All we can do is pray

Padi continues comfortable, apparently. At this stage you don't get words, just an impression of calm. He is quite unresponsive so you're looking for signs of tension or anguish, of which there are none, unless you try to move him, as i was saying yesterday. Just occasionally his eyes will flicker open, which moments are precious, and we quickly say something reassuring, even if nothing seems to register. But we assume, safely I think, that he can hear us a fair bit. For that reason I'm playing the New Testament (at low volume) via the YouVersion Bible App. He can tune in when he can and let it run past otherwise. I remember that he was not the biggest fan of the particular actor's voice but this is God's Word so I'm certain he'll be glad of it. There is nothing quite like it. 
Yesterday we had a number of visits from family and our pastor and his parents. Now that Padi's eye pain is under control we have allowed the light back in. Blackout conditions were a bit oppressive.
We try to keep routines and take opportunities to keep some sense of normality in the other kids lives. On friday night two of them were at 'sleepovers'. Saturday is chips night, even though we have a fridge and freezer full of delicious donated meals! We are literally overwhelmed by this practical help! It can be difficult to decide when it is important to maintain or assert our own family culture, and how to do that well, and when to relax these boundaries and accept the help on offer. Everyone feels so helpless in a situation where even the best that modern medicine can do has apparently failed and yet they really do want to help. "All we can do is pray", they often say. Well, prayer is a great mystery. On one level, the very least that can be said is that it is more than nothing. The Bible makes it clear that prayer is sometimes the only remedy (e.g. http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-17-21/ ). In his epistles, Paul regularly exhorts and resorts to prayer. 
We have certainly been the subject of vast amounts of prayer, when, no doubt, many others carry massive burdens privately. My father was under palliative care and if a visitor sought an audience he would ask, "Can they pray?" Can you? Do you know God well enough? You must.