Arla needs and can receive visitors.  However, please limit your visits and try not to have large groups of people (more than 2) in the room or around Arla at once.  The multiple voices and visual stimulation quickly tires her.  Arla’s brain is healing.  She is having problems receiving information, processing information, and communicating her needs.  External stimulation, like two or three voices speaking at once, adds unneeded work to her brain.  

It is important for people to visit.  It encourages Arla and lifts her spirits.  It is also important for Harold to know people care.  But it is also important that Arla not be over taxed.  In addition, Arla has a roommate who needs her rest as well.  If you have specific questions about Arla’s medical condition, please call her daughter Mary Ann (419-203-0817-cell or 419-238-3958–home).  Mary Ann will also answer emails at majfalk@roadrunner.com. Mary Ann can best explain the progress Arla is making.  Please be aware that Mary Ann is working full-time, so she will not answer calls between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.  If you want to be an encouragement to Harold, feel free to call him at any time.

If you come for a visit and Harold is not there, please feel free to sit and speak with Arla.  Engage her in “conversation”.  (If Harold is there and it is after 5 p.m., encourage him to go home so you can have some time with Arla.  Harold thinks he has to stay when people show up for a visit as he is getting ready to leave.)   Ask her questions.  Tell her about your day or someone she knows.  Invite her to sing with you.  She sang “Happy Birthday” with Mary Ann on Friday to a gentleman who was celebrating his 78th birthday.  She enjoys company.   The concern with visits is when the visit stimulates her too much… when several people are talking at once… or when the visit with multiple people lasts too long.  We have come to realize that overstimulation tires her even more quickly than her physical therapies do.  We want you to visit, but we want Arla to heal. 

And above all, pray.  Arla’s family believes that prayer is just as important as all the work Arla must do.  We encourage all of you to pray for all those in need and believe that God has Arla’s life and your life and the lives of those we love in the palm of his hand.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.  God loves us for whom He has made us to be.  He does not love us for what we do or whom we will be.  He loves us now as we are.  He wants us to turn to him.  Arla is our daily reminder of the power and love of our God and of the power of prayer.  If you do not know the love of Jesus Christ who died to save us all, we pray that you may see his love and presence in our Arla, who has known the love of God all her life.  Even though her physical body is weakened, her life is a meaningful witness to us.  If you are believer, please pray that this blog and Arla’s witness may bring the hurting and lost to know Jesus Christ.   Amen!