January 10, 2005
Update #17
Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year. It is hard to believe we are now into 2005, the time is flying by!!

We celebrated this Christmas at Mom and Dads AZ home. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day cooking, celebrating, giving thanks and watching football (as Dad says, is there anything else? Lisa, Mom and I think there is…shopping and the SPA!). We decided to make Christmas all about the little ones, Taylor, Jackson and Lance…did I type Lance? HA! Taylor is just starting to understand about Santa, Rudolph and Frosty (although the snow thing is confusing) and Jackson likes to assist in present opening. We had a great two days, wished it could have been pain free for Dad.

I want to share something incredibly special that happened to Mom, Dad and all of us at Christmas time. A glass Angel showed up on their doorstep at the twelve day before Christmas with a poem and a request to put it outside every night. We weren’t sure what to think, or who left it, but we fulfilled the request. Each morning when they awoke a new poem and gift were outside their door. I cannot tell you what a wonderful thing this was to change our daily focus and Dads pain to: A guessing game of Who done it? Should we put a camera in the window in case they don’t reveal themselves? Tears oh were there tears from ALL of us over the poems written! Near misses in catching the delivery person (was it someone we knew or did they hire someone)? Nursing/Therapy staff that couldn’t wait to arrive the next day to find out what had landed? And the game went on…it was so fun and joyous that I have to recognize my friends Christy and John Frank for there efforts. John is an extremely busy Lawyer at the largest law firm in Phoenix and Christy is a stay at home mom with three girls under the age of six who are in every activity know to man and Christy has her own Charity for children that has their yearly fundraiser at Christmas…having said all of that, we cannot thank them enough for “sneaking” over to our parents house every night between the hours of 10:30p-1: 30p to deliver their message…Believe!! John wrote all of the poems as he aspires to write a book one day. To better understand each days enlightenment, I have posted an icon on the website “Twelve Days of Christmas”. This tells you what they left and what was written. We encourage everyone to do something like this for someone in your life who is having a hard time, needs encouragement or is suffering…it really makes an impact. Thank you Christy and John, we love you and appreciate you! You have now added a new dimension to our “Hang on and Hope hard”… “Believe”!!

On the 27th, Glen Jr. Sandy and the boys visited and stayed through the New Year. We celebrated New Years Eve/Day at home with a Mexican fiesta, a few hot games of Marbles and a little more football…all in all we had a merry and happy holiday season. Mom and Dad enjoyed their time with the other Henrys immensely, a little taste of back home, even if only for a few days.

Dad continues his three-day a week regime at Barrow and in home therapy on the opposite days. His day nurse, Barbara and weekend nurse, Jeanette, stretch him every morning. (He is really putting in two a days) Two weeks ago he started Acupuncture by a well-known Master Acupuncturist from LA (who practices two/three days a week in Scottsdale). We have done research on Dad’s injury regarding this treatment and there are some great strides being made. The downfall is the pain after the treatment occurs. A lot of pain that we hope will pay off in the end. We think Master Shaw has helped us gain ground. We are hoping to start Dad five days a week in the Hyper Baric Chambers, we are experiencing some hold ups with Insurance clearance, but whether they clear it or not…he’s going in!! Again, there have been studies done that show progress for Dads injury. We are trying it all, as we stated before in so many updates we are committed to this for a solid year of great rehabilitation. It helped to have Glen Jr. here to give feed back on Dads progress as we see him everyday and don’t always see the significance of baby steps. Glen said he sees a huge improvement. Dad still relies on us for everything; he cannot do anything for himself…yet!

Mom is hanging in there. She has strong and weak days, as to be expected. She started seeing someone and it didn’t work out. We will start with someone new this week. We think it’s important she talk to someone outside us girls, as we are bias. It’s hard for her to be away from Cedar falls and all her friends in such a trying time. Unfortunately, her sister wasn’t able to make it out here, but plans to come in the near future.

Since our parents arrival they have had friends, former athletes, colleagues and family visit, we thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to stop by. For those of you who have, you know by our parent’s emotions how much it means…Thank you again!!

For those of you they haven’t seen, they miss you terribly. Please continue to pray for Dad to get his arms and hands back, as the recovery of both will greatly impact their daily existence. Thank you for all the Christmas cards, pictures and letters, it really boosted their holiday spirit.

Please continue to visit the website and send your thoughts, even if its just a sentence or two, they are motivational!!! (Even though Dad cannot type a note back to you right now…he wants you to know he intends to email each and every person on the website when he gets his hands back!)If you need to get in touch, you can always email me at lahenry@cox.net or my mother at ruthiehenry01@yahoo.com. If you leave a message on the website, be sure to leave your email address. You can also check “contact us” for updated contact info.

We hope all of you are happy and healthy and wish everyone great success in 2005.

Until the next update…be well!

The Henry Dream Team
(Lori)
P.S. See photo album for updated pictures!!