heading back!

hey all,
it's 4:30 a.m. in alabama and we will be on the road for the 12 hour trip home with the folks in about half an hour. mac and dean's cousin, paul, drove straight through last night with the moving truck and made it home safely at about 3:30 a.m. thank you for your prayers on their behalf. i imagine those guys will sleep today away!
dean's dad is significantly worse than when we last saw them in may. for some reason, his doctor stopped one of his medications a month ago; refused to give a refill to last him through to moving here. now in addition to his cognitive struggles (which are worse), he has lost some motor function. he's stumbling and having difficulty feeding himself. he's paranoid and terribly anxious. with Alzheimer's disease the function lost is lost forever so even restarting his medications may not gain us a lot of ground back.
this morning they are ok. please continue to cover us in prayer, we have felt God's hand with us keeping us safe and helping us to get things done in a timely way and to stay on a good schedule despite some disorganization and difficulty.
we will keep you updated and if don't hear otherwise, assume we made it safely to michigan this evening. the folks will spend tonight with dean's grandmother and tomorrow morning we'll ask for your prayer again as they sign the lease to their new apartment and with the help of some wonderful guys...marty, chad and mac; we'll move them in. pray that the paperwork goes easily as the apartment complex office manager is pretty disorganized herself, that the physical move-in is easy and without injury and of course that the folks settle peacefully and happily into their new home.

love to all of you and words cannot express our gratitude for your generosity in covering us with prayer.