A huge thank you!

Eric and I wanted to extend a heartfelt thanks to his mom, Joan for staying with us last week from Monday thru Friday. She offered to come help out this week and ended up staying until Friday. She was my extra set of hands this week as she prepared breakfast every morning for Eric and fed him after sleeping on the couch with Maddie at night. She helped get Maddie off to school and cooked and cleaned every day for us. I woke up to coffee perked in the pot every morning. I was able to run errands this week with no worries. Eric and his mom had great conversations as did I about life with ALS and how it has affected our family and how hard it can be to see Eric having this disease. The kids loved having their grandma here too. I am not saying this to make anyone feel like they haven't done these things. Some of these things can only be done by one other person, his mom. We just wanted to share our appreciation and let her know publicly that these things don't go unnoticed by us nor by God. So, thank you!!
Last week was a very busy week for me since I decided to plan a surprise birthday for Eric about 10 days ago and had to be sneaky and do a little running around more than usual so the timing was great to have some help. I only invited some close friends (I apologize that I left some good friends out in hindsight) without kids and didn't include our family this time due to lack of space. We packed this house to the max and Eric was quite surprised and a little overwhelmed. Personally, I hate surprises, but I really wanted to take some time to show Eric how much we all love him, especially as his birthday is fastly approaching. We celebrate life daily and the gift that it is.
Eric (and I) wanted to let everyone that came know that he really appreciated them coming and making him feel so loved. It had been a rough week physicaly and emotionally for Eric and he was really growing weary and tired of this disease. The fellowship was great and so uplifting!!! The food was great! We had Pasta Carrabba (Eric's favorite)and other food and we stuffed ourselves and have meals tucked into the freezer for later.
He was reminded today at church in a Loui Giglio video about how tiny we are compared to our great BIG GOD yet He is so involved in every detail of our lives walking beside us and seeking a relationship with us! That's what life is about! First and foremost, a relationship with Christ and the relationships he wants us to have with eachother on this earth. He was moved by the worship music to stand to his feet and praise our God which inspired a friend who said she just didn't feel like worshipping today because of some bad circumstances she was going through. We all have those days where something is blocking us from receiving from God (sickness, finances, broken relationships, past hurts, etc.) but God desires our everything and we need to surrender to Him when he calls us to draw near. We watched a great movie that a man says "I've given up on God" and the priest replies, "that's OK, God hasn't given up on you". (Count of Monte Cristo). Sometimes we give up on God, but he ALWAYS pursues us.