Friday, September 30, 2005

Look what the Lord has done for Luke this past year

It's hard to believe just a year ago from yesterday, we had finally come home from our month long stay at the hospital. WOW, what amazing changes we've seen! Luke came home on 5 different meds given 4 times daily to where now he is down to just one more prescription medicine. We came home feeling overwhelmed at the equipment that he had to have each day and night and we are now down to his food pump and we also use an oximeter to help us keep a better eye on him during the night. We came home to two huge oxygen tanks, which we finally had taken away after not ever using them, to where now we have some little portable tanks that we have not had to use in a long time.

We came home with a little boy who always stared off into the distance and was constantly facing to the right with his body shaped like a backward C, to where now he is looking around the room, will look right at you when he feels like it, will watch the TV sometimes, he is now standing up between our legs and holding up his head with out much help from us, he also sits up and holds his head up on his own for the most part. I remember thinking how are we going to get enough suction catheters for suctioning his trach at least 20 to 25 times a day, to where now he doesn't even have a trach and we only have to suction him in the morning and this morning it was only once all day long. Do you remember all the times we asked you pray for him to sleep through out the night? Well now he does awesome sleeping, some days we need to wake him up in the morning, to get ready to go some place.

I can remember so clearly as if it was just yesterday looking at Luke and crying out to the Lord to heal him, just wishing for any kind of recognition, now it is so clear that he knows familiar people and he definitely acts uncomfortable around new people and situations. It was so exciting to hear his one Dr. say that the cortex part of his brain is coming back, after being told that his brain is dead and there is no hope of his getting any better. The only way we would know if Luke was uncomfortable was by watching his right eye and if it got red around it we knew he was in pain. Now we know for sure when Luke is in pain by his facial expressions and by the noises he makes, he was literally crying out today when he was being massaged letting us know he was not liking it and the second we stopped he stopped. WOW, that is just amazing.

I will be the first person to admit that this has been the most challenging, difficult and at times horrible year of my life, but it has also been a year of seeing God come down and do some mighty things in our family. Just the other night we where having a time of sharing testimonies at our church and Amy shared with the people how God had touched her and took away the horrible nightmares that she had on a daily basis of seeing her little brother floating dead in the water of our pool. She shared how God throughout this past year has touched her and healed the hurt that she has experienced from Luke's drowning, to where she used to wonder if God was going to really heal Luke to where now she has an assurance in her heart that God is going to heal Luke completely and totally.

We are so happy that you are still following Luke's constant steps toward his complete healing. We can never even begin to let you know how thankful we are for your continued prayers and support, I know that we mention this often but you can not even begin to imagine how much we truly appreciate all of you! We pray that God will bless you today with feeling His love in your hearts and fill you up with His joy, the joy that only He can give. Please keep Natalie, Lily and myself in your prayers as we fly down to CA to bring home my good friend Yoli and her kids. Also keep Luke, Amy, Isaiah and Ezekiel in your prayers as they are going to spend Saturday night at my sister, Jill's home, it will be the first time Luke will spend the night at someones home without Gordy or I there, Amy bless her heart will help teach Jill how to feed Luke and what to do in some of those tricky times when Luke's needs just a little bit of extra help. And don't forget Gordy and Daniel they will be staying home the entire time, Gordy will be alone the rest of nights with Luke so please pray that Luke will continue to sleep good as he has been doing lately. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

P.S. I finally scheduled Luke for his Nissen Fundoplication surgery October 18th, but I continue to ask you to join us in our prayers that Luke won't need this sugery. This surgery would help him with the horrible indigestion and gastric reflux that he has on a daily basis.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

A Great Report on Luke's Toe's, Ankles and Knees

We had some great news today as I took Luke in for a evaluation on his leg splints. He had them made at the beginning of the year and at that time we were told they were not sure how long they would last. Well though Luke has not gained much weight he has gotten taller this past year, needless to say he has outgrown his leg splints.

It was so exciting to hear today that Luke's toes are looking awesome, they used to be bend over each other and now they are straight out. He kept looking at his ankles and made the comment that they are bending at least a 95 percent angle, which is awesome a 100 % bend is perfect. He felt his knee joints and said that they are feeling okay and that he was very happy to see the bend that we are getting in his legs, his legs used to be ramrod straight and now they are hanging down. He mentioned that we will want to talk to our PT before deciding what we should do next as far as helping his legs progress even better.

