School has been back in for about a month and she's fully submerged in her senior year. She's been voted senior class president and Beta Club president and helps lead weekly Chapel. She also has a full schedule with her youth group involved in ministry and mission work.
Besides having the bending, twisting and lifting restrictions for a bit longer, Ashley is back to full functionality. She's adapted to using her reacher for things on the floor and she's developed her own little techniques for dressing and so forth. I guess this is the mechanical mind she inherited from her father. She's all girl, but let me assure you, the workshop is not her weak point. She is not intimidated by any tool or task requiring a little elbow grease or ingenuity. Just like her father, she is a "fix it" girl. It's a joke at our house that when she was way younger and at a friend's house and something would break or not work correctly, she would quickly volunteer their services, "My daddy AND ME can fix it for you." When she was 11, she was attending a birthday party where the activity was making jewelry. The mom hosting the party unknowingly did not have the correct tool for some of the tedious tasks of looping the hooks, and so with the snap of a phone call, assuring her dad the party would be a flop without his help, Johnny found himself in the midst of a jewelry-making party! She knows the names of tools and how to use them that I couldn't begin to even recognize. About 4 weeks after surgery, she bounced in the den one day and informed us that she wanted to invent a tool for shaving her legs. Being unable to bend, I had been offering my spa-like services, but Miss Independent surfaced quickly. True to form, about 30-45 minutes after sharing her plan with her father, they emerge from the workshop with her newest best friend. She even devised a plan and tool for applying the shaving cream. Two weeks into school this year, she bounces in and informs us of a new assignment, but she didn't intend to do a poster board of facts. No, she planned to do a full scale model of Shakespeare's original Globe Theatre. WHAT A WEEK!!
God has been so good and faithful through this journey, and we just want to thank Him and give Him all the glory. From the time of her diagnosis, he has orchestrated every detail. His infinite wisdom is matchless. We are so very thankful to have been blessed with the opportunity to have a physician such as Dr. Hey. Thankful that we live in a country where access to this type of medical care is available and able to be provided in institutional settings with advancements in care emerging daily. There are some surgeons around the world who only dream of being able to perform surgeries with state of the art centers and equipment as are standard in America today. May we always be very mindful not to take this for granted. His mercy and goodness are truly humbling.
As I pulled up the blog last night, I noticed that I had forgotten one of the most important parts of this journey...post procedure photos! How did I miss that? So, in closing, I'll leave you with the end result.
Things are really getting busy here gearing up for college applications and other senior events. I'm not sure when I'll be posting another update. It may be after her recheck at Dr. Hey's in December. Until then, love and blessings!
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