Hi Everyone,

Tonight, when I came home to dinner, Ruth was already at the table and kids were in various stages of arriving. We talked for a couple of minutes and then, in the quiet, Ruth said, "Adrian helped me walk to the table." I didn't really get it at first, but as I looked at her, she looked low and small. Something was missing. Then I realized she was in my family's small "heirloom" green wooden chair, not the giant wheelchair.

! 1. She was sitting in a simple wooden chair for the first time in months, and

! 2. that meant she had not wheeled into the room, but arrived in her walker!

Well, yes, great things keep on happening. We saw the orthopaedic surgeon in Philly on Tuesday (or, rather, his assistant; he's in Haiti, which only deepened our respect for him). She said things look very good (and we were able to see the xrays which was cool. Glad all that stuff is on the INside) and gave Ruth permission to start putting a tiny amount of weight on her right foot. That's huge. And she no longer has to use the platform part of the walker, which means both hands are on it like you would normally use one. So she did today, several times, walk around a bit. Wow. Her right arm didn't even hurt after leaning on it in that way. That is so much to be grateful for. She even learned to do stairs (though not the whole flight yet, only a couple).

The other part of the story involves a "wait" from God, but it's minor, I guess. Her hip wound (still about a 6"x6"x6" triangle) is ready for the skin graft, but she needs to be on blood thinner until April and they can't do the graft while she's still on the blood thinner. So that will be a bandage site until then, and certain foods she is restricted from will still be off limits.

But generally all is well. We have been to church three times now and to prayer last Sunday night---it's been wonderful---also a little shopping, she's folding laundry, making salads, doing pretty much unrestricted stuff with her hands. The worst of it now is probably once a day her knee has some pain, but the med helps.

Again, your prayers and help have been priceless to us. We will understand if you don't check the blog again, but we will post a few more times over the months when we get significant news.

If I can give you something else to pray for, many of you "got to know" Naomi through this blog for her mom. She is in the midst of college applications now, we are still very busy at home, she has a lot of schoolwork and she doesn't have a specific college preference. If you would pray for God's guidance and discernment, and that life would slow down just a bit, it seems like that would be really good for her.

thank you
Brian