The past few months in the Morales house have been a testament to community, faith and the strength that only comes from Jesus.
We didn’t post much of what had been going on, but now that things are finally looking up, I thought I’d share.
May 13th: Leo took a brave and valiant move (after much prayer) and quit his job at Guitar Center in order to focus more on ministry and his business. (shameless plug: http://www.leonardo-morales.com)
May 16th: Leo was working on our basement remodel, fell off of a step-ladder and fractured his right elbow.
May 18th: Our dog, Canela, gave birth to 5 puppies
May 19th: Leo had extensive surgery on his elbow to repair the damage
The rest of May: an absolute blur.
Most of June and July: a blur
August 10th: Leo’s US citizenship ceremony
Now, here we are at the end of August!
We have now called the summer of 2016 “The summer of recovery, citizenship and puppies”.
Here’s the deal:
There is absolutely no way that we would’ve made it through the first 2 weeks, let alone the months afterwards without friends and family.
We’ve had people bring us meals (it didn’t hurt that Canela had such cute puppies to visit/hold), bring us urgent medicine or food, help finish the recording studio, do yard work, organize our basement, and just be emotional/spiritual support all throughout this process.
As Leo walked in for his 3-month appointment, the doctors were astonished. They have NEVER seen anyone heal so quickly after such an intense fracture.
Leo jokes around that he plays guitar even better now than he did before, and proudly shows his “ironman” picture of the screws that were put in his elbow. We know we are blessed and fortunate that it turned out this way!
We didn’t post anything about it on Facebook because we didn’t want his family in Colombia to worry. They were dealing with their own hard situations, and didn’t need to know that Leo was having such a hard time.
But, right before his mom came for his citizenship ceremony, he told her over the phone. She said she felt that there was something going on, and just prayed for us.
What is amazing to me is that we would’ve probably never had this many conversations with people in our lives without this accident. Life here in the US is so rushed, so compartmentalized, and so shallow at times. When people would come over, it seemed that conversations lingered. Testimonies about hard times were shared, and our faith was strengthened.
When we let people into our mess (and there was a whole lot of it!), we realized that we really weren’t alone. This world, as much as it feels like it’s “every man for himself”, is much better lived in community… when one falls, we all rally around to pick him/her up off the ground.
We are so grateful!