Month: August 2010

Carly continues to do amazingly well in rehab. Every day her walking strengthens. She is walking unassisted around her floor. There are still balance issues, and she still walks much better fast than she does slow. Her speech therapy is going well, with the beginnings of a few sounds. She is mouthing words much better, so you know that combined with the sounds means that the speech is in there, she just hasn’t learned how to connect the two yet.

Her therapy sessions are often back to back, and yesterday while being handed off from one discipline to the next she had Debbie (speech), Bonnie (occupational) and Kris (recreational) all at the same time. When you get four girls together, it can get pretty giddy! They really had Carly going with all smiles, and she was the happiest we have seen her since the accident. Each of the women is so special, and you really see that when you watch how they work with the patients, and realize how much they care for and encourage them.

When something like this happens in your life, you realize very quickly that it’s all about relationships. While our support system of friends and family are many miles away in Florida, Tennessee and other parts of Utah, we realize that Carly’s amazing progress is due to God’s hand on her and the situation. A direct result of the many prayers, emails and phone calls from those special relationships we have. Those that check this website fully understand the value of relationships.

The Mimstribe has had a very special relationship with the Lyon Family, who live in Florida, for the last eighteen years. When the Mimstribe lived in Florida, both us and the Lyons only had immediate family locally, and because of that we built many memories around Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter together. When we found ourselves alone in Salt Lake City, Kelly Lyon quickly got in touch with Becky Scott Motolla. Growing up, Kelly’s family had a similar relationship with the Scott family in the jungle of Peru, where both families served as missionaries. He only had to mention that the Mims and the Lyons had a similar connection, and Becky was at the hospital visiting us within a few hours.

Becky has the kind of gentle spirit that allows you to quickly relate to her. She immediately began to help with local area questions, school information, and thinking about how to find a place close to the hospital for us to stay temporarily. As usual, wonderful people attract other wonderful people. Becky and her husband Jim really understand the value of relationships and connections since they have been home fellowship leaders for some time. Becky mentioned our situation at her home fellowship for prayer, and Leah Blalock said, “We have a house much larger than we use, and now I know why. Send the Mims over.”

On Thursday, Janie, Abi and Noah left to go back to Cedar City for a garage sale, and to start packing up our belongings. Tripp and Thy had been working to organize the sale for the past two weeks.  Yesterday, Carly was generally down, and as a result, she didn’t do as well in therapy. She had done much better the day before in speech therapy, and while she continued to improve in physical therapy, it just lacked that “Carly Pizzaz” we had seen the past few days. Carly has been walking down to the cafe in the afternoons and enjoying coffee ice cream! She is getting close to her calorie goal, and closer to having the feeding tube removed. Pray for that to happen soon!

This morning was a new day, and Carly seems to be in slightly better spirits but is still down. Normally she does a half hour of each type of therapy in the morning, with a break mid-day and another round of therapies in the afternoon. Today they rearranged her schedule to give her more time in occupational therapy so that she could bake brownies! The brownie baking went great, and Carl and Carly ate warm brownies while they watched one of Carly’s favorite movies, “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken”.

Yesterday we wrote about the connection with Becky Motolla, which led to our current living situation. This is another amazing God story, and is one of so many on this journey! The Mimstribe continues to be blessed beyond anything we could hope or imagine.

A little over a week ago, we met Becky at Starbucks and followed her to Leah Blalock’s home for an introduction. The Blalock’s are our new roomies! Brian, Leah and their son Dawson moved to Salt Lake City in March of last year, from Houston, Texas. So the area is also fairly new for them. When they moved, they found a house that was much larger than they needed, but the deal was too good to pass up. To give you a proper picture, there is an indoor basketball court in the basement, along with a huge family area, two bedrooms, each with large private baths, plus a kitchenette. There is another spare bedroom upstairs. All are beautifully decorated, but the wow of the home is with the wonderful hearts of this family.

