Thank you to all who blessed us financially prior to, during, and after the concert for Ian! It’s been extremely helpful to have a source of funds to tap to get things to help him.

As Larissa mentioned in a previous post, we bought a much-needed ramp to get Ian into friends’ homes. We’re not very experienced at this, and after using the ramp we realized we’ll need to get another smaller one for those not-so-unusual situations where we have to get over only one step.

I bought a handheld massager for him. It’s a gizmo that will not only give him a pretty good massage, but it’s something the therapists use to help relax his tight arms and get him to stretch out more.

I’ve also been working on an overhead pulley system that will provide him an exercise tool at home that the therapists use with him at the hospital. I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure how to imitate what they have there and collecting the hardware to make it happen at home.

Thanks, David, Stephen, Erich, Phil, and all of you who helped them, for taking the initiative to do the concert! We wouldn’t have pursued the idea with so many other things we have to do, so it really was a blessing that you did it!

Pray for Ian.

Steve

Awhile ago, we mentioned on here how Ian was kicking his leg to say “no.” Recently, he has stopped doing this consistently. His therapists have been working with him to kick a ball, but he just won’t do it. We’re trying to work on more things at home with him now and today I thought I would work on that. I was getting ready to pray with Ian that God would help him to kick his leg, and as I said that, he kicked. Then he did it two more times in a pretty short amount of time.

We sucessfully used our new ramp for the first time. The Versace’s, a family from our church, had us over for dinner. It was really nice for Ian to be able to come too and of course it was a wonderful meal!

Ian has had an uneventful week as far as therapy. One of his therapists was on vacation so next week he will hopefully be walking again.

That being said, there’s not a ton of news from this end. Thank you always for praying.

Larissa

 Mark, one of Ian’s good friends, is getting married this summer. Ian is one of the groomsmen, and so Mark called to thank him and to talk about the wedding. I don’t know what Mark said exactly, but whatever it was Ian was really responding (by blinking). It seems as though he was really encouraged by what Marky was saying. 

“In both its precepts and penalty, the law of God in its most exacting requirements was fulfilled by Jesus. And He did this in our place as our representative and our substitute.”

– Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace

….to everyone who made it to the concert last night. What a blessing to see so many people there even though I’ve never seen the roads so bad in Indiana! We were very blessed by the worship and time of prayer for Ian. It was incredible to overhear all of the prayers that were being asked of God while we sat in the church. Ian really seemed to enjoy the night too. He had a very content expression. I can only imagine how encouraged he was to hear those prayers as well.

Thank you for your generous giving- we will be able to buy a ramp and then some.

Thank you to our church family for your constant support. Last night was a very good example of how loved we are by our church and how blessed we are to be a part of it.

Thank you most of all Erich, David, Stephen and Phil. You all put so much work into the concert. Thank you for caring for Ian so much that you wanted to do this. While the concert was going on, I was looking at all of you on the stage and thinking of how each of you has had a significant impact on Ian’s life. You all continue to serve and pray for Ian. Thank you for not giving up hope.

Have a great weekend everyone

Larissa