That was the question the speech therapist asked Ian. She asked him to turn and look at Larissa, and he did it. Once again, those are signs to us that he’s really in there…somewhere.

He was in his “stander” and was moving all around with his hands and hips. The stander rubs on his knee a bit, so he has a sore there now.

Larissa mentioned in her previous post that he has something called MRSA in his right eye. I understand that we likely all have this (bacteria?) in our bodies, but we don’t feel it’s effects. Ian does, and it plays out like an infection that is very itchy for him. When his arm brace is off, he goes for his eye with his hand to scratch and rub his eye. That action could lead to the spread of this infection. If he rubs his eye, then the infection transfers to his hand and from there to other parts of his body. Please pray for his eye.

Thank you for your prayers.

Steve

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The weirdest thing made me cry last night. I was on my way to Walmart and Free Falling by Tom Petty came on the radio. I didn’t realize that I had an emotional attachment to the song, and for any of you that know the words, it’s not a song that would typically make someone cry. But when I heard it, I just had a flashback to being in the car with Ian. I don’t remember where we were going, but this song came on and he just started belting out the words. He loves to sing and Free Falling is one of those songs where it’s almost better to just yell the words with tons of dramatic emotion than to just sing it- and Ian is great at that. Every minute with Ian is like this. He is more full of life than anyone that I’ve ever met. That’s what makes this experience that much harder.

We don’t have as many updates to post as we did back in the ICU or even at Life Care. That is such a blessing, that we don’t have to report on any more huge surgeries. But at times it can feel like we have just been waiting- waiting for him to talk, waiting for him to just wake up and tell me how much he missed me while he was gone. I don’t want to lose sight of the huge miracles that God has already performed in Ian’s recovery. But wow, I think I can speak for the Murphys as well as for myself, that we are learning more and more about patience every day. We are learning what it means to trust in the Lord and wait on Him and His perfect timing.

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Ever since the wreck I’ve been in a mode that isn’t natural for me. I like to think big picture, to think ahead, to plot a course, to think about and plan for tomorrow. The wreck has forced me to focus only on the next moment and maybe the next day. It’s too overwhelming to think beyond the next moment. I’ve learned (or, rather, I’ve been forced) to lean on Christ, to entrust the next days and weeks and months and years to Him. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Difficulties like this have a way forcing us into this position of moment by moment trust in the power and wisdom and sovereignty and kindness of God…but, then, that’s where I should have been all along. I pray that Ian knows the same moment by moment trust.

Pray that Ian would begin to talk to us. Thank you for your prayers.

Steve

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We heard a report of a man who was in the ICU for three weeks and experienced what has been termed ICU Psychosis. He appeared completely disoriented and out of it. Ian has been in an ICU environment for nearly six months. I can’t imagine how disoriented he must feel.

That’s why we want to bring him home. We want him back to familiar surroundings. We want Lydia, his three-year-old sister, to be able to climb all over him and talk to him. We want him to hear her talking to him, talking to herself, and singing to herself the cute nonsense songs we hear all the time. We want him to be with people he knows and loves all the time. We want him at some point to be at our church – the church he loves so much – on a Sunday morning. It’s going to be very difficult to take care of him, I think…but it will be the best thing for him at this point. We’re extremely grateful to the people at the Children’s Institute, but I think they’re absolutely right to want to get him into familiar surroundings by sending him home.

What you’re seeing in this picture is the bathroom that’s taking shape in Ian’s room in the addition. Thanks Dave and Bob! It’s looking great!

Pray for us as we face another difficult chapter in the story of Ian’s recovery. Pray for good weather over the next few weeks; the paving company needs it to even consider installing a driveway to the addition. We need a driveway to even consider getting him into the addition – even the first day home – and his arrival home is very soon. The goal of the staff at the Children’s Institute is to send him home in two to four weeks.

Most of all, pray for Ian.

Steve

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I remember as kids, maybe eight or nine, Ian and I were playing in his backyard. I turned to him and said, “Hey Ian, you know what I used to hate?”

“What’s that?” he said.

“I used to hate it when we’d be playing outside and you’d say, ‘I got and idea.’ And I’d say ‘What’s that?’ And you’d say ‘I’m gonna go inside.’ Boy, I really used to hate that!”

Ian looked at me for a moment and then said, not missing a beat, “I got an idea!”

