God's grace and faithful friends...

Well, we've been in Tampa (acutally, Brandon) since Wednesday.  Claude's brother, Tony, is still on the ventilator.  They say if they take him off right now, he would not breathe on his own for more than a minute and would not make it, so they are leaving him there right now.  They have to do an EEG of his brain to check for brain damage, but they have to take him off of the meds in order to get a "real" brain scan (which makes sense, since the meds are dulling his brain right now).  They can't take him off the meds quickly.  They need him to slowly come out of the medically induced coma so that everything he's hook up to won't freak him out.  It's a long process and still a critical battle, but at least he is stable and everything so far has been for the good (as far as change).  

My grandmother is still in the hospital at UCH.  She is loopy right now from the meds they had her on.  The general practice MD said they found a hiatal hernia, ulcers in her stomach, and some mild lesions.  They believe this is what caused her to throw up blood, but the gastroenterologist was not making rounds while we were there so we didn't get anything definite from him.  They will keep her a couple more days to monitor her.  

Our friends in Tampa, Brandon, Valrico, Greenville, Winterville...THEY ARE THE BEST!  We have had so much going on that we haven't thought too much about anything else, but thank God, our friends have thought about everything else for us!  

Bethany - taking care of our home and "kids"!  U have no idea how much that means to me to know I don't need to worry about the animals!  Thank you and I love ya!

Jason & Lora - holding down EVERYTHING while we are gone.  You are the greatest friends we could ask for.  We love ya'll and miss ya'll so much!

Aron & Cessie - taking care of childrens church for us!  WHEW!  That's a HUGE blessing!  We were just going to have the kids go to big church!  Thank you both for doing that for us!  We love ya'll!

Emily Whitaker - allowing us to borrow her car while we are here so that my parents don't have to "taxi" us back and forth to the hospital!  We love you girl!  You are MY girl!!!!

Tamara Fish - for calling and offering to do anything we need.  This is a true friend!  We haven't seen each other in years, yet she is willing to do anything for us!  FOOD is always a great way to maintain friendships!!!!!

The Nassars - for the visit to the hospital to let us know that you love us and are praying for us!

We miss ya'll and we certainly miss hanging out and going out to eat with you~

Jim Bird - for passing the word around and asking our old church for prayers!  That was awesome man!  We love you!

Pastor Chuck - for coming to the hospital twice to check on us and see how Tony was doing!  Thank you for caring about your flock even when we aren't part of your flock anymore!  You truly love people and you certainly showed it in spades!!!!  We love you!

My parents - for allowing us to come and go as needed.  for allowing us to crash at the house and eat the food!  for taking care of our needs financially!  We love you so much and there are no words to say how thankful we are!

The CROSSLINK youth group - for stepping up and taking over the "Kearley move"!  We miss you all so much and love you guys!  We are so proud of you and the way you serve others!  

1 Timothy 4:12

There are others that I know I haven't mentioned.  Too many to remember them all, but we are so thankful!  God bless each of you for the blessing you've been to Claude and me.

We love you, Discovery Church!  We'll be praying for you this weekend.