back to reality

Hello,Beloved.

The countdown is almost over, And as we prepare to leave room 806...I cannot stop the tears. So many new friends that have made my going home possible. I never thought 5 weeks ago, that it would be hard to leave. I have been in 'survival mode' these past weeks,and it is difficult to leave this refuge. It has been hard work and i have missed my home...but my stroke has given me an opportunity to focus on my recovery and to put off grieving my loss of Shiloh. And so, this weekend is the end of my hospital stay...but also the beginning of my healing of my broken heart.

how grateful I am for my stroke. isn't that just like our God?

Jeff and I have said very little about losing our baby on this blog. I guess it is because we were incapable of dealing with my stroke and Shiloh's death at the same time.
so, as Jeff said this is the beginning of a new chapter of this blog. i hope you will continue this journey with us.
I just want to encourage you to turn in your bible and read about Hannah-look in 1 Samuel chapter 1. she was without a son and she prayed to God to remember her...
scripture says she was bitter...then God answers her prayers...and she glorifies the lord with a beautiful prayer..
the amazing thing is that she sends her baby to the temple to live and to worship God. She too, suffers a loss.I I really was touched by Hannah's story when Jeff and I lost our first son,Chet ,3 years ago. we decided to name our baby Shiloh, because, like Hannah, we prayed for another baby...and He heard our prayers.

I am running out of steam. Good night,all.

now I lay me down to sleep.
i pray thee Lord, my soul to keep...

thank you thank you dear sweet Lord.
Leslie

Good Tuesday morning friends

Good morning

Today is our Tuesday meeting with the medical team were we will get Leslie's report card and have the opportunity to ask questions, and I have a feeling there will be many as we approach our discharge date this Saturday. Leslie is doing a great job she is working very hard to get as stable and strong as she can before returning home, we love each of you and thank you again for your love for Leslie and our family. Your payers and words of comfort have truly been comfort to us. Our God is so good and the incredible gifts that our Father has brought into our lives, we are so thankful for.

Thanks for coming by to check on us.

God bless JRP

Wow Wow Wow Sunday morning Feb 1

I don't quite know were to start, first sorry for the lack of info for the last few days, the day is drawing near for us to go home and the days go by so much faster and seem to be much busier with all types of therapy and rest therapy and rest. Friday Beau and I were in East Texas for school, once this was over we headed for Dallas to see Momma, we had a scheduled training with the therapist for Beau and I to get trained on how to help Momma in and out of the car, Leslie did a wonderful job ,her strength has really come back strong and she was able after a few suggestions from the therapy staff to get in and out of the car very well. This training prepared us well for our much anticipated trip away from the hospital on Saturday, man this was a sweet tip ,we went to the Dallas Arboretum, what a beautiful day it was strolling around in the gardens. When we arrived back at Zale we were very tired so we rested for a moment before my wife said cant we get some pizza delivered, an that's what we did, we had a pizza party and watch the Muppet's in Space, we had a great time then we all crashed. Today is Sunday the big game day and my wife, daughter and I are going to watch the game together.. I need to go now , we love each of you and cant thank you enough for your continued love and support for our sweet Leslie and our family.

God bless you

Thank you Father for this beautiful life and all the wonderful people you have brought into our life and the paths that have crossed, we love you Father and pray that we would honor you with our lives.....Amen

love
JRP

Thursaday 29th

Hello,

How inspiring was our guest last night, she is awesome,wow..... I am very proud of my girl,she had a great day today as well, with continued strength in her walking and control of her left arm. When Beau and I arrived at he hospital Leslie was just getting ready to go to another (PT) and they asked Leslie would you like to walk or ride and she said WALK, man, I started to hear that song "Eye Of The Tiger"in my mind, it was great thing to watch, off she went. Beau and I went around the hospital delivering some thank you dessert trays to our new friends here at Zale Lipshy, Beau really enjoyed that. I want our friends at Baylor Grapevine to know that you are still on our mind and in our hearts, we thank you for your prayers and concerns. Beau and I made it back to East Texas for school, then we will be headed back to Dallas to check on momma..

Your comments on Leslie's post were beautiful, your words of encouragement, the prayers and the living word of God each of you shared with us, we are truly blessed.

Thank you again for coming to the blog to check on my wife.
we love each of you very much and cant wait to see each of you..

