My PaPa

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a message about my Grandpa. We drove down to St Louis to visit him this week. He seems to be doing as well as can be expected. He was moved to a nursing home on Wednesday and we came in to visit him on Friday morning. He will probably never fully recover, but with time and prayer, he should do well. I suppose my Dad had not told him we were coming, because when we walked in, he was overcome with emotion. We had a nice visit for about an hour. We finally had to leave because the boys were getting a little stir-crazy.

After we left we went into St Louis for some fun with the kids, while my parents stayed with Grandpa to visit and take care of some of his business. My mom said that during his afternoon physical therapy, Grandpa was very motivated. That was a great change over the past couple of weeks when he would talk about getting well, but he had not really been interested in putting forth much effort. Learning this, I was very convicted at how little time we have spent with him recently. Part of the reason is distance, but another part is that we just get so busy with life, we forget to take time for really important things. I plan to stay in touch with him better now. I take so many photos (duh) that there's really no reason that I can't send some to him more often than once a year.

Sometimes we forget how much the very young and the very old need each other. Kevin's Grandmother is one of Jadon's favorite people, and he is naturally so loving. He went right up to my Grandpa for a hug despite Micah's reluctance. Chloe also really enjoyed her visit with him. She seems to crave attention from her family, and she wanted to be included in every visit to her Great-Grandpa. We all enjoyed our visit and the rest of our St Louis trip. I'll be sure to post some pics from our St Louis adventures sometime in the next couple of days.