It was a gorgeous day in the Windy City, and there was Jamie Foxx, waving from the deck of a yacht cruising around the Chicago River on July 9. “Boat life,” he would write on Twitter later that night. “Celebrating summer.”

There’s a lot more than summer to celebrate, though. The outing marked the first time Jamie, 55, was spotted in public since being rushed to the hospital for a medical emergency in April. He allegedly suffered a massive stroke and has been seeking ongoing treatment at a Chicago rehab facility for the past few months — but a flood of new sightings now suggest he’s well on his way to a full recovery. Since his relaxed voyage on the water, images have emerged of the 55-year-old actor hitting golf balls at a Topgolf range in the suburb of Naperville, Ill., laughing as he played doubles pickle-ball, and jumping out of his chauffeur-driven SUV to reportedly return a lost handbag to a very grateful woman in a pedicab.

“Jamie feels super blessed to be alive; friends and family are calling his recovery a miracle,” a source exclusively tells Life & Style. “He was a good patient, which paid off. Jamie still has a ways to go to completely get back to his old mental and physical self, but he’s a fighter and says the hardest part is behind him.”

Just how dark did things get? Don’t expect Jamie to divulge that information yet. “He isn’t ready to share the details about his very serious condition,” notes the insider. “Clearly, there were setbacks for him to disappear like that for three months.”

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At the time of his crisis, Jamie had a slew of projects on the horizon, including a long-planned limited series about boxer Mike Tyson. (In May, the former heavyweight champ, 57, said there was still a “strong possibility” the biopic could move forward with Jamie as its lead.)

“Jamie is hoping to get back to the work he had to put on hold, but it will have to wait a little bit longer,” says the insider. “He doesn’t want to test his fate by returning to Hollywood too soon. That’s why he’s staying in Chicago. He feels it’s better for him to be away from the hustle and pressure of L.A..”

When he does go back, one thing is certain, it won’t be a return to business as usual. “This scare definitely opened up his eyes to what and who really matter to him,” says the source. “His career is nothing without his health and supportive friends and family. Jamie has gotten a huge wake-up call.”