Perseverance and hope

Nathan's surgery went well, but we didn't make quite as much headway as we had hoped. The orthopedic surgeon removed the screws from Nathan's right ankle, but the bone in his left leg has not healed enough to allow for the removal of the external fixator. And the oral and maxillo-facial surgeon was not able to install the implants in Nathan's upper jaw as he discovered that there is not enough bone left. So he took a piece of bone from the back of the jaw and grafted it to the front. We have to wait a couple months for the leg and jaw to heal before Nathan will be ready for the dental implants.

Perseverance, and hope, are the name of the game, it seems. Romans 15:5 and 13 (in the NIV) serves to remind us that "...God...gives perseverance and encouragement..." and that He is "the God of hope."

Hoping in the Lord

A friend reminded me the other day that it's been a long while since I blogged. Nathan is making good progress in physical therapy (he's walking with a cane now!), but his progress in therapy is limited by the fact that the fixator is still in place on his left leg.

And he's got a long ways to go when it comes to his reconstructing his jaw and teeth. He had two root canals this past week, and hopefully, we can push through with surgery on his jaws this coming week. The surgery on his jaws is to be synchronized with the removal of the fixator on his left leg and the removal of two screws from his right ankle. We'll see if all that can be arranged this coming week. We are a bit weary.

I was reminded, as I typed the word "weary," that that is the precisely the word Isaiah 40:29-31 uses to describe the condition that the Lord wants to help us with:

"He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faint."