Road Trip

Charlie and Luisa went on a road trip this weekend to Austin for a short, but great visit. They have not been here since Oct. 6 and it was wonderful to have them back again, a very surreal time considering all that has happened in the months since their last visit. We just hung out and enjoyed each other's company and managed to fit in a visit to Houston's for Lu's favorite veggie burger!

Happy Memorial Day!

But I want to cook a gumbo!

Therapies are going very well for Luisa. She is walking better every week, having to complete homework for speech therapy every night and is cooking something in occupational therapy today. So, yesterday her OT asked her what she wanted to cook and she told him "a gumbo", well she was upset to know that he didn't want to b/c it would take too long. A quick trip to Kroger's yielded a chicken and potatoes, Chef Lu will be preparing that for her OT, Steven, this afternoon.

Monday was the first day that her "nurse" started staying with Lu at home. Dad doesn't think that she will need someone at home with her for very long, pretty amazing considering that we thought they would need round the clock help just 2 months ago.

Love to each of you. Thank you for keeping up with our story.
The Ripoll's and Pippins

**Pic taken on Mother's Day.
***To those people outside of Louisiana reading this, yes, I know that gramatically "a gumbo" is not correct, but we have our own lingo in south La.

A Message From Our Leader

Thank You:

As Luisa and I begin this new exciting chapter in our lives we want to begin by sending our most sincere thanks to all our dear friends, our wonderful families and especially our children and their loving spouses. Without their support, love and prayers, I don't know how we would have made it through the last six months. Over the coming weeks we plan to reach out and thank everyone personally, as each and every act of support and love has contributed to this miracle taking place before our eyes.

We were all blessed to have our dedicated "Blog Author", preciously describing each step of Luisa's journey and even more blessed to have each of you as dedicated followers of this beautiful, evolving story of challenge, determination, perseverance and faith.

While we have never questioned why this happen to us, as we know it is God's will, we now know that God blessed us by placing each of you in our lives and for that we are eternally grateful.

Love,

Luisa and Charles

Ahhhhmazing!

Things we have learned about Luisa since she got back home:
1. She can bathe, dress and put her makeup on-all unassisted.

2. She still enjoys a mimosa!

3. She knows how to grocery shop. Claire brought her to the grocery yesterday and she picked out dinner (chicken and brocolli). When they got to the check out counter, Claire walked off for a second and when she came back mom had her visa out paying for the groceries.

4. She prepared the meal yesterday, in full! Claire said she removed the insides of the chicken, washed it off, seasoned it and then set the oven to the proper temperature.

OK I hope at this point you are saying to yourself, "What?" Basically, mom has just assumed her role at home as if she did not have any life changing event-we are trying to restrain how much we say "wow" to her b/c it is pretty much all of the time and she just thinks it is pretty normal. Once her bum leg gets back to normal, there will be no stopping her!

Monday was her first day of outpatient therapy. She is going to do PT, OT, Speech and have a group session 5 days a week right now, which will probably change to 3 in a few weeks.

So, I don't think things could be going more smoothly right now.

Cheers!
The Ripoll's and Pippins

**Pic is from Mother's Day.

193 Days

Yes, Luisa will be getting out of the hospital today!!! We all have feelings are of elation, gratitude, fear BUT most of all, we are filled with hope. Hope that mom will recover to live independently, hope that mom and dad will have the happiness in their retirement years they have worked together for 37 years to have, and hope that mom will one day understand the magnitude of the injury, love, recovery and miracle in the whole process she has been through.

I will continue to update the blog as we have news or exciting updates. WE thank each and every one of you for taking the journey up until this point with us. It has been through your prayers that we have sustained ourselves and through the grace of God that mom is emerging with a smile on her face and a will to overcome obstacles.

At some point we will be making a "Ripoll's Gratitude Journey" to Lafayette, Austin and New Orleans, stay tuned for more details. As I stated in my very first post, we still have a long road ahead of us-but the destination has been laid. Please continue to keep Luisa and Charlie in your prayers!

Until then, love each other and never loose hope.

Luisa, Charlie, Chaz, Claire, Robin, Brad, Andrew and Ava

"Making Up" For Lost Time

Day by day it seems that mom becomes more aware of herself and the world around her. Two days ago I got a phone call from my dad who I could tell was elated for some reason-he had just gotten his first phone call from Lu since Oct. 31. She doesn't grasp how awesome all of these little tasks that she is initiating on her own are. We, are so grateful and marvel each day at our miracle.

Yesterday, dad went for family training and when he got there Lu had on makeup. She told me that she was just sitting in her room waiting for therapy and "put her face on." Both of these actions are soooo hopeful because she is having the idea to do something and actually following through with it. A major part of left frontal lobe brain injuries is failure to initiate-slowly that little fireball is igniting again.

Best,
Luisa, Charlie and the kids

**Pic taken at Easter.

4 Days and Counting

Luisa only has 4 days left of therapy at TIRR and her extended hospital stay will come to a conclusion this Saturday. More musings on this to come later this week....

This weekend Chaz and Claire took mom to her favorite restaurant for the first time since October-Houston's. She insisted that she walk in the restaurant, rather than ride in the wheelchair, and had her first veggie burger-she LOVES the veggie burgers at Houston's-which are quite good if I do say so myself. So, the family hung out on Saturday and Sunday and it sounds like by all accounts Sunday went by better for all than Sat. did, not that Sat. was bad, it just seemed as though Lu was a little more comfortable outside of her little contained hospital environment. She was even walking better on Sunday and she told me it is because her, "blue and white shoes hurt her feet, but her red and white ones are much better." Aunt Jan and Van were able to make it to Houston and had lunch at the house with everyone yesterday-mom had a good time, she said, she tends to still get confused about a lot, but we are trying to talk and explain the reasoning behind everything.

God Bless,
The Ripoll's and Pippins

**Pic taken last Mother's Day-Houston.