“What’s that?” I replied excitedly (maybe I was dumb, I don’t know…).

“I’m gonna go inside,” Ian said. And he did. And I burst into tears.

Ian’s always had an amazing sense of comedic timing (I know, some of you are saying what’s comedic about the story I’ve just relayed…looking back I think it’s hilarious). And I can say with confidence that Ian’s still got it.

Last Saturday, my brother Stephen and I were visiting Ian. We were singing some worship songs to him, “In Christ Alone”, “Oh Faithful God”, and others. After three or four songs Stephen asked Ian, “Are there any songs you want us to sing to you? Any favorite worship songs that you’ve been itching to hear?” Ian looked at Stephen for a long moment and then, in classic Ian style, he released a perfectly timed belch.

Ian is still making me laugh. I am so grateful to God for Ian and his humor.

David

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When I pray for Ian, I usually pray for his physical needs and that he would come back to us soon. God laid it on my heart this afternoon to pray for encouragement and faith for Ian. He cannot go to church, cannot pick a worship song to listen to, and cannot even feed himself spiritually through reading the Word. I know how I feel after just one week of missing church or one day of skipping my devotional time. Ian hasn’t been to church in five months. He hasn’t been able to read his Bible in five months. Whenever we are with him, we try to read scripture and sing worship songs to him, but there are many hours that we are not there.

God is still with Ian. I believe that Ian is experiencing God in ways that we cannot understand. But I still want to pray that he would be encouraged. I want to pray that he is able to remember the cross, and remember all that Jesus has done for him. I want to pray that he would be refreshed by thoughts of the gospel. I have no idea where Ian’s mind has been this whole time, but I want to pray that he can meditate on the cross and on God’s goodness. How much more important is Ian’s relationship with God than the condition of his body! I pray that he continues to believe true thoughts about our Lord. And I want to pray for abundant grace for the challenges he will face when he wakes.

Pray that Ian can see the fruit of this trial now. Pray that he can still know that God is good. Pray that he would know that he is still now, even in a coma, a vessel of honor for God.

“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
2 Timothy 2:21

Larissa

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“Mark the error of despair. We should see that the case of a praying man cannot be desperate—that if a man be out of the pit of hell, he is on the ground of grace. We should see that God sees a way of escape when we see none—that nothing is too hard for him—that He warrants our dependence, and invites us to call on Him in the day of trouble, and gives promise of deliverance.” John Newton wrote that. John Piper calls him a “great and tender warrior against despair in other people’s lives. Long trials, like this one that Ian and his family and friends are going through often tempt us to despair. Their response of faith, instead of despair continues to teach us all the truth of what John Newton said hundreds of years ago, and continues to prove that God never changes. He takes perfect care of His people; from Adam and Eve to Ian and his loved ones. In John Piper’s “Life as a Vapor” he tells us that Newton’s favorite poet, George Herbert, lived more than 100 years before him, and then goes on to record one of Herbert’s poems. This is how I want to instruct my own soul:

Away, Despair! My gracious Lord doth hear:
Though winds and waves assault my keel,
He doth preserve it: He doth steer,
Ev’n when the boat seems most to reel:
Storms are the triumph of His art:
Well may He close His eyes, but not His heart.

Hundreds of years after our brother, George Herbert lived to write that line, our God proves it to be true for His children today. His greatest, most precious, loveliest, and most enduring works are done during the storms of our lives. “…in faithfulness You have afflicted me.” Ps. 119:75. It’s in the storms where our hearts are revealed, and our most loving Father knows that our sin is far more dangerous and deadly to His children than any trial or affliction could ever be. This is a long and hard trial that He’s brought into our friend’s lives; one that I don’t think that I could bear up with the grace and dignity that they have and are. Let’s be hard in prayer against the temptation of despair, while we wait for their son and brother and our friend to wake up.

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Mary was with Ian today and said he was moving around a lot as we’ve noticed him doing more in the last week or so. He was in his stander today and appeared to be struggling to reach an area on his body that was bothering him, so Mary put her hand there and made an adjustment or two. He responded by simply not reaching for that spot anymore. One nurse as he was taking care of Ian asked him to lift his arm for some reason, and he did. Twice more the nurse made the same request, and he did it each time. Fairly consistently now, he rubs his nose and eyes and goes for “sleepies” in his eyes. These are small signs of progress.

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