June 16 Update

Day 74

If you have the faith of a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible to you. Matthew 17:20

Glory be to God, who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would dare to ask or even dream of - infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes. Ephesians 3:20

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even when burned - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. I Peter 1:6-7

I am immersing myself into His word this morning because worry and fright have come into me. I beg of your prayers today and in the days to come. Despite Jodie's grand progress of the past few weeks, there is still a long journey in her recovery. We have praised the Lord and given thanks - all rightly due. I guess now, the realization faze is settling in - hard - and we've got big decisions before us. Please pray for God's strength and wisdom on us as we counsel for the future and quality of life for Jodie. We rely on Him now more than ever. And we need your prayers.

Please don't take this email as a "downer" - I just beg of you all to continue to lift up your steadfast prayers. We're not losing faith, it's actually growing and we're relying on God's grace and healing on all of us.

We just left a meeting with Dr. Leslie that was very hard on all of us. These next 8 days will be tough ones. In their meeting yesterday, they did not extend Jodie's stay - we're still on for discharge on June 24. But we strongly desire for God's will to keep her here under the care of these doctors and therapists.

Although, they desperately want to keep her, there is still more progression they need to see from Jodie. Dr. Leslie even told us that in their meeting, all of Jodie's therapists were crying because they don't want her to leave. This is hard on all of us - even those who have only briefly known Jodie. She has touched so many lives in so many ways. I know God has great plans for her, so we've got to keep the faith and PRAY HER through this.

Dr. Leslie told us today that he considers Jodie to be out of a coma. He said some doctors (he referred to them as "purists") might still consider her in light coma, but with all the progress he's seen in her, he says she's not in a coma. She opens and closes her eyes and has awake/sleep patterns, along with command responses and some movement. Though, she still lacks the speech element.

Specifically, I want to list for you the things that Dr. Leslie says they need to see in order for Jodie to stay in this therapy program here at Shepherd Center: speech; swallow; 100% following of commands and responsiveness; transfer of movement; and increased motor development skills. PLEASE PRAY specifically for Jodie to begin to advance in these requests. Those are directly from her doctor as things they need to see from Jodie in order for her to advance in her therapy.

I know you've all been so good in praying for Jodie, but I ask a favor of all you prayer warriors that in the coming days, in your free time and quiet times of the day and night, that your steadfast prayer for Jodie will be of these requests above. God is listening to us and He hears our prayers. Keep the faith and His will be done in Jodie's life and the lives of those who surround her and love her.
Keep her close to you in the coming days and lift your voices up to God, who still performs miracles and answers prayer. All our hopes and desires lie at His feet and we bow down to Him in honor and praise for all our blessings.

For those of you who've requested, I've included the contact information for Mama and Jodie here at Shepherd below Jodie's verse.

May the Lord Almighty grant you peace and blessings,
jennifer