Out, out!

Hi, this is April. I'm in Moreland and back on blog duty. Just heard from Mother that Daddy had the tubes taken out today. Hurray! They just slipped right out without hurting him at all, even though Daddy had been warned that there would be 15 seconds of excruciating pain. Daddy asked, "Are they out?" and the nurse held the tubes up for him to see. He's been very uncomfortable with those tubes, so he's thrilled to be free. He needs to rest now, but we think he may return home tomorrow! We'll keep you posted.

Mother and Daddy both want to thank everyone who has been so kind and helpful in the past week. It's really been a tremendous relief to Mother to have everything taken care of so she could be with Daddy at the hospital.

So many of you have written or called to say, "I want to help. What can I do?" We can't tell you how much we appreciate those offers, and we promise that we'll take you up on them after Daddy is home from the hospital, the family is able to shift out of crisis mode, and we settle into recovery and "normal life" (not that we've ever had a very firm grip on normalcy).

Many folks have also volunteered to bring meals to the family. I'm here waiting on a service repair and some friends will also be here this afternoon, so someone will be at the house all day today if people want to come by. (We'd better wait for more news about Daddy before we say anything about where we'll be tomorrow. "One step at a time, sweet Jesus . . .")

Thanks again for all your kindness and concern. We feel very blessed to have you as friends.