Dear friends of Miranda—

Thank you so much for all your prayers for Miranda!  At the end of last week, Miranda was moved to an in-patient rehab facility; this transition has had many ups and downs, and your prayers are critical for her growth/healing. We are all still learning the effects of her brain injury, and there is no concrete timeline of when/how Miranda will regain normalcy. We simply know this process is a long road with many unknowns.

We are thankful that Miranda has had some good therapy sessions while in rehab. On average, she has 3 hours/day (including speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy). She is working very hard to gain control of parts of her body. We have hope that with intensive therapy she will continue to improve. 

Miranda is talking so much more clearly, although it can still be difficult to understand her at times. Likewise, there’s often a lot of confusion for her, as she continues to put the pieces of her world together and make sense of it all.

Another welcome change is that Miranda has started to swallow liquids in the form of ice chips! Progressing to drinking water and swallowing food are the next steps.

As we continue down this path, we thank God for the nuggets of hope/growth we’ve seen. We continue to seek divine intervention in the following ways. Please continue to join us in praying for these concerns.

1. Continued improvement in speech, muscle control, and cognitive functioning. Vision and memory are two areas that the doctors have identified as particular challenges right now. 
2. Large swings of emotion are a common part of brain injury, and becoming aware of limitations can be very difficult for Miranda and those who love her. Please continue to pray for peace for Miranda, and the family, as they patiently wait and work towards healing, not knowing what the full outcome will be.
3. Clear communication between the rehab facility and Joel/family. There are many moving parts with multiple therapies each day. In turn, keeping track of everything is a lot and there can be communication gaps/barriers. It is also sometimes difficult to know what to ask or to whom to ask questions.
4. Aligning schedules for Joel and therapies. The rehab hospital is close to an hour away from where Joel and Miranda live. In turn, aligning schedules and visiting is more challenging. 
5. Visiting restrictions to be lifted/adjusted for children under the age of 18. Due to the high flu/covid cases, restrictions were recently implemented for visitors to only be adults above the age of 18. This is very difficult for Miranda and the family. We continue to pray for a way for Miranda to be able to see her children, as well as video calls to fill the voids while we wait for the restrictions to be lifted.
6. Finally, plans are already starting to be formed for Miranda’s return home. While this is an exciting prospect, it’s important that the right timing be chosen to best support her continued progress.  Pray that ultimately what is decided on by the Doctors is what’s best for Miranda. Additionally, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to make the Rockey home a good environment for Miranda to continue her recovery. Pray that all the right modifications and supports will be considered, and that those needs will be met in a way that takes as much burden off the family as possible.

Overall, we ask for continual prayers for complete healing and patience while that may take a long time to see if full. We walk in faith, trusting that Miranda will make a full recovery over time.