Merry Christmas

I hope you are having a merry Christmas. My family and I are enjoying ours but it is not an easy time. My mother-in-law has dementia and my wife is both upset by the effect of that disease on her mother and is worn out by taking care of her. My mother-in-law lives with us in a separate part of the house. In fact, she is living in the original house she and her husband (who dies about 17 years ago) built almost 60 years ago. About 12 years ago, we added on to her house for our own house and we have a connecting door so it's easy for us to help her. When she was first diagnosed, it wasn't too bad. But in the last two years, we've seen a sharp decline in her ability to remember. Now, she sometimes doesn't recognize us and has trouble remembering where things are in her house. She has to be constantly reminded where the bathroom is and that she is living in her own home. She will often hallucinate that other people are in her house (although we think this may be from seeing something on the TV).

But beyond that, we have had a good Christmas. And, of course, the central reason for our celebrating Christmas remains - a child was born of a virgin in Bethlehem who was God with us. He is Christ the Lord and his joy and salvation remain. He helps us and loves us. We do have medical aides who come in to sit with my mother-in-law while my wife gets a break. She has health insurance so she can afford most things she needs.

The picture at the top is not only a picture of an abundance of holly berries on a tree in our backyard. It is also an example of renewal and hope. In the spring of this year, this holly tree lost a large portion of its leaves. They were turning yellow with large brown spots and then falling off in huge numbers. I was worried that the tree was dying. But later in the summer, an equal (or greater) number of new leaves appeared. The tree is doing better than ever and I've never seen more berries on this tree. You can click on the picture to show it full sized.

I was reading an article about a new treatment for dementia and Alzheimer's Disease that will soon be moving to human trials. This link to New Atlas has the article. The two best parts of this, to me, are:

1. This is not a new drug but an ultrasound treatment so there aren't as many worries about side affects
2. This treatment actually reverses the effects of the disease

So, while this is a terrible disease, there is still hope. May we all have hope in the future. If you know Jesus as your personal savior, you do have that hope.