We talked to Leah for less than forty-five minutes and had to pull ourselves away to go back to the hospital. She is delightful, a full-on Texas gal with a true love for the Lord! She showed us around and Dawson gave instructions on the important things, like how to get the XBox 360 to work on surround sound and then switch back to TV. Then she handed us a key to the house and said she knew we would be coming in late, and they would probably be in bed because they were leaving the next morning at 5 AM for a week-long vacation. Enjoy, and we’ll see you when we return!

Totally amazing that she was so loving and concerned about us and our situation, and willing to turn over their home after only a few minutes of talking! A week later, the Blalock’s returned and we had the pleasure of meeting Brian. Brian is a Georgia boy who attended Auburn University. Of course, Carl quickly had to point out the only true university in the state…The University of Alabama, where he attended! He didn’t have the heart to tell him that Janie was a Volunteer. We have had fun with it! Brian, like Leah, has been very easy to relate to and get to know. This family has been truly amazing. Noah is enjoying XBox with Dawson, and it all has a very special feel to it.

Leah came to the hospital the other day to meet Carly, and maybe it was the two blondes relating, but I think Carly sensed Leah’s special spirit and perked up, gave great facial expressions to Leah and even hugged her! Certainly a special moment.

The garage sale in Cedar City today was amazing today. Viet, Thy’s mom had traveled down with the trip to help.  Tons of people donated items to sell, and one of our neighbors, Terry Cook, was a huge help! She baked tons of amazing goodies for the bake sale, including home-made muffins, cookies, zucchini bread and peach cobbler! She also helped set up, put posters up and get the word out about the event!

Sundays are very slow and restful days in the rehab unit. The staff is reduced and very limited therapy sessions take place. Carly has been up and done the basics of physical therapy, but is really enjoying just resting today. Her feeding tube seems to be bothering her more, and they did x-rays to make sure it was in the proper place. We were hoping they would just remove it early, but she still cannot swallow her pill medications orally. She is also short on her calorie and fluid goals.

Even with a short staff, the hospital was able to have someone stay with Carly, to allow Carl to go to church this morning. He visited South Mountain Community Church, which is where the Motolla’s and our new roomies, the Blalock’s, attend. It was a great morning! It is easy to walk into a church and critique the pastor, worship team, children’s ministry, youth ministry and facility in comparison to others. But those things are not the Church, it is the people. People all coming together to worship, to learn and to serve. In the short time Carl walked from the front door to a seat in the sanctuary, he was approached and engaged in conversation with three different people, and none of them were part of some special greeting team. That was in addition to the normal greeters and people holding open doors. This is a body that truly loves people, and of course, we already knew that from knowing the Motolla’s and Blalock’s. If more pastors and those attending churches would focus on the people around rather than doctrine, programs, and facilities, it would be wonderful!

Pray for Carly to eat better, that the feeding tube would bother her less and that she would be able to swallow her medications. Please also pray for energy for rehab next week, and that she would be happy and be able to find joy in such a difficult and life-changing time. Please also pray for the many decisions facing the Mimstribe.

Carly’s progress has been like that of a rocket taking off! Today was yet another major milestone. She had her feeding tube removed! She struggled all weekend with it bothering her more each day, and fortunately they decided to remove it before she met her calorie goal, on a trail basis. Afterwards she ate 90% of her lunch, and just had a Jamba Juice, which she drank so fast she got a brain freeze! Carly continues to do well in therapy, and today she turned humming into the word Mom in speech therapy!

Tripp and Thy’s garage sale in Cedar City was a huge success. It was a weekend of hard work, but thankfully it brought us closer to boxing things up, which will happen in the next two weeks. The outpouring of friends and family has been tremendous and warming! We are truly blessed in every way possible.

Pray for Carly’s continued progress, and for continued guidance as the Mimstribe makes decisions. Please also pray that Noah and Abi would make wonderful friends in Salt Lake City.