One day, my little girl self asked my dad, “Where did I come from?”

He responded: “God.”

“Where did all the other people come from?”

“God.”

“Where did the stars in the sky come from?”

“God.”

“Where did God come from?”

🤯

(I don’t actually remember what my dad said to that question.)

Everything comes from something.

Doesn’t it?

I mean, something can’t come from nothing…

Can it?

Anyway, I would think about that very question so deeply as a child. If everything traces back to God, how did God come to be?

Sigh.

I miss the great conversations I used to have with my dad.

I remember one night, Vicki and I were tucked into bed and I asked my dad, “How come God gave you two babies at the same time and other people only have one?”

I had always thought how sad other children must be that they didn’t have a built-in best friend like I had with Vicki.

My dad explained. You see, he had been married before my mom and they had a little boy. But he died at six months of age from the flu. Their marriage did not survive that loss.

Years later, my dad met my mom and, through their union, God blessed them with twin girls. The first baby, Vicki, gave him back the baby he lost and the second baby, me, was an extra one to make up for it 🙂

We loved hearing my dad tell that story. We would ask to hear it again and again.

The way he chose to look at losing his child taught me so much at an early age how to focus on the positive things in life and not dwell on tragedy.

***

Mike can do a thumbs up…

With his left hand.

While some days are better than others, this is the most movement he’s had in that hand since the stroke.

We are looking at about a month out from the second Botox administration. This time, Dr. Doyle basically doubled the dose. On his exam, Mike’s left arm muscles were less in contracture, which is a good indication that the Botox is helping.

But it’s all a process and we just have to wait and see over the next year how much arm and hand function he will recover. Therapy is still key. He continues working with Jaycee four days a week.

She started putting “L” stickers around the house to encourage Mike to use his left hand for those tasks. The brain is slowly remembering that he has a left hand.

He’s regaining his independence one day at a time and finding purpose in daily activities. His biggest motivator lately has been mowing the lawn on the tractor. Jaycee worked with him about a month ago and he can get on the tractor by himself, start it and maneuver the levers.

This is so huge for him!!

And it serves two very important purposes.

It helps him practice driving by visually scanning to his left as well as accomplishing the very important and useful goal of mowing the lawn.

There have been a few little mishaps along the way, however, they’ve been good learning opportunities without significant injury (thank God).

I was watching him on the mower the other night. He had a very relaxed, comfortable posture and a look of sheer satisfaction. It was wonderful to see how happy it makes him.

And while there are some areas of the lawn that he neglects, my eyes do not dwell there. I only see the nicely manicured sections that my wonderful hubby was able to cut all on his own. ❤️