Do you remember that over the past year there have been many times that I've specifically asked for prayer that God would help Luke's legs to bend and his arm to straighten out. Well God is answering our prayers because his arms are straightening out and his legs while not bending perfectly yet are beginning to bend. As he talked about the future and the different options we might have I once again told him that I believe that Luke is going to be completely healed and will be walking and running sometime in the near future. It's so funny to see how people will respond to this they usually don't know what to say, a lot of them probably think that poor Mom it's too bad she just can't accept her child's handicapped. But they don't know the God that I serve, I know that nothing is too difficult for Him and saving and healing people is what He does best.

This week has been a very challenging one for me. I've had some very painful days to deal with. My back began to hurt last week and was getting worse every day until I was literally crying out in pain at various times through out the day. My Chriropractor wanted me to go in for a MRI, so that is what I did tonight, I'm glad that is over it was very uncomfortable to say the least. I will learn the results on Friday. Please be praying that God will completely heal my back, I was feeling so much better today so I'm believing that God has already began the healing process. It is so hard for me to take it easy when there are 101 things that I could be doing each day and it literally just about kills me to not be able to carry Luke around and help with his care. I've been crying out to the Lord for a touch and for wisdom to make the time I need to take care of myself. I know when I was walking faithfully up until Luke's accident last year that my back was feeling so wonderful, I'm hoping that I can begin to walk regularly again, I just have to take the time of which I'm always running short on. I've had a heavy heart lately, sometimes I get so impatient with God's timing in healing Luke and it just kills me to see him just laying around when he could be running and playing with his brothers. The part of my scripture verse from Hab. 2:2 & 3,that I've been clinging to lately is the part that says, "if it seems slow, don't despair." I realize that it must sound selfish to those that have lost a loved one or gone through the tragedy of losing your home to Hurricane Katrina, that here I am with Luke alive and getting better all the time, saying what are you whining about Sue??

Would you please continue to pray specifically for Luke's lungs to get better, he has a very strong cough and sneeze but he struggles daily to keep his lungs clear. We rarely have to suction him anymore, except in the morning, which is absolutely great. I was just telling a friend tonight how great he has been sleeping, I remember this time last year he never slept through the night, another answer to prayer. Would you also pray for Luke to smile and laugh again, somedays I feel I would do anything to see his precious beautiful smile again. Both Gordy and I are so encouraged to hear from all that are still praying and following along with Luke's updates and prayer requests. I look forward to the day that you will look to the blog and see in huge print that Luke has been completely and totally healed, it's coming don't doubt it for a moment.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

New's about our wonderful trip and Luke's great evaluation

Sometimes it's hard for me to know where to begin sharing all the news I have to share after such a long time of not writing. I am thankful that Gordy was able to blog a few times during our vacation.

Thank you for your prayers about our vacation, I don't know how many times I said to Gordy and the kids that this was the best vacation we've ever had. The one and only thing I would of changed is that we would of been chasing Luke around the playground & beach instead of pushing him in his stroller. Praise the Lord, Luke stayed healthy the entire time. He seemed to enjoy all the stimulation that we gave him, taking him to the beach daily to play in the sand, fly kites, walk down the beach, sit and read and relax. I can not even begin to describe how wonderful it was not to have one appointment to go to for two whole weeks. We stayed in a campground right across from the Pacific Ocean and we could walk daily to the beach, it was great.

I knew people were praying for us as we hit the anniversary date of the accident. To be honest Monday the day before the 30th I woke up extremly depressed and crying, thinking back to a year ago, going through the day in my mind, thinking this is the last day I can say at this time last year our life was normal. That morning I just didn't know how I was going to make it through the day, but then I knew someone was praying, because I can't even begin to describe how I felt as the heaviness began to lift and after that I was okay that day and the next. I did shed a few tears on the way home thinking back to the year previous coming home from our long trip just before the accident, remembering how good Luke was in his car seat for such a long trip and then chasing him around the resturant on our way home.

The day after we came home we went to our local state fair, it is a huge fair full of animals, shopping, great food and lots of fun. We took Luke for the first couple hours with us and he seemed to really enjoy himself. On Saturday we were going to spend the day emptying out the trailier and getting it ready for storing away for winter. While Gordy and Daniel worked on that I ended up taking Natalie into the Dr. we thought maybe she had strep throat, but after a culture it came back negative, the Dr. thought maybe it was mono, but we really prayed and she began to feel a little better the next day and continues to feel better each day since. Though please be praying for Luke he seemed to come down with something yesterday, Lily also had a bit of a fever for a few days, so I'm praying that is what Luke has and by tomorrow he will be all better.

