we see Jesus face to face!
Thanking God for His mercies today,
Eric and Lori

Due to technical difficulites, the video is on the right side of the blog. Scroll down to the Jeremy Camp link.


There Will Be A Day lyrics

I try to hold on to this world with everything I have
But I feel the weight of what it brings, and the hurt that tries to grab
The many trials that seem to never end, His word declares this truth,
that we will enter in this rest with wonders anew

But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings
That there will be a place with no more suffering

(Chorus)
There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more
fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more,
we'll see Jesus face to face
But until that day, we'll hold on to you always

I know the journey seems so long
You feel you’re walking on your own
But there has never been a step
Where you’ve walked out all alone

Troubled soul don’t lose your heart
Cause joy and peace he brings
And the beauty that’s in store
Outweighs the hurt of life’s sting

But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings
That there will be a place with no more suffering

(Chorus)

I can’t wait until that day where the very one I’ve lived for always will
wipe away the sorrow that I’ve faced
To touch the scars that rescued me from a life of shame and misery
this is why this is why I sing

There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more
fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more,
we'll see Jesus face to face

There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more
fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more,
we'll see Jesus face to face

There will be a day, he will wipe away the tears,
He will wipe away the tears,
He will wipe away the tears,
There will be a day.

We sold our house!!!! .... again :)

We have been extremely busy this past week doing updates on our Jenison home for sale to get ready for an open house on Sunday. I had a friend from my Bible Study go thru the house and give some suggestions for updates and we picked some to tackle and sent out a call for help. We had many painters, cleaners, deck scrubbers, fixture installers, a few meals, Eric's mom here for the week for Eric and the kids. I was at the Jenison house every day Mon thru Sat busy making it really look nice. We also had the Wessely family come out on Saturday to both houses to help us with landscaping through the Young Marines. We are so blessed and thankful for all of the help we had this past week. WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT THAT HELP! The Lord has been so good to us in providing all of our needs. We had lots of interest at the open house and an offer on Monday and Today. They were both much lower than we had hoped, but that is the nature of this market right now. We are just pleased to have come to an agreement with the first offer which come to find out is my brother's old roommate and her husband who really love the house. There's just something about knowing someone loves your house, especially with all of the TLC we put into it this week. All I can say is praise the Lord and pray that everything goes smoothly up until close on June 12th.
On another note, we have been very busy with the kids baseball schedules with both kids having a game tonight. Some pictures of the kids are above.
Eric has been on the drug IPLEX for two weeks now and we are hoping to see some positive changes from this drug now that he is up to his full dosage for a week now. He has noticed it is helping him with swallowing. His friend asked him "would you take not getting any worse?" Eric said absolutely.
Happy Cinco De Mayo and Happy Birthday to Eric's mom, Joan! It has been a really good day!
In Him,
Lori and Eric