One month

Garry has not been here for a month, but he was looking at plane tickets this morning so we can be back in Ukraine in a month. He had his two week checkup on Thursday and had his cast and stitches removed, and figures we can leave after his six week checkup on February 2nd, when they will x-ray it to check how it's progressing.

We were all surprised at how small his ankle is now, it's the same size as his left one now, before the surgery it was 3 or 4 times larger, they removed a lot of bone chips (turns out it was about a three inch incision) and even made his foot straight again (it had pointed sideways for the last couple years.) He does have a removable "boot" that he has to wear all the time for two weeks (now) ten days when he is allowed to sleep without it, but it is another five weeks before he can put any weight on his foot, followed by another month walking with it on. This is so the bone can grow around the big screws the doctor put in to fuse his ankle so they don't move. Hopefully next winter he'll be able to run and play basketball with the boys.

We made it to church again on Sunday and were interviewed up front for a few minutes about our mission project, I think our answers were not the same at both services, so it was not boring if you were at both. Garry is looking at plane tickets to go out to Salmon Arm, BC to visit with Jack and his church on the 5th of February, just before we go back. Jack plans to lead a team to work on the cheese plant building at the end of March.

Friday night we had a sleepover with the four girls while their parents had date night and day. It was the end of their two week school vacation, today there were buses going past in the dark. The three year old had just got her first pair of glasses and had them off and back in the case as much as she had them on, so we kept asking where they were.
 Everyone was asleep by ten o'clock except Garry, who was having pains in the back of his leg. However he says it gets better every day, even if he really wants to take it off to sleep.

bubble wrap fun

Saturday evening we had a good time with all the family celebrating Noah's 29th birthday, with the usual fun of singing happy birthday really badly. They got Noah laughing so hard he could only blow out half the candles and fell on the floor, he tried some more and put the last one out with his fingers. Last year he blew them all out for the first time in years, so I was not videoing it unfortunately. but we all have a great memory to add to the Noah and candles stories. Garry made it down and up the stairs on crutches and we watched football and hung out telling stories for a while in Josh's basement.

Those are pokeball cupcakes and cake

Garry is looking forward to getting out a bit and seeing friends in the next couple weeks, going to the the church mens retreat at the end of the month, and we are waiting for the arrival of our new grandchild before then, too.