New Year Update

After a rather last minute decision, Mailia and I flew to Michigan on the 27th of Dec. to spend time with family, and most importantly, for me to spend time with my brother. That afternoon we had a family gathering at a sister's house that included all 9 of my siblings. Yup, there's 10 of us. Rick was there with the aid of his oxygen machine (and his wife) and tho he seemed to enjoy himself, he was very clearly exhausted from struggling to breathe. He stayed as long as he could, many pictures were taken, and we all seemed to realize that getting all 10 of us together may never happen again. The next night Rick was admitted to the hospital via the ER. His bad lung is now non-functioning, and the good one had pneumonia.

He was released from the hospital on New Year's Eve with antibiotics, steroids and morphine. Hospice was discussed, but they have not been called in yet.

On New Year's Day we drew the winning name for our quilt raffle. The winner was Sharon Covart of Jacksonville, FL. I don't know Sharon, but I think she is a friend of a friend. Anyway, she had donated to the raffle via Paypal, so I went back to my paypal account to find her address so we could mail the quilt. Not only did I find her address, but I found this note, in regards to her donation:

"If I am lucky enough to win this beautiful quilt, I would like your family to keep it!! I am praying for you all and God Bless you!!"

She has no idea what a blessing that was. There was no question at that point what we would do with the quilt. We drove to Rick's house and presented that beautiful quilt to him, along with Sharon's message. What an emotional and poignant moment that was. One I will remember forever. Although Rick has not spoken the words, we all know that there is just no way he'll be able to take his dream trip to Brazil. But he knows how hard we tried and he is overwhelmed by our efforts. I wish to thank each of every one of you who helped us in our endeavour.

I would also ask that you keep Rick in your thoughts and prayers. His daughter was to be married in June of this year, but due to his declining health, moved the wedding up to the end of this month. He and we are hoping and praying that he will be well enough to attend. He very much wants to 'walk' his daughter down the aisle.

Mailia had a wonderful time that week. She has been wishing to play in the snow for 3 years now. Well she got her wish. She made snow angels, went sledding, tobogganing, 4-wheeling and ice fishing and even got to finally make a snowman. She so wants to move to Michigan. She played with cousins, had sleep-overs with cousins as well as a night spent with Grandma H.
And due to our record breaking cold here in Florida the past couple of weeks, we might as well move to Michigan. Yesterday morning it was 27 degrees at home, 33 degrees here.

I'll post some pictures a little later.