God is good, and your prayers for continued strength and peace for Leslie would be so wonderful.
God bless JRP

Wednesday Jan29 Special Guest Night

Good evening to all are dear family, friends and brothers and sisters that have walked with Leslie in this storm...
I am not going to talk tonight, my beautiful wife Leslie has asked to see the computer tonight, here is my sweet Leslie .........................



hello, beloved.

i miss you all -terribly -




i can not thank you enough for the calls, cards, and the blog entries....you are all so encouraging, but it is your faithful prayers and God's healing hands that have sustained me through the darkest times. when I read this blog - it is overwhelming. my husband, the servant - I will never look at him the same. surely you can all see his heart burns for our savior. oh, how he convicts my heart in the sweetest way. I look forward to sharing with each of you how God is working at the zale-lipshy building - it is always so fabulous to find yourself smack in the middle of His plan, or better yet, to feel yourself being used by Him. really, it's too big to comprehend, but it is so cool.



this is one cool thing that has happened: a "chaplain" stopped by to see me. We talked for a minute and then he said he wanted to share a verse with me, "for no other reason than i like it..."



so he shared Zephaniah, 3:17



The LORD your God is with you,

he is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing."



I smiled the rest of the day imagining what song God might be singing over me....grateful for His love and how He has quieted my aching soul...



I turned to Zephaniah in my bible and read the verse right before this verse that was speaking to my heart...and I started laughing as I read.. On that day they will say to Jerusalem,"Do not fear, O Zion; "do not let your hands hang limp".






funny - how i felt like that verse was just for me....and as the frustration grows even now as i try to type with both hands - when only one works...i remember that my creator is singing over me, and my frustration turns to worship.....i will not let my hand hang limp...i want to sing to my king and soon I will. i will be the one with hands held high (no little thing coming from this southern baptist girl!!)





i am just 10 days from going home...yea!!

i am making progress every day....

can't wait to see you!!

Leslie

Tuesday Jan, 27 2009

Good day to you all.., what a day. I am very excited to tell each of you that Beau and I just finished walking behind Leslie all the way from the gym back to her room, it was a beautiful thing to watch, I am very proud of my wife... There were congrats and praises from not only nurses, doctors and staff but patience as well, as we walked down the hall, this touched me deeply. When Leslie sat on the side of the bed she said I need to take a rest, so Beau and I put mommas pillows were they needed to be and covered her with a blanket, turned off the lights and left the room so Leslie could get a little Nap before her next session at 3:30pm. This next session will be with Leslie's (ST) speech therapist, it will also be her last meeting with her (ST), we were told just a few minutes ago that Leslie has graduated from her speech therapist classes and will no longer need to meet with her (ST), what a wonderful thing, it has been a very eventful day. As many of you know Tuesday is a big day here at the hospital because this is the day were we get our report card, so shortly after 11:00am this morning we were given Leslie's report card and told that there was now a discharge date, I have to say the room lit up with smiles, this was a huge piece of info for us to get an answer to , the big day is February 7, a week from this coming Saturday, how great is that. I cant tell how wonderful this has made my wife feel, now we have a date to shoot for.....Your prayers and letters have truly lifted my wife's spirits, and the comments on the blog have been a blessing.. Today was another one of those days were I really enjoyed watching people use the gifts that God has gifted them with, what a beautiful thing to watch...

Thank you Father for your Grace and Mercy

We love you all
God bless JRP
Psalm 150
1 Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

John 15
The Vine and the Branches 1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.

Monday 26th

Hope this post finds each of you doing well, I am sorry for the delay in information, but life just caught up with us and we had to take a break and take care of business. Now lets get back to more important stuff, like my wife and how she is progressing. Saturday was a beautiful day, but it came with some news that was not the greatest to hear. Saturday morning Leslie began having pains in her left leg, she told the doctor about this and they suggested that we do a Doppler scan of her leg, which happened Saturday afternoon, soon after we received the results and found that Leslie had a blood clot in her lower left leg, this was and is a scary thing for us. They started my wife on medicine immediately after getting the results and told us to stay in bed and keep our movement to a minimum, so we did just that ,stayed still and tried to get as much rest as possible. Beau and I spent Saturday night with momma and watched a good movie before going to bed. Sunday morning came we all started moving around and the nurses came in to give Leslie her next doses of medicine for her blood, and her other meds she is on. We spent some time listening to some praise and worship music Sunday morning, then Leslie's brother and his wife came in the door and shortly after we had our own church service, it was great to share strength and hope, glorify our God and fulfill what he has called us to do, honor him... we had some visitors from our church care group come buy to see Leslie and I think it was really good for her to have a little distraction from having to just sit still in the bed all day..... Mami and Papa droped in to check on Leslie on there way back from the ranch and Joey one of Leslie's great friends stayed the afternoon to help, Mimi came later in the day to spend the night and day with Leslie while Beau and I returned to East Texas to go to school on Monday. Talking with Leslie's mother today she said the doctors had slowly started to get Leslie up and moving again, they had checked Leslie's blood and felt it was getting close to the therapeutic stage, they said for her blood clot, this is a good thing. I also heard through the grapevine that my wife walked with the help of her therapist from her bedroom door to the side of her bed, no walker this time ,great job babe, wish I had been there... My wife is an amazing woman and our God is truly indescribable....

