Sunday April 3, 2011 7:00pm

3 more days until we go home. There are a lot of things we won't miss about being in the hospital. If you've spent any time in a hospital, you know to well what I mean. I won't miss being separated from my family every night. I won't miss driving 40 minutes each way. I won't miss the plastic couch we sleep on. I won't miss the cafeteria food. I won't miss the hissing sound of air coming from who knows where. And the list goes on.

What a great day in church today! Pastor Rob talked about one of the most dreaded topics for pastors...money. It always feels a little uncomfortable to ask people to give money. But the bottom line is if we don't give to the church, the church won't be able to function. Today we took our annual Impact offering. This offering will go toward some special things we want to accomplish as a church this year.

Garren is getting stronger everyday. His cough continues to get stronger. His left eye is beginning to show some strength. Though progress is slow, there is definitely progress. I told you about his attempt at smiling. Well, today we got a laugh from Garren. Kelsey had drawn a picture of me. We showed it to Garren and Kelsey asked him if he thought it looked like me. He looked at it for a minute, then looked up (yes). I said "Seriously Garren? That looks nothing like me!" His shoulders started to shake, his eyes brightened, and the corner of his lip turned up just a little bit. He was laughing at me! It was awesome.

As you pray for Garren, continue to pray for strength to return to his left eye, for the swallowing, and for the cough to keep getting stronger. Also, this will be a pretty big week for us as we transition back to home.