Tucked in - but not really settled

Well I just got home a few minutes ago after dropping mom off at her house. Needless to say we left Heartland in tears tonight - after we left his room of course. When we arrived, he was a bit confused, he wanted to know how many days he had to stay there and as the night went on, he became even a bit upset and worried about why he was "staying". Lots of new surroundings for him to get used to and new people. . . they are all very nice and promised to take good care of dad tonight. He was very very anxious before we left, mom was very stressed out about the whole thing so we just decided to head out around 9pm and see how he does for the night. Mom will go there for breakfast at 7am and Pam and I will get there by 8:30. . . we have a meeting with the admissions & nurses and therapists to go over his schedule. We tried to explain it like this to him - "you are here to work hard in therapy and you will see people here at all levels of need - but you are to focus on yourself only and getting better and when you do that - we will get out of this joint!" He wanted to start therapy 2night - and then go home. He was not happy about getting ready for bed there and realizing he was staying. So while we did get dad tucked in, I would not say he is settled. . . not quite yet. He is very "on-guard" tonight. . . and that's okay because so are we. . . after 30 days of taking care of dad on our own - let me tell you, it was very hard to leave him in the care of people who just met him today and are not as familiar with his history. But our faith and trust is in the Lord - we know He will watch over dad and protect him - and we believe the biggest testimony is yet to come. . . dad will get better. And it's our job to cheer him on every day.

Please do us a favor - if you come to see dad, please always talk about the place as a rehab center, not a nursing home. And please, talk to him and encourage him about getting better thru therapy - he needs our strength, love and support. He is in Room 149. . . when you go thru the doors make a right down the hallway, and then at the nurses station, make a left, dad's room is all the way at the end of the hallway on the left. His room mate, whom we didn't get to meet, left for the hospital today for some kind of surgery and may not return for a while.

Thanks for all the prayers, text messages, and phone calls of support today. . . you made our day somewhat bearable! Stay tuned for how his first night goes in rehab.