We love and thank each of you.

God bless you .... Leslie, Beau and Jeff

Psalm 19
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart.The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
11 By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Had to pause

Sorry for the break in information, just had alot of things to do . I will bring you up to date today.......

God bless JRP

Friday Jan.23

Good evening to all, today was a beautiful day here in East Texas, as many of you know Beau and I are in East Texas spending a little time at our house and checking on our dogs, we had a great day together, we do miss not being with momma, but we left her in great hands all day with Mimi. I am going to do my best to fill you in on Leslie's day, not having first hand knowledge of it, I spoke with Mimi and it sounded to me that today was very much like yesterday. Leslie was able to get a good nights sleep, and the day started off with a bang, all the different therapists came to get Leslie and took her to work, Mimi said Leslie had a date with the walker again and did a great job, wish I had been there to see her strolling down the hall. Beau and I tried to call Leslie several times today, but each time we called she would be gone for another therapy class, it was a busy day for our momma. Leslie really has continued to get better, her strength and movement on her left side has improved with every day, God is good. We are very thankful for the gifts, talents and drive God has gifted all of our therapist, doctors, nurses and support staff with, it is a beautiful thing to watch people do what there were gifted to do. Beau and I will be returning back to Dallas on Saturday to spend the weekend with Momma, It is only by Gods grace, and your prayers that we feel peace being away from our wife, our momma.... we thank you again for honoring our Father by your continued love and prayer for Leslie .


We love each of you, have a wonderful weekend,
spend it on things not of this world, but things of the heart


God bless JRP

Colossians 2:6-8

Freedom From Human Regulations Through Life With Christ.

6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

8See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Thursday 9:00pm Our God is Good

It was a great day for Leslie, Beau and I .It started out with a wonderful breakfast together this morning, Leslie wanted to get out of bed and seated in a chair, so we both helped momma into a chair then we huddled around the cool little adjustable bed table and had a wonderful start of the day meal together. Shortly after we finished it was off to occupational therapy and the day went on from there. As Beau and I went to be with Leslie during her sessions I was very excited to see her continued improvement, Leslie has really been able to focus on her therapy now that several of the pains that were really bothering her are under control. During Leslie's physical therapy it was very nice to see what they had her do, Leslie affectionately calls it the evil walker, it is this piece of equipment that is designed to allow Leslie to stand up on her feet and rest her arms on these pads that surround her, she then started the journey back to the her room, Beau had to go to the bathroom so we left momma with her therapist, as Beau and I were leaving mommas room we stepped out of the doorway and there she was, Leslie took her time and had made it all the way back to her room on her own two feet, I am very impressed with my wife, she did a very good job making her way back to the room today, so Beau and I did a little cheer. After Leslie finished her therapy, Beau and I had to take momma on a walk to get some much needed fresh air and a little bit of that fine sunshine today. It seemed like today every time Leslie finished one session there was barely enough time to get a little rest before the other therapist showed up, so I have a feeling my sweet wife will rest well tonight, and I pray that for her. Beau and I came back to East Texas today to go to school on Friday, we are also just trying to give Beau a little structure again, it has been a little wild for her lately..

I am so thankful for the strength the Lord has given my wife, I am also thankful for the hearts he has given each of you that come, not only to see what the Lord is doing in our lives but to pray as well for Leslie and our family. Thank you to our family, our friends, and the many brothers and sisters, that we have never even met, but they have come to lift us up. Most of all thank you Father for bringing us all together in this incredible journey, LIFE......... Father may we honor you in all that we do.....Amen..............

2 Samuel 22:2
"The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

God bless

JRP