Thursday Update

To start off on a lighter note, this is why I cannot have flower arrangements on the table in the hallway. Dinah rearranges them. She pulled that one flower out of the vase a bit and was attempting to rearrange it to a more pleasing design when I spotted her.

I have sewn some of the leftover rows of coins from this quilt, with purple sashings this time, to make another quilt. I'll add a border or two and get it done for the Quilts of Compassion.

I also had some leftover churn dash blocks which I sashed with cornerstones, and it is quilted. Not trimmed or bound yet, but there is progress. I really wanted to get a lot more done by this point, but life interfered. 

Miss Ru has been hospitalized for almost four weeks. She's been in intensive care this whole time - first in a regular hospital and now in a long term acute care facility. This beautiful smile is still showing up quite a bit even in the midst of the things she is going through.

Ruthie was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis just before her second birthday. The doctor at that time called my husband out into the hallway and told him not to get his hopes up, that she would not live to see her tenth birthday. I'm happy to say that he was wrong. She just had her thirty-second birthday, even though she was in the hospital when she had it.

The bottom line right now is that her lungs have been so damaged by the disease that a lung transplant is the only medical option if she wants to live. She does want to live. To that end, she will be transferred to the hospital in the Medical Center here in Houston that does lung transplants as soon as a bed becomes available. She will be evaluated to see if she is a viable candidate for a transplant, and then the waiting will begin.

I know this is not touchy-feely, happy talk, which we all try to do a lot of on our blogs. I am sharing all this with you because so many of you have become friends over the years, and because we can all use your care, prayer and just plain old love right now. I so appreciate each and every one of you who have stayed close.

Hugs and kisses,