On Sunday after sharing a wonderful dinner with Gordy's sister's family in Seattle we headed up north to Anacortes to spend the night. The next morning Luke had his first follow up evaluation with the neurodevelopmentalist. She seemed to be pleased with the progress that Luke has made. He is getting his bobinski reflex back, that is when you tickle the bottom of a foot it should curl the toes, his toes are moving ever so slightly. She was also impressed to see his knees bending more, since at the last one we didn't have any bend at all, she gave us some more exercises to do with him to unlock them even more. She was also happy to see how well he is holding up his head and when we layed him down on his stomach he picked up his head and moved his body to look up at her wondering what she was going to do next. We came home encouraged by his progress with some new exercises to do with him to continue with the program. On the way home we stopped by his PT appt. and Gordy was able to see Luke push the switch button and drive the little car all over the building, I was excited to see him do it with his left hand. We don't see as much movement on his left side, therefore we were told to work with his left side 75% more than his right side when doing his exercises.

This week I'm trying to get a few projects accomplished before we begin school, the YMCA and piano lessons next week. I hope to get the deck painted, it was partially done during our house painting and needs to be finished along wth a few other Fall cleaning chores that really need to be done.

I am planning to schedule Luke's Fundoplication surgery the second week in October after Natalie, Lily and I get home from a trip down to CA to drive back with our good friends Yoli and her son Spencer and daughter Bonnie, they went down there in the middle of August with her husband, Juan, but he was sent to Egypt with his unit in the Army for 8 weeks, so I going to help with the driving home. I'm looking forward to going down there for a few days. Yoli was the faithful friend that has been in the Hospital every night that Luke has been there, so I wanted to wait until she got home to schedule the surgery, but I pray daily that we won't need it and by that time Luke will be healed of his reflux problem.

I will plan to post some pictures soon of our vacation and our home, as was requested by someone a while ago. I know many of you have never blogged or commented, you tell me all the time you read the blog but never comment, a while ago someone mentioned that they thought it would be encouraging for both Gordy and I to see all the people that are still out there praying for Luke's complete healing. I remember shortly after the accident talking to Jodie, who is Josiah's mom, Josiah had a near drowning accident 4 years ago, anyway she told me that people will eventually give up on the miracle of seeing Luke healed after a time of praying. My prayers and hopeful desires is that no one will give up, God is moving and hearing your faithful prayers and He is going to heal Luke in His timing, I'm just praying that it will be soon. It would be so wonderful to see who all is still out there after a year of faithful following along with Luke's progess. You will never even begin to know how much we appreciate all of you, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, you are all the reason that I can still go one with a song in my heart.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Yet another miracle

Early this morning around 2:45am we were awoken by two loud explosions that sounded like gun shots and then moments later the sounds of people shouting "Fire". We all quickly exited the trailer to discover a tent less then 100 feet away fully engulfed in flames. Without my contacts in I thought the trees surrounding the tent were on fire and it is an absolute miracle that they weren't. One more time God was watching over our family as he kept the fire in check and prevented it from spreading to our camp site. Quickly a group of people came to the rescue with fire extinguishers, buckets and finally a few extra hoses that we connected to our hose to get water on the fire. The tent and its contents were reduce to smoldering rubble. The woman and daughter that were staying in at the tent site were sleeping in their van and had left a candle burning in the tent. We are grateful to God that nobody was injured and that everything that was damaged can be replaced.

It was encouraging to see others come to the aid of the woman. A family gave them a tent and some groceries. Others bought them new supplies so they could continue on there plan of a two week camping trip. Praise God for His faithfulneess.

We are having a wonderful time here in Newport and have decided to just stay here until returning home on Thursday so we can go "Do The Puyallup".

I must admit I am awe struck by the few images and stories I have seen regarding the aftermath of Katrina. My heart aches for those that have lost loved ones and are enduring great hardship. I have thought about Shane and Julie's family in Mississippi several times the last few days as the realization of Katrina's power unfolds. Father, I ask that you show great favor to these family members and allow them to return to their homes in Mississippi soon. I pray that every brick and every board would be completely in place and there would be no damage to their homes as a testimony of your goodness and grace. In the name of Jesus.

I pray that each of you has an awesome time relaxing with your family this Labor Day.