Dear Family and friends,

  I am going to try to give a little update and express my gratitude, so please bear with me as I try to put my thoughts and feelings into words.

  First of all I want to thank the Lord for restoring my health and answering all the prayers that went up on my behalf. Even if He had seen fit for the outcome to be different He still would be a loving, merciful, and gracious Father. I am thankful that He saw fit to let me be a wife and mother for however long He sees fit to give me. I want to serve and worship Him in everything I do.

  Thank you for all your prayers, care, meals, visits, etc…..   I (we) feel very loved and cared about. May the Lord bless each one of you (those who we know and those we don’t). I still have a ways to go till I am back to myself. Each day is a little better and I get a little stronger. Thursday afternoon I had a follow up appointment with the family doctor and they did a repeat chest x-ray. My lungs are back to totally normal! PTL  I’m still coughing some, but other wise my body just needs time to regain strength and energy. To give you an idea – they say for every day you are in bed with sickness like this it takes a week of recovery. I was in ICU for a week, five of those days I was on the vent and paralyzed. I have made good progress and at this point just need to take it a day at a time making sure to rest and not overdo it. My sisters have been such a blessing to us in helping out with the children and house work.

  Thanks again for all your prayers and love. They mean a great deal to us and more than we can express in words.

  Hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

   -Bethany for the Sutherlands