Tuesday, August 30, 2005

One Year and we still believe in miracles!

It has been one year today since Luke's accident. A year ago this night, I was grateful to God for the first miracle of raising Luke from the dead, as Luke had been dead 30 minutes before being revived in the ER. While grateful, we were still seeking God for a second miracle of complete restoration of Luke's brain and body.

I know that one day God will completely heal Luke, it wont be the PT or HBOT or other things, it will be God and God alone that will get and deserve the credit. I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt, because God has spoken it to me several times and several ways. So, it is not a matter of if God will heal Luke, it is a matter of when, and I do not know when that will be.

Today we saw a couple of mini miracles, but miracles none the less. The first one occured shortly after Daniel, Amy and I left to go golfing. Sue was taking a shower and the boys were at the playground playing. At the playground Isaiah got hit on the head by a piece of wood. Natalie ran to the bathroom and shout to Sue that Isaiah had blood gushing from the back of his head. Sue quickly jumped out of the shower and ran to Isaiah and found him with lots of blood dripping down the back of his head and neck and soaking into the collar of his shirt. Sue and Natalie laid hands on Isaiah and asked God to stop the bleeding and heal Isaiah. God heard their prayer and the bleeding stopped and there is not even a bump where he was hit with the board. Praise God he still hears and answers prayer.

We are camping along the Oregon coast just outside of Newport. When Sue made the reservation, she made it from Sunday to Thursday the 1st of Sept. She had called last week asking if there was any chance of extending the reservation through labor day weekend. The person on the phone said there was a waiting list and it probably wouldnt do any good but they would add us to the list. On Monday I spoke to the ranger that is in charge of the waiting list and he said that we were number 7. I asked him what the chances were and he said "I wouldn't hold my breath, it is very unlikely" When I told Sue she said, well we need to pray. I said, it will be a miracle, if we get to stay beyond Friday noon. She said, I believe in miracles, do you. I must admit, at times, it is easy to loose heart and not trust that it will all work out. As you know, Luke's equipment requires power to run, and I wondered, what we were going to do. So, I went to the store an inverter to power Luke's machines from battery. Oh ye of little faith. Today around lunch time a ranger stopped by and handed Natalie a new ticket with the date 9/5 on it. I said to Natalie, what is that. She said, it is our new ticket, we can stay longer. I said, isn't 9/5 Labor Day? Sue said, yes it is and I told you that it would work out. Well, it is an absolute miracle, go ahead, I dare you to try and get a camping spot in just about any campground in the USA this weekend, it is not an easy task, however it is not too difficult for God. Well this evening, I returned the inverter, as we won't be needing it after all.

Finally, Sue and I want to share a verse with you.
Phil 1:3 "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,"
This past year has been extremely difficult and we greatly appreciate each and everyone of you that have faithfully prayed for our family this past year. My prayer is that God will bless you and encourage you in the faith. Many have said to us that our faith inspires them, and I want to say that your prayers inspire us. Luke's healing is just a matter of time and it is not just ours but it belongs to all of you and when that day arrives, we can all rejoice in God's goodness together.

We Love you all so much,

Gordy, Sue, Daniel, Amy, Natalie, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Luke and Lily

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Just had to share with you all about Luke's great day!

I know many of you might be surprised to see such a quick update after just getting one yesterday, but I had to share some good news. Luke had a great day today. First we went to a PT/OT appt this morning and he was fitted for a new chair to sit in at home and also had his stroller fixed so that it could be more comfortable for him. While we were there we went into a room filled with switch toys and many amazing electronic devices. They hooked up a switch button to a tape recorder and put on a children's tape and Luke made it go and then made it stop and then continued to make the music go as he was asked to do so. He also made it go with touching his head to a special switch that the music came directly out of. It was so exciting for me to hear both his PT and OT say that he is definitely following directions on command.

