Update on my Dad's coma

After nine days of being in a coma, my Dad woke up.  I got a call from one of my sisters this morning (evening time for them in Germany), and she said, "He came back to us."

Things are still critical, and it sounds like he has extreme difficulty forming words, but he DID manage to ask where he was, what the results of the Bundesliga were (German soccer), and if he could have his smart phone.  He is breathing without a breathing tube.  When my sister told him "Du hast einen sturen Schaedel", which means "you have a stubborn skull", he smiled.  Do you know how many muscles, ergo brain functions, are involved with smiling?

This is good news, miraculous even!  It means his brain is gearing up, it means he still knows what's important to him, and it means he retained his sense of humor.

I don't want to go into too much detail here since I want to protect his privacy, and I don't want him to be mad at me for divulging so much personal stuff in case he ever reads this, but I wanted to tell you all that I might have gotten my father back and learned a few lessons at the same time.  Little things like forgiveness, humility, gratitude, and most importantly, the power of love.

I also wanted to thank you, my faithful blog readers, friends and family, for your absolutely overwhelming (in a good way) support after learning what happened to my Dad.  I received a huge amount of e-mails and comments, promising prayers and healing energy for him and my family.  I was brought to my knees by my father's illness, and you all and your care pulled me back onto my feet again.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  I was hesitant being so public about our situation, but I believe in the power of intention and decided to activate my huge network.  So he had has hundreds of people rooting for him, and I tell you, I think this is what made him wake up.  Thank you, peeps.  It means more than I can tell.

I'm gonna stop gushing now, otherwise the tears will flow again, and I've cried enough of them to last me a decade.

The weird thing is that life goes on, even in a crisis.  Although my thoughts were constantly in Germany, my own family still needed to be taken care of, the goats had to be milked, cheese had to be made, ham had to be cured, the kids to be homeschooled.  I made an extra effort to spend time in nature - an easy thing considering we live in the wilderness.

Here are pictures of our week.

Steve put a rub on the ham (from our own pigs) to be cured:

Steve helped wax cheese because I hate waxing it, but love the looks of it:

While poor Steve worked his butt off planting trees (that's his business), I took the kids for walks at our beautiful Skagit River:

We had our first frost this morning.  Winter is coming.  Good thing we have a woodstove and people to cuddle with.

Eva has been begging me to knit her a dress for her Barbie.  So I did.  I think there will be many, many more handknit dresses in all kinds of colors and styles in her future... I bet Santa would love to bring her some of these, don't you think?

I will leave you with a picture I took on the drive home from our downvalley shopping trip: a sign of hope.  Keep that hope coming!