One day this week, physical therapists placed Joel in the "standing machine," which helped him gradually move from a sitting to a standing position. The very next day, the doctor pointed out more movement in his left leg. We theorize that putting weight on his foot sent a signal to his brain - "Wake up those nerves! You need to stand up!" Doctor Velez encouraged Joel to name his left leg and speak to it; "Kick out! Wake up! Move!" She said it would make a difference; he thinks it's silly and says he won't do it.
What struck me is the parallel to the Biblical statements about faith. Jesus told his disciples, "Whoever says to this mountain, "Be removed and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes...it shall be done." (Mark 11) In Matthew 8, he commends the centurion for understanding that all Jesus had to do was speak to bring healing. Solomon advised in Proverbs 18, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." Even medical science - at Sister Kenny, the premier spinal cord treatment center in Minnesota - is confirming the importance of faith, of hope, and of speaking "to call nonexistent things into existence." (Rom. 4:17) I hope Joel will change his mind about the value of talking to his leg; I hope we will all believe God's word in our hearts, speak it with our lips, and live it in our actions.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
One Day at a Time, part 2
Early Friday morning I woke up and thoughts started pouring through my mind about Joel's future. I pictured him in a wheelchair forever, pondered all the things he wouldn't be able to do (work, play guitar, have children) and worried and fretted until I had to get up. I knew these thoughts were of the devil but couldn't seem to banish them or "take them captive to Christ." My insights into living one day at a time seemed long ago and far away. I was in the future, and it was no good!
Sometime during the busy preparation for the wedding weekend, an idea struck me on how to banish those pesky future frettings. I started asking myself, "Do I have what I need to get through today?" My fears about tomorrow may come to pass; then again, they may not. Unless there is something I specifically need to do today to get ready for tomorrow, I should forget about tomorrow (as Jesus recommends). Today has enough troubles of its own. And Friday certainly did, as we packed for the weekend and the wedding, traveled to Plain View Farm, helped prepare, rehearsed with the wedding party, and celebrated at the groom's dinner.
Just as my worrying about the helicopter bill (Musing about Money, September 10) proved baseless, so will most of these concerns. If Joel doesn't recover fully, there will be plenty of time to help him deal with those challenges. So my new goal in living one day at a time is to keep asking myself, "Do I have what I need to get through today?" and get started on today's tasks. Lord, help me remember this goal!!
Just as my worrying about the helicopter bill (Musing about Money, September 10) proved baseless, so will most of these concerns. If Joel doesn't recover fully, there will be plenty of time to help him deal with those challenges. So my new goal in living one day at a time is to keep asking myself, "Do I have what I need to get through today?" and get started on today's tasks. Lord, help me remember this goal!!
Monday, September 16, 2013
Overwhelming Busyness
Just over two weeks have passed since I left Joel and his full therapy schedule at Sister Kenny to return home to motherhood of a big family. Two weeks of homeschooling, household management, church music, and trying to restore organization seem like a blur. I still want to enjoy reading a good book, as I did during lunch breaks and before bed while caring for Joel in the hospitals, but guilt plagues me because if I take the time to do so, tasks remain unfinished. Coordinating trips to town ("Can anybody carpool today?"), meals for six ("Who's going to be home for lunch? Supper?"), laundry, cleaning chores and educational needs takes a lot more energy, effort and time than scratching Joel's head, listening to his caregivers and medical personnel, and keeping a positive attitude. Plus I don't sleep as many hours or get outside as much.
Reading the above paragraph makes me wonder why I'm not spending more time with the Lord. It sounds like I need His strength more than ever! But ironically, I seem to think I can get by with less prayer and Bible time, and skipping the "gratitude journal," because now I'm in familiar territory. Also, I have much more human interaction with the kids and Pete, so quiet time is harder to come by. No wonder I'm feeling burned out already, and lack energy and motivation. Lord, forgive my pride and help me seek Your face, Your Spirit, Your wisdom and Your strength.
Reading the above paragraph makes me wonder why I'm not spending more time with the Lord. It sounds like I need His strength more than ever! But ironically, I seem to think I can get by with less prayer and Bible time, and skipping the "gratitude journal," because now I'm in familiar territory. Also, I have much more human interaction with the kids and Pete, so quiet time is harder to come by. No wonder I'm feeling burned out already, and lack energy and motivation. Lord, forgive my pride and help me seek Your face, Your Spirit, Your wisdom and Your strength.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Park Avenue United Methodist
Pete here: Andrew, Philip and I spent last weekend together in Minneapolis, complete with bidding on a hotel room for cheap and getting surprised with the beautiful Doubletree Inn, complete with warm chocolate chip cookie, big exercise room and the perfect temperature, working, whirlpool; biking (courtesy of the Jones generosity) the Greenway in the "best city in the US for bike trails"; swimming on the north beach of Lake Calhoun on a 93 degree day; reading and discussing Harry Potter (ad nauseum); subway sandwiches at 33rd and Nicolet where they pile it on - good advice Vicki; a light rail ride and Twins game - fun, despite a 12-2 drubbing from the Blue Jays, and a parking ticket to nullify our savings; visiting Joel 3 times - no significant news but anticipating the halo ceremony; batting cage and laser tag at Grand Slam in Burnsville; hospitality from Todd, Vicki and Hannah Svanoe where we boarded Sat. eve - Hannah went biking and swimming with us and energized the boys with her enthusiasm for life and quick wit; and my personal highlight, worshiping with the Svanoes at Park Avenue.