We then left there and went directly to an eye specialist. I know I mentioned that we went there last month and Luke fell asleep almost immediately so that we could not really get a good assesment done on his eyes. Today he stayed awake and I was so excited as he looked straight at the Dr. as he asked him to and he also was doing exactly what his eyes were supposed to be doing. The Dr. shone a light right into his eyes and watched as his pupils did exactly what they should be doing. Then he layed him on the floor and hung a ball to the side and just above his head, the Dr. then said that he looked at the ball and reached for it, it was called a special name though for the life of me I can't remember, but he said that it was how a newborn reaches for things when he is beginning to realize that he can make his hand reach for something that his eyes sees. I had also told the the Dr. that I've been seeing a lot more blinking lately and he told me that is excellent it means that he is actually adjusting his vision to things around him and one last thing that I've noticed lately is that I sometimes see just below his eye quiver a bit and the Dr. said that that means he is trying hard to adjust his eyes to see clearly. PTL, our God is moving just as I knew He would, healing Luke from the inside out. The Dr. also said that the things that he is seeing means the cortex part of the brain is beginning to function once again.

Then tonight Natalie and I took him out the HBOT center for a dive and he was trying to lift up his head and body to watch PSALTY the singing song book video. I told him that he could sit up if he wanted to but he's just not ready for that yet. He seems to continue to be so aware of things around him it is so wonderful to see him take an interest in what is going on. One last thing to share is that he is doing so much better at coughing and getting the junk out of his lungs, but he stills needs prayer that he won't have to do that anymore because his lungs will be completely cleared up. I'm so happy that he continues to stay healthy and we plan to leave this Friday Lord willing for our camping trip.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Monday, August 22, 2005

Our home is painted green and it looks great!

Once again I begin this post by saying that we've been extremely busy over the last few weeks. I am so happy to tell you that our house is painted and it looks awesome. We hired a few of Daniel's friends from GTC to help out, Josh & Shane blessed us by doing a great job and we blessed them by helping them get some of there money for going back to GTC for a second year. I'm once again blessed with the realization that I have what I feel are the greatest kids alive. Daniel and Natalie helped paint 4 straight days and Amy kept the house going along with cooking wonderful breakfasts, preparing lunches and making delicious dinners, no one went hungry. Gordy helped 3 of the days painting and I just helped to keep things going. I was able to go a Christian Homeschool Conference in Oregon on Friday and Saturday, so I came home to a job well done. I was telling someone the other day you know you've raised your children right when they can complete a job and keep the house going and everything looks great when you come home.

I know some of you are saying enough, what about Luke? Luke is doing very good. He has stayed healthy these last few weeks, though he continues to struggle at time with his breathing and secretions. His legs are looking better to me all the time and he is getting more bend in his knees. He stays busy with HBOT treatments, PT appts. and Dr. appts. We had his gastric emptying study done and found out at the surgeon appt. last week that he is having reflux and it looks like his stomach is emptying just fine, which was what we expected from what we see of him every day. She, the surgeon would like to do a Nissen Fundoplication on him, I know some of you have asked what that is. It is a surgery where they take the end of the esophagus and basically wrap part of it around his stomach so that the person having it done can not burp up gastric juices or throw up anymore. That is a very simple answer to a complex question, if you would like to more know about it go out to the internet and type it in and it will show pictures and tell you more than you ever wanted to know.

I recently have been feeling that Luke is very near his complete healing. If you have been reading this blog for long you know that we feel that Luke will one day be completely healed, he will walk, talk, run, play and do everything else a child of his age can do. We have had him prayed for by many people over the year and this past week we took him into have special prayer over him, I truly had felt that last week was going to be the week we saw his healing take place. Well on Wednesday morning as I was sitting by his crib crying out to the Lord once again, knowing in my heart that God is going to heal him but just not seeing it I began to feel extremely discouraged, depressed and filled with despair. I realized that it was an attack from the pit of hell, some of you may not realize but if you are a Christian you will live in a constant battle against principalities and powers of darkness. That said, I begin to literally cry out to God and tell satan and his demons that he can not have power over me because when I gave my life over to God I was covered by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, when He died on the cross for my sins and since I've asked him to forgive me of my sins and to come into my heart He protects me and helps me do battle on a daily basis. Needless to say I came out of that prayer time feeling victorious knowing that God is going to heal Luke and felling the strength, joy and peace that only God can give to those that serve Him.

