Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Random Update...

I noticed on my friends blog the other day, she did "catch up" updates! That is what I will do today. Random pictures and updates on the Thieles...Enjoy.

I took care of my mom who died from ALS. She couldn't talk or move, just nod yes, blink and smile. I created a board to help her communicate with us, as ALS paralyzes your body, but not your brain. We would hold the board and help her spell words. We would ask her if the letter was in Row 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. When we would get to the row she wanted she would nod or blink. Then we would ask her what letter, A, B, C, D or E (according to that row), etc. It was a very slow and frustrating process for her, because her brain was fast and we were slow. We invented other columns too. Nouns and Verbs, to bypass the long spelling process. At any rate, I have kept this board since my mom has died almost two years. My son came into my office and made a comment about this board the other day, he said, "You still have this mom?" I thought yeah...funny how we hold on to things. Later that day I went to gather some school supplies and stopped to buy a white board...SILLY! I couldn't justify spending $25 on a white board when I had a perfectly good one at home...and I could send that money to Africa, so I passed it up determined to erase the board when I got home and move on. Once I got home, I had my pitty party and cried over the loss of one more thing of my mom's, AND.... I use permanent marker to write on the board...there was NO way it was coming off. I scrubbed, used simple green, orange oil, soap and my finger nail... All that sorrow and getting ready for NOTHING. The board is still sitting in my office but I am glad the Lord took me through the process of letting go.

Little Lizzy Lizard made way into our house...Chris

Coral...apprehensive (like her mom, how will we live in Africa?)

Cailee will help us, she isn't afraid of anything..


Cyilea is unmoved too...


Little Chloe

Lizzy Herself, How do I know it's a girl you ask...


Chris played basket ball this summer...he made one point and was great on defence!




Bryan played softball this summer...he made 5 home runs and made boo boo on his leg...


Women's leadership retreat, in Flagstaff AZ...


Beautiful flowers on the side of the road





Julie, Lisa and I, roomys...




Our retreat was "Shaped to Serve," these are our vessels...




Cyilea loves to have her bible out when we all have ours, so Amy decided to buy her her own. She was so excited to have it. She carried it around with her and then finally fell asleep on it. She was soo...cute.





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the look on Cyilea's face in the one picture. :-)

Cindy said...

I have been in your house of course, but had never seen the white board, though I've heard about it often. Thank you for sharing the photo. I'm glad you were able to keep that. Love you :)

Elissa Hill said...

Okay, I think I will pass on that lizzard, Yuck! LOL. And the picture of all of us at the womens retreat came out awsome! It was cute! Love the pictures, thanks for sharing. :)

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