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.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

So glad Luke is improving so much each day :)
With all of us praying for you and your family he will only continue to get better until you have your little boy back again .
You are a strong Lady!

Anonymous said...

Still praying for Luke. Praise God for his improvements! We'd love to see some new pictures.
Allie

Anonymous said...

Hi Gordy & Sue,
After more than a year, I thought it was time to let you know I've been checking regularly to find what specifically to pray for Luke and all of your family. God's grace and faithfulness are wonderful. Praise Him for the healing of Luke and for your strength as you rest in Him.
We love you.
--Tamara Hug (along with Joel, Rachel, Ruth, Gabriel, Samuel, Susanna, Daniel, Thaddaeus, Abigail, and Priscilla)

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you gave this update. It is so amazing to see... even though we have known but for you to list things here. My eyes filled with tears as I remember how my heart hurt as I would come to the blog and check on Luke. I would cry with you and rejoice when you would rejoice (still do :) ) I hope it is okay to say... at first I just prayed he would live! Then ... that God would heal him. Always coming.. sometimes 3-4 times a day as the children did school in here.. to see if you had blogged. We prayed with you and wept with you and rejoiced with you. I feel so connected to all of you. I am so thankful to my Lord and Savior for healing Luke. I just rejoiced as you said about him standing between your legs~ that is truly a miracle. IT all is a miracle!! I will always pray for Luke! For all of you~ you have touched my heart in so many ways~
continueing to pray~
your Georgia friends~
Billy, Teena, Michael, Mandi, Dakota, Alyssa, Wyatt & Wesley

Anonymous said...

I have followed for a year, and I am happy for the progress made , but your family seems so totally self focused, there are others who need equal amounts of healing, equal amounts of prayer.But really it seems all about your family, I will silently lurk and shake my head wondering why

Anonymous said...

I want to respond to the blogger who refers to the Searles Family as "self-focused". At first I was angry that you could say such a thing about them, of all people, then I just laughed as you obviously don't know them. First of all, this blog is for the purpose of sharing about Luke and what God is doing in his life and his family. How can one expect a "well-rounded" view of an entire family from this perspective? I can say from personal experience that I don't know of any one who has been more giving, compassionate, sacrificing, and caring than the Searles. They were before Lukes accident, and they are more so now than ever. This time has added an incredibly deep dimension of understanding and caring about the trials of others to their character that few of us can comprehend. I have come to have a stronger understanding of the true nature of love and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ through their example of reaching out and giving to those of us in need, especially in this last most difficult year of their lives. I guess that I'm not really responding to the blogger at all; I am wanting to tell the Searles, "Press on...You rock!" Love you all lots, Roi Lynne

Anonymous said...

P.S. to the "self-focused" blogger; if you have needs and hurts, or know of someone who does, please, please, share it with us and we will pray for you, too. God bless you, RL

Anonymous said...

Also to the anonymous "self-focused", the Searles do know that their are others out there in need of healing and if you were to go back through the blog and read from the beginning you would see where they have asked for prayers for others, and have asked for the healings of others. Please we also would love to pray for you and whatever needs you may need along with RL, and all the others.

Lori

Douglas said...

Praise God for how well Luke is doing! I have a picture in my mind's eye that in 15 years he'll be involved in some vigorous physical activity, and you'll remember today.