Celebration!

Hello Everyone!,

Today is 11-11-11, a very powerful day and a day of miracles for us!!!!!!  We are so overwhelmed by the power of all of your prayers and love and we have some very, very exciting news to share with you!  Just to catch you up on things a bit, Tuesday, November 8th on a gurney in a medical transport van to the TLC Care Center nursing home in Henderson, Nevada.  One big step in the process of getting home!

Before we share the exciting news I would like to let you know that we will be holding a LIVE conference call that you can dial into from anywhere in the world at the end of November.  Donnie and I will be sharing LIVE and in person some of the secrets of how Donnie was able to heal in quantum leaps!  Have your pens and paper ready because we will be giving you our Essential Oil and supplement tips and tricks that help us through not only healing but trauma, stress and nutritional deficiencies caused by trauma and stress.  Donnie wants to greet each of you and personally thank you for your faithful and constant prayers that have been the foundation of this journey.  You will be hearing from my Mom, Vallorie Judd and several others that were able to come out here to Las Vegas to see Donnie and to help with his care.  This will be a day of rejoicing in what God has done through your faithfulness to bring about many, many miracles.  Please be watching your emails for the announcement of this conference call once we are able to establish a date and time.

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
Don had the "no weight bearing" restriction lifted on Tuesday evening.  Wednesday he was able to stand up, a little shaky of course but he stood with no problem!  That same afternoon he was given a walker and after gaining his balance he slowly started taking steps a little at a time.  He proceeded down the hall, around the nurses station, around the block of rooms behind the nurses station, back around the block of rooms and the nurses station and back down the hall to his room.  This was approximately 40 yards of distance!!!!!!  This is truly a miracle! By the time he was coming back down the hall his steps were much more sure, stable and smoother!  The physical therapists were totally amazed that he did so well.  So, Thursday morning it was off to the gym to see what else he could do.  He was at Physical Therapy for 1 1/2 hours straight and was able to do everything he was asked...including small stairs!!!  He even did bicycle petals for 30 minutes straight!  Can you believe it?!  He was so proud of himself that he would cry tears of joy.

Friday, 11-11-11, he went to 2 hours of therapy and did everything he was asked including a set of 5 stairs, going up and down 3 different times!  Of course, he is probably overdoing it and muscle soreness is going to be there but he wants to go home!  He was told when he arrived that he needed to be able to do two steps up and down to their satisfaction before they could release him from the Physical Therapy Department to go home.

At 3PM we had an appointment at the office of the plastic surgeon, Dr. Sohn, to see how the wound was doing. I actually drove Donnie in my own van to the appointment!!  He easily got in the back seat through the sliding door and off we went!   Donnie just loved being out rolling down the road again.  He just couldn't believe how good it felt!  We stopped a couple blocks from the nursing home at a Walgreens and picked up a walker for him and off we went.

Dr. Sohn was totally and completely floored at what Donnie looked like and that he was only on a walker!   He couldn't believe he could stand let alone walk!  He thought he was still on the weight restriction.  He just gasped when he saw him and you could see the joy in his face!  Everything on the wound was looking great except one small corner that is about the size of the tip of a man's finger that has "delayed healing".  Donnie begged him to release him to go home.  Well, Dr. Sohn said that I could easily treat this one small spot myself and redress it everyday myself.  He gave us the full release to go home to continue physical therapy there in our home with no restrictions!!!  Donnie just cried with joy and hugged Dr. Sohn thanking him for saving his life and for releasing him.  Dr. Sohn was so tender and so personal with us...it was a very special moment! Dr. Sohn ordered his nurse to remove the staples and stitches and dress the small spot with special gauze and a bandage.  Now only that spot has a bandage and the rest of the surgical site is open!  Of course I was taking pictures the whole time!

We are so excited that we can hardly stand ourselves!  We still have our neighbor Mel Ehlers with us and she can't believe we are actually going home tomorrow!  We took Donnie to Marie Callenders restaurant to celebrate and have a meal with him outside the nursing home.  He couldn't believe how great the food tasted.  We just had to call his parents and my parents to tell them that we were going home tomorrow, in our own van and with no restrictions!  Everyone is crying tears of joy!

So when you are praying today, please send many prayers of thanksgiving to Our Heavenly Father for showing His miracles to us and answering our cries!  Please keep us in your prayers especially as we drive the 6 hour trek from Las Vegas, NV to Mesa, AZ.  We will have to stop a few times for sure but Donnie is sure he can make it.  He just wants to be HOME!  We need lots and lots of prayers as Donnie has a lot of physical therapy and occupational therapy to do.  He has lost 25 lbs of muscle since we got here 8 weeks ago.  He kept his upper body muscles with the trapeze but the legs and buttocks will need much work to bring the muscles back.

In a few days I will be catching you up on some of the details of the past week but for now I must get packing as Donnie has probably been up all night waiting for us to come get him.

With love and adoration!,
Don and Carol Schirr and Mel Ehlers