Standing Guard

I know people are checking this blog every day and I apologize for the 24 hour break. Mike is the same to slightly better. His lab work continues to be good (kidneys, liver, blood counts, etc) as well as vital signs and oxygen levels. His heart rate is high but his mouth and all other things are improving. We have gotten the pain to "almost contained", I think. He has periods of rest and sleep and that is good for everyone. He continues to talk, though not as much. He is very aware of what is going on.

I slept at home last night and left the hospital for a total of 20 hours. Why you ask? Because our dear friends (Max, Roxanne, Payton, and Landon Maxwell) from Florida arrive. They are PSCing from Hurlburt to Davis Monthan AFB. They got to the hospital around 7:00 pm on Thursday and Max came in and said I want to stay the night here with Mike. You go home and spend girl time, sleep, and take your time tomorrow. I will be here with Mike. I cried because I was so tired and I had just mentioned to Wendy that I will need a night at home soon. I tried to argue, but he took a stance besides Mike. He was standing guard over him and I knew that I could leave. Actually, I chuckled to myself and told everyone the nurses are going to welcome me back with open arms. They just thought I was demanding and nosy. I saw Max was on guard. It really touched me beyond words. He was standing guard as a friend. He was standing guard as a Christian brother. He was standing guard over his fellow Airman. I saw in his stance the AF creed... yet another wingman here at our side. This time the wingman comes on behalf of Hurlburt and AFSOC. Really Max standing guard was the physical presence of an entire group of Airman.

The timing was perfect. The fresh wind, fresh strength, fresh perspective, fresh fire, and inspirational words were what we both needed. Mike definitely needed the testosterone. Mike is constantly surrounded by women, so having a man sit down and talk shop to him helped stimulate that side of his brain. Max said that he was talking to Mike and he asked him if he knew who he was and Mike said "Max".

I spent the day with Roxanne as well. Actually, I slept late and then she went with me to run errands. But it was girlfriend time. We went to lunch too. I left Elizabeth at home with Payton and Landon. I let Elizabeth stay home from school and they spent the day in Wii world. After lunch, we went back to the house and loaded up the van to head to school. Today was the "Autobiography Gala" day. Elizabeth has been working on this project for 2 months. She wrote her own autobiography and it is incredible. She has a gift of putting words on paper. Honestly, it shocked me how good it is. But she had the opportunity, along with 22 other authors, to show her work. So Roxanne, Wendy, Payton, and I went to the event. Everyone was impressed. We also had to take some sort of treat for the kids. So I called up my friend Deeann and asked her to make cut out and frosted book cookies. Elizabeth handed her a list of her class with the titles of their autobiography. Deeann went above and beyond and created a book cookie to correspond with the autobiographies. Elizabeth was able to hand them out to everyone. The kids were thrilled, so much so that most didn't eat them but took them home with them.

It was such a good day. I haven't seen Elizabeth so Elizabeth in a long time. She is glowing and so "Elizabeth" today. I am typing this at 10:00 pm at night and I am not falling asleep. The only hard thing about the day is that I want Mike to be right beside me. To see everything, to read the books, to join the conversation....


Prayer needs:
Mike's brain, cancer, lungs, organs, mouth, limbs. That God continue to completely heal Mike.
Elizabeth
Me

Praise:
Friends
Air Force
Checks that continue to arrive as loving gifts - thank you
Cards (Shelly - I heard you in your note!)
Text messaging (Elizabeth lost her basketball game.. but that's ok because softball starts this week)
Beautiful roses in the room
Kathy for making calls
Deeann for cookies
That I can be here next to Mike and have so many things to praise Jesus for. His care is overwhelming even in the storm!