First time back together since Sunday the 17th

Very nice, very thankful to be all home, enjoying rabbits, family worship, tasty treats, our own beds... except that Pads is in the spare room which is even better in some ways, quieter and more private. He's tired, thin and weak... but alive. I often ponder what kind of state he would be in by now if he hadnt been operated upon... Mum really needs an early night too. She's been surviving on broken nights too, with a small nap in the afternoons to see her through.
One other thing was his visit to the optometry clinic this morning... they think the double vision will correct itself by the time he is due to go back for another appointment in a month (i.e. to the optometry clinic - still not discharged from the hospital).
We are very grateful today, once again, for childcare and food help in various generous ways. Also the messages of encouragement continue to arrive at regular intervals. For example,

I have been greatly blessed in reading a little book by Mrs Howard Taylor called The Untroubled Heart. It has helped to put so much of what is happening in your lives and mine, at the moment, in perspective. We believe in the sovereignty of God but it is not until we are tried and tested in the circumstances of life that we truly learn to trust them all to the Lord and see His providential care shining through our circumstances. "The beginning and the end are gloriously certain, but the pilgrimage of life lies between, and the difficulties to be faced are neither few nor small. What lies between the beginning and the end of our Christian pilgrimage? A glorious sufficiency of divine sustaining! 'All grace' on the way to 'eternal glory.' Peter 5:10 'The God of all grace, who hath called you unto His eternal glory in Christ….' (Mrs H Taylor calls it the Bridge of All Grace) The provision is complete. There are no gaps. Everything that comes to us is by the will or permission of God. We must see every detail of our lives in this light." I am coming to see the difference between stoically accepting our circumstances – which Christians can do too – and standing on the Bridge of All Grace which He has provided for us to carry us over the trials of life.