We decided to have him prayed for on Sunday after church, it is basically the first time that we asked the whole church to lay hands on him and to pray for a miraculous healing. It was a awesome time of prayer and we were told by Pastor John, who also happens to be my brother in law, that the Lord told him that Luke is healed and we are supposed to be giving thanks for that healing. Then last night Josh, one of Daniels friends that our family has all taken into our hearts, called with some great news, that as his father was praying for Luke's healing he told Josh the same thing that we had heard that morning, that Luke is healed and that his healing will bring great glory to the name of the Lord. I guess my prayer is that we will begin to see his healing this week and once again be filled with God patience knowing it will happen very soon.

We are hoping to leave this Friday for a much needed vacation. We plan to spend some time down on the Oregon Coast, one of our favorite places to go. Please pray that Luke will stay healthy and this will be a time of refreshing and renewing, as each of us needs a break from work and appointments. Thank you for your continued prayer support you are what makes the difference in our lives.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

WOW, what a day!

Today started out very exciting to say the least. I was in the shower when I heard through the door Amy yelling with a panicked voice MOM, Luke just had his G-J tube accidently pulled out. I could not hear what she was saying and just hearing the panic in her voice thought, oh no Luke is not breathing and thinking how can that be since he was doing okay just a few minutes ago. But then I realized that she was saying that his tube had been pulled out, what should she and Natalie do. I immediately called the Dr.'s office and they put me on hold for a few minutes, finally she came back and told me that she had paged someone and they would call me back. Well I finished getting ready and still no call from the office, so I decided that I better take Luke into the ER so that they could tell me what to do. While I was driving the Dr.'s office finally called and told me to go ahead and go to the ER. When I got there I realized that I drove the car without any strollers in the back and had to carry Luke, his suction machine/diaper bag and my heavy purse, I was just about to go in the door when they called back to tell me to come to the office instead, needless to say I was out of breath by the time I got back to the car and over to the Dr.'s office. The nurse was able to put in a tube and told me that I would probably have to wait at least 4 to 6 hours before having the procedure done since he had just been fed through his g-tube into his stomach. I had resigned myself to think that I would be spending another day in the Dr.'s office and at the Hospital when the nurse came back and said that since Luke had only had about 50 mls go into his stomach they thought that they could get me in right away.

As I was on my way to the Hospital I had called a few family members and friends to pray and they in turn called even more people to pray, I thought about all of our faithful friends out there in blog land and I was wishing there was an easy way to let you all know. Needless to say, I felt the Lord going before us each step of the way. The nurse came back almost immediately and told us since it was such a small amount of food that they could take us over at the hospital right now. We were out of the Hospital by 12:00, which was awesome considering what we had been told earlier.

Here's an update on how Luke's Gastronologist appt went last Friday. After discussing with the Dr. our concerns about Luke's reflux problem that he has been having for a long time, we all thought that a Nissen Fundoplication was probably the best road to go down. Before we can schedule that procedure we first need to have a gastric emptying study done on him. So we go in tomorrow, Wednesday for a gastric emptying study, please be praying for Luke as he will have to lay on a straight board, for an hour, while they feed him some of his formula into his g-tube with some radio active fluid in it and then watch with an X-ray machine on a computer screen to see if his stomach is emptying okay. We will meet with the surgeon next Tuesday afternoon to talk to him about the results and whether Luke is a good candidate for this procedure. It will be at least a 5 day stay in the Hospital if we have it done we are not looking forward to that of course, but are hoping that it will make a huge difference in Luke's health.

Please be praying that God will continue to help Luke keep his lungs free from excess secretions and to keep him breathing smoothly. We've not had to use any oxygen for almost a month now which has been an awesome thing. We continue to see progress with Luke's arms, wrists and fingers relaxing on a daily basis and we are also seeing more of a bend in Luke's legs PTL. Our new PT has been showing me some wonderful ways to help Luke get more productive coughs and help him to be able to take big breaths of air.

