Update 8/30/09

Hi friends. Another 2 weeks has gone by and I didn't even realize it. We've been very very busy. Hope all is well with all of you.

Will got his MRI results finally. Unfortunately, it's worse than just a maniscus tear. He also tore his ACL--completely severed it. This means surgery to repair it followed by 9 months of recovery for the knee. He is out of sports for the entire school year, and he is devastated. He has been involved in some sort of sports all year round since he was a little kid, so not being on the field is going to take some adjusting. We are all so sad for him--it's his sr. year and he feels he has let down 3 teams and 3 sets of coaches: football, soccer and baseball. Of course he understands that it's not his fault--he just tore it while running at practice--and he understands that there's nothing he can do about it but have the surgery and spend the rest of the school year rehabing his knee and cheering on the teams from the sidelines. But still he is really, really sad (we all are). Please help us pray for him as he goes through all of this. His surgery is scheduled for Sept. 14, so please help us pray that all goes well there too. Thanks.

He is still part of the team and goes to practice every day, encouraging the others and being an extra set of eyes on the sidelines and helping the coaches with whatever. He also spends time each day with the trainer doing some exercises his p.t. gave him to do to get his flexibility in better shape before surgery. He's doing the best he can, and his p.t. thinks he'll be in good shape in time for surgery.

The football team is coming over to our house thurs. night for a pre-game dinner. It's a bonding thing that they do the night before every game and they go to a different player's house every week. We hosted them last year before I got sick, and had such a good time. I'm so looking forward to having them over--they're a great group of kids--and it's fun, tho challenging, to try to actually fill them up:)

Aaron has been back in LA at football camp for the last 2 weeks. He sounds tired when I talk to him on the phone, but he assures me all is well. Classes start for him this Wed. and he is looking forward to getting going. His 1st football game is this Sat. at Menlo College up in Menlo Park. We are planning on going for the day to go watch.

Mom's birthday was Aug. 19th. We took her out to dinner at Cattleman's in Selma. She had a great time. Sam and his girlfriend Brandy met us there and we all had a nice visit. The waiters sang happy birthday to her, brought her a cowboy hat and made a big fuss over her--she loved all that! Wore that cowboy hat until she went to bed that night! Thanks, Margaret, for her birthday card--she keeps your letter on her bedside table and has read it over and over. Little things like that mean a lot to her--thank you. Oh, how did you and Gary do with the wildfires? We heard on the news your town was evacuated--we've been praying for you and your neighbors. Aaron said the La Canada fire could be seen from Oxy when he was at practice--not close enough to cancel practice though:).

I'm back in the swing of things at work. Students have been back for almost 2 weeks now, and we are BUSY. We have 24 students--18 boys and only 6 girls. Whew, am I tired by time I get home!

This week is busy also with more dr. appts. and Will's 18th birthday is this friday!

Have a great week friends. Let me know how things are in your lives.

Love, Stacey