I left the worship personally enriched and very encouraged by the maturity of what I think is a more liberal church. I expected covetousness and adultery to be evident and encouraged. Instead, I saw genuine unity in the spirit, all colors and ages praising God together, voices bursting in song, humbling of hearts, calling on God for forgiveness of sins, for healing and for help in brokenness. Rachel Svanoe sang in a quartet, some soul song, the 'later rain'. Amazing sound! The music was so well done. God invented excellence so the church's music was a celebration to God. A certificate was awarded for summer garden help from an immigrant who was befriended by the church and recently baptized. She poured out her heart at the microphone, beautifully revealing how God uses churches who love with helping hands and warm hearts. In his sermon, the pastor emphasized patience in relationships with self-deprecating humor, recounting Yancey's experience with a church who resolved to love a young man who had been kicked out of 3 churches prior. After he would rant and rave in the middle of the service, some men would pull him aside and talk to him with words like "appropriate". Over a prolonged period, he was patiently loved into maturity. A fantastic discipleship message. Perhaps Park and I do not line up on politics exactly but I sure believe in how they love and worship.
I left the worship personally enriched and very encouraged by the maturity of what I think is a more liberal church. I expected covetousness and adultery to be evident and encouraged. Instead, I saw genuine unity in the spirit, all colors and ages praising God together, voices bursting in song, humbling of hearts, calling on God for forgiveness of sins, for healing and for help in brokenness. Rachel Svanoe sang in a quartet, some soul song, the 'later rain'. Amazing sound! The music was so well done. God invented excellence so the church's music was a celebration to God. A certificate was awarded for summer garden help from an immigrant who was befriended by the church and recently baptized. She poured out her heart at the microphone, beautifully revealing how God uses churches who love with helping hands and warm hearts. In his sermon, the pastor emphasized patience in relationships with self-deprecating humor, recounting Yancey's experience with a church who resolved to love a young man who had been kicked out of 3 churches prior. After he would rant and rave in the middle of the service, some men would pull him aside and talk to him with words like "appropriate". Over a prolonged period, he was patiently loved into maturity. A fantastic discipleship message. Perhaps Park and I do not line up on politics exactly but I sure believe in how they love and worship.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Musings about Money
I finally dug into the file for the health insurance Benefits Summary and discovered - we have no lifetime maximum! "Unlimited benefits for each individual." Thank You, Lord, and thank you Blue Cross Blue Shield! I knew we had good insurance, but I still thought we might have a $1 million per person limit or some such. Joel's bills will quite likely exceed that total, although BCBS might not pay that much; they negotiate down with Preferred Providers, sometimes as much as 50%.
A few weeks ago, an envelope came from Life Links, the Hutchinson helicopter provider that flew Joel to HCMC on the night of the accident. The bill for almost $30,000 was accompanied by a notice that BCBS had "denied your claim because we are a Non-participating Provider. They will pay you directly." They included a whole page of instructions on possibly routes to take if BCBS did not pay us the full amount, and concluded with a reminder that "you are responsible for the full amount." That caused a few nervous moments, along with questions - "How could they refuse to pay it? It was an emergency; it wasn't like we had a choice to go with a Participating Provider!" - and gratitude that we actually do have the money to pay that bill if necessary. But within a week, a check arrived from BCBS for the exact amount. Once again - we have great insurance!
Because we have the top-of-the-line policy, we (and our employer) have paid a lot in premiums over the years - well over $1000/month since going to work for Gorans Bros. But even if we've averaged $1000/month for our entire married life, that totals $300,000 - less than the bill for Joel's stay at HCMC, let alone Regency and now Sister Kenny. As sister-in-law Tanya and I agreed the first week after Joel's accident (and before Steve's accident), that's why we have insurance. But the ability of BCBS to pay these bills depends on a whole lot of people all paying more in premiums than they take out in claims in order to have enough money left over for Joel. And to think of all the money that goes into caring for Joel, and that has gone into developing all the procedures and machines that are helping him recover, boggles our minds. Our American health care system is serving us well, but there isn't enough money in the world for every person in this country to receive this much care. Fortunately, most people never will need this much care. It's easy to see the conundrum that we face, however: how can we afford enough care for everyone?
A few weeks ago, an envelope came from Life Links, the Hutchinson helicopter provider that flew Joel to HCMC on the night of the accident. The bill for almost $30,000 was accompanied by a notice that BCBS had "denied your claim because we are a Non-participating Provider. They will pay you directly." They included a whole page of instructions on possibly routes to take if BCBS did not pay us the full amount, and concluded with a reminder that "you are responsible for the full amount." That caused a few nervous moments, along with questions - "How could they refuse to pay it? It was an emergency; it wasn't like we had a choice to go with a Participating Provider!" - and gratitude that we actually do have the money to pay that bill if necessary. But within a week, a check arrived from BCBS for the exact amount. Once again - we have great insurance!