We were blessed once again on Saturday. Phillip and KimDeBord, who we had never met before but have been praying for Luke and our family since last August volunteered to come over and pressure wash our home for free. What a huge job! Phillip also got our roof clean at the same time. We are now getting the paint picked out, we are going with darker green for the home and a light mint green for the trim. We hope to have the house completely painted by August 20th. Please be praying that it will go smoothly and that we will be able to get it done without any major setbacks. Also be praying that we will be able to take our camping trip in our trailer at the end of August, we all feel like we need some time to relax and just have a time of no schedules and some fun family time together. We hope to be able to go to the Oregon coast if Luke is healthy, one of our most favorite places to go.

We pray that our Heavenly Father will bless you with His peace and love today.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

We continue to learn how to be still and know that God continues to heal Luke in His timing

Today was a great day for Luke and myself. I took Luke to a HBOT session and on the way to his PT appt from there he was moving his arms up and down, more than I've seen him move since the accident. Then at his PT appt. his PT set him up to try out some big switches, which are buttons that you push to make a toy go. He first tried an Elmo singing, he didn't seem that interested in it so we tried a train. He seemed to love the train and was actually pushing the switch to make it go, I started to cry happy tears as I watched him take true interest in the toy that he was playing with. She then put him into a neat little electrical car of sorts. All he had to do was hit the button to make it go and take his hand off it to stop it. He was making it go and he was holding up his head so well during his ride and then he actually stopped and started the car all by his self. I was so excited to see him doing something that he really enjoyed.

As I was reading in a devotional book by, Peacemakers Ministry yesterday it really ministered to my soul. The scripture was from Ps. 46:10 Be still and know that I am God. It said; Anxious soul, God is saying to you today, "Be still, and know that I am God." And there's a reason He's saying it. Your activity, when born out of anxiety, actually prevents Him from showing Himself strong on your behalf. That doesn't mean you're to be passive or lazy: it just means you're to do whatever, He leads you to do without running ahead of Him in the energy of the flesh! It also means you're to submit to Him first, then slow down and wait! In other words, make sure you have a sense of peace to go along with the ideas you believe He's given you. Ask Him to reveal to you His will in the matter, then"be still" and acknowledge that He's God. He's in charge, He knows what He's doing! Learn to trust Him without always demanding to know what He's going to do, when He going to do it and how He's going to carry it out.
Jesus said, "I am the vine, and ye are the branches" Jn. 15:5 Until you really embrace those words you'll keep trying to do things that only God can do - like blessing yourself, promoting your own minstry, solving your own problems, trying to get Luke healed faster and answering your own prayers. Or worse, you'll try to cover up for Him because you think He's not doing it fast enough, or in the way it should be done. Give it up! Try less and trust more! Jesus said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." All you have to do is stay connected.

I thought that this was such a good devotional. As I was sharing with Daniel about the devotional and what the Lord had been dealing with me he had me read from Gal. 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? I thought how right on with what the Lord is saying to me He began the healing in Luke on the day of the accident and since then I've been trying to get it to move along faster with all the treatments and programs etc.. I'm not saying that I think we should of sat back and did nothing but I am saying that I realize I can not hurry up his healing process, it has to be God's doing not mine. Oh, the things I am learning!

Thank you for your prayers for myself they are working. I really feel as I had a good prayer time on Sunday night that God heard me cry out and he is helping me to feel so much better. I've been amazed all day at how much better I'm doing, I ask my self why I'm amazed when I know for a fact that God is hearing all your prayers and He is answering them.

Please be praying that God will give Gordy and I wisdom in knowing for sure what to do about the Nissen Fundoplication procedure for Luke. We are feeling more and more like we should go ahead and have it done. We have a Dr. appt with his gastronologist on Friday to discuss it. I'm so thankful that God said in His word to ask for wisdom and He will give it to us, I feel confident that He will give us the peace that we are asking for in knowing His will for this sitution.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue