A Special Note From Joy

Dear family and friends

Our hearts are overflowing with joy and thanksgiving for all that God has done over these past 3+ weeks. This was an 'unscheduled flight' (from our perspective, though not from God's) to places we would never have volunteered to go. However, this journey has shown us the love and faithfulness of God in so many amazing ways. As much as we love the comfortable and familiar roads, they don't always provide the best view of the beauty and glory of God.

We have witnessed the sovereignty of God in revealing of the aneurysm, limiting the hemorrhage, and providing all that was needed to repair it.
We experienced His peace, in the midst of unsettling and uncertain circumstances - even in the long hours of waiting for the transfer to Hoag Hospital and surgery.
We saw His wisdom in choosing just the right hospital, neurosurgeon and professional staff to care for Kyle.
We were constantly comforted by His promises and His presence with us.
We marvel at how He set off this chain of events to reveal the problem, and yet at the same time, carefully managing every detail so that a full recovery is anticipated.
He poured out His grace beyond measure, enabling us to do what we could never have done in our own strength.

AND - He showered us with blessings through all of you. Your prayers, words of compassion and comfort, notes of kindness, gifts of love, visits and phone calls of encouragement -- were precious gifts. The out pouring of God's kindness through all of you, is one of the outstanding memories we will cherish as we reflect on this journey.

Thank you for 'sharing our burden.' Now you can share in our rejoicing,' as God has answered your prayers. There are so many of you that we don't know, and some of you don't even know Kyle -- but we thank you for caring and for your prayers.

We are especially grateful for our daughter (by love). We already knew she was a treasure, chosen by God to be Kyle's bride. But, this experience has allowed us to see her devotion to God and Kyle demonstrated in many new ways.

We are also thankful for the additional family that Kyle gained when he married Melody. How blessed we all were to have another brother and another set of parents loving and supporting Kyle. Gary and Deb have watched and prayed with us through the whole journey, and came along side in countless ways. Shane (Meyers) set up one of the websites which was SO helpful for gathering people to pray, passing on updates and sending those encouraging messages. A special thanks to Sheri Dickinson also, for setting up the other website. She knows we are not “techie's” and would never have been able to do that!

With heart felt thanks and a great big hug to all of you for your many expressions of love

The Matthews Family