Because we have the top-of-the-line policy, we (and our employer) have paid a lot in premiums over the years - well over $1000/month since going to work for Gorans Bros. But even if we've averaged $1000/month for our entire married life, that totals $300,000 - less than the bill for Joel's stay at HCMC, let alone Regency and now Sister Kenny. As sister-in-law Tanya and I agreed the first week after Joel's accident (and before Steve's accident), that's why we have insurance. But the ability of BCBS to pay these bills depends on a whole lot of people all paying more in premiums than they take out in claims in order to have enough money left over for Joel. And to think of all the money that goes into caring for Joel, and that has gone into developing all the procedures and machines that are helping him recover, boggles our minds. Our American health care system is serving us well, but there isn't enough money in the world for every person in this country to receive this much care. Fortunately, most people never will need this much care. It's easy to see the conundrum that we face, however: how can we afford enough care for everyone?
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Chicago Culture
Chicago cultural experiences:
On this trip, we didn't do too many touristy things -- just rode the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier and devoured deep dish pizza at Giordano's. Instead, we hung out with our Chicago relatives, soon to be married: Aanna Stadem and Nick Chase.
Some observations:
1. Chicago is divided into 77 neighborhoods, each of which has many thousands of people. Aanna lives in Logan square; Nick in Albany Park; they will soon live together in Lincoln Square, which has a smaller neighborhood inside it called Ravenwood and an even smaller Lincoln Square inside that, which is where Nick and Aanna will actually
live.
These neighborhoods are like small towns, at least some of them - and not so small either, at least some of them. Certainly anyone could live, work and shop exclusively in their neighborhood. Many if not most of the stores seem to be one-of-a-kind, not chain stores.
2. There is a Starbucks on every block. well, not quite, but close, especially in the downtown area. Also, two blocks down from the mall where Nick works there are duplicates of almost every store in his mall - forever 21, Banana Republic, The Gap.
3. On a Thursday afternoon, every dressing room (about twenty in each store) in Nordstrom Rack and forever 21 was filled, with a waiting line of customers with clothes to try on. At least ten purchasers lined up to buy, and at Nordstrom's there were four cashiers.
4. People are willing to spend long periods of time just getting places. Aanna, the girls and I spent four hours this afteunion going to look at her new apartment. We walked around in that area for about an hour; the rest of the time we sat on the bus and the L (for "elevated") train. She mentioned that her church is twenty minutes' bus ride from her current apartment - "very close." Aanna rides the bus and train an hour to get to work - I think it's less than ten miles away. On the bright side, our $20 passes must have paid for 10 hours or more of travel.
5. We rode and rode and still more homes, apartment buildings and stores appeared. The sheer quantity of people staggers my imagination.
6. In most areas, a great diversity of restaurants and other shops exists. In Lincoln Square, we saw a Greek tavern, an Italian gelato shop and several German bars. Only in Chinatown was everything Chinese. A great variety of people strolls the streets as well, speaking many languages.
A great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!
On this trip, we didn't do too many touristy things -- just rode the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier and devoured deep dish pizza at Giordano's. Instead, we hung out with our Chicago relatives, soon to be married: Aanna Stadem and Nick Chase.
Some observations:
1. Chicago is divided into 77 neighborhoods, each of which has many thousands of people. Aanna lives in Logan square; Nick in Albany Park; they will soon live together in Lincoln Square, which has a smaller neighborhood inside it called Ravenwood and an even smaller Lincoln Square inside that, which is where Nick and Aanna will actually
live.
These neighborhoods are like small towns, at least some of them - and not so small either, at least some of them. Certainly anyone could live, work and shop exclusively in their neighborhood. Many if not most of the stores seem to be one-of-a-kind, not chain stores.
2. There is a Starbucks on every block. well, not quite, but close, especially in the downtown area. Also, two blocks down from the mall where Nick works there are duplicates of almost every store in his mall - forever 21, Banana Republic, The Gap.
3. On a Thursday afternoon, every dressing room (about twenty in each store) in Nordstrom Rack and forever 21 was filled, with a waiting line of customers with clothes to try on. At least ten purchasers lined up to buy, and at Nordstrom's there were four cashiers.
4. People are willing to spend long periods of time just getting places. Aanna, the girls and I spent four hours this afteunion going to look at her new apartment. We walked around in that area for about an hour; the rest of the time we sat on the bus and the L (for "elevated") train. She mentioned that her church is twenty minutes' bus ride from her current apartment - "very close." Aanna rides the bus and train an hour to get to work - I think it's less than ten miles away. On the bright side, our $20 passes must have paid for 10 hours or more of travel.
5. We rode and rode and still more homes, apartment buildings and stores appeared. The sheer quantity of people staggers my imagination.
6. In most areas, a great diversity of restaurants and other shops exists. In Lincoln Square, we saw a Greek tavern, an Italian gelato shop and several German bars. Only in Chinatown was everything Chinese. A great variety of people strolls the streets as well, speaking many languages.
A great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!
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