We are in "The in-between place"

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were blessed to have a great trip over the mountains to visit my sister Lori and her husband Lonnie. Her home is always so relaxing for our family. We were doubly blessed to wake up to snow on Friday morning. We don't get much snow on our side of the mountain so any snow for the kids to play in is a huge treat. We were very thankful to make it home on Saturday evening, our van was running rough on the way over and we thought perhaps we had just gotten a bad tank of gas, well on the way home we stopped to fill it up before heading over the pass and it died and would not start again. We prayed that God would get us going again and after a little help from a garage across the street Gordy was able to climb under the passenger side wheel and get it started with a little help from a screwdriver to the ignition switch. We literally prayed our whole way home. We have been blessed to have a Kincaid's Auto Garage right down the street, the owner has been faithfully fixing our cars for years. Since we drive older cars we seem to visit him more than we'd like at times. Needless to say we picked up the jeep that Daniel drives to work, it had been in the shop for an electrical problem and a few hours later once again gave the van another jump and took it down to him and at the same time scheduled a time to take in our truck on Friday for a clutch job. It seems sometimes when it rains car problems it pours, I'm not complaining mind you just letting you know.

Luke has been doing great these past few days and also did great at Auntie Lori's and Uncle Lonnie's home. His oxygen levels continue to rise each day. Tonight Gordy called me back to his room just to show me that he was at 100%, and he has kept it up his good numbers since then tonight. I know that I talked about taking him in to the Dr. last week, well I finally did it on Tuesday and his Dr. did prescribe a antibiotic and it seems that it is doing the trick he is not coughing and sneezing out the yucky brown stuff that he had been doing for so long.

We began giving Luke plankton, it is a new supplement that my dear friend Tiffany told me about, her daughter Abbie, who I've mentioned before had a near drowning accident 3 months prior to Luke's accident and we've become close friends sharing things that are working with each other, anyway it seems that this plankton has done wonders for Abbie along with a biomodular machine that she is using on her muscles, Abbie is doing absolutely great, she is a miracle, if you like to read more about her miraculous story her web site is Pray for Abbie.com. Tiffany has not only been an awesome resource for me she has also been a wonderful sister in the Lord, we've been carrying each others burdens to the Lord, I thank the Lord often for her friendship, even though we've never personally met.

Luke had a great day at Physical Therapy today, his therapist who is a great PT, commented quite a few times today on how well Luke was doing keeping his head up. The prayers for holding his head up better have been working and he is becoming stronger every day. We both saw what could be considered a little smile today, which is huge milestone. The biggest pray requests for Luke now are that he will start to get more of a bend to his knee's I know that I've mentioned this many times in the past and he continues to need a lot of prayer for his legs, they are completely deformed, I have been dragging my feet to make an appt. with a Orthopedic Dr. because I fear, which I know I shouldn't, that he is going to suggest some radical things for Luke's legs and hips. Also please pray that his nose will clear up and won't be so stuffy all the time.

Last but not least I once again was blessed by that little devotional book that I've mentioned quite a few times recently. Somedays it seems to have been written right to me, anyway last week it had this title, "The in-between Place," Wait for it; it will certainly come., was the scripture from Habakkuk 2:3, the very one that I cling to so strongly. It said, " Waiting isn't easy, but it's necessary. God is working on both ends of the line; He's getting you ready for it (even when you don't know what it is), and He's getting it ready for you. Look at Joshua. He's been to the Promised Land, now he has to go back and live with people who have no idea, and in most cases no interest in what he's talking about. Is that where you are today? To get from where you are to where you're going you have to be willing to be in-between. It's hard to let go of the familiar and stand with your hands empty while you wait for God to fill them ..." There are times that I cry out to God to help me not lose my hope in knowing that Luke will be completely healed and his brain and body will be restored to the way it was before his accident. I'm so thankful that God is hearing my cries and even better He continues to replenish my hope, when I'm feeling pretty low. My heart literally aches for those that are going through their own trials without the touch of Jesus in their lives and my prayer is that they will find the same hope and strength that I have to find daily through my faith in God. God is waiting for you to reach out to Him today, He loves you more than you can imagine!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

We pray that you will have a blessed Thanksgiving Day

I just want to begin by saying thank you so much for praying for our weekend away. Gordy and I had a wonderful time and the children all did great at home. If any of you that are married and are able to get away for a couples retreat, I would highly recommend it. Gordy and I have been married for 22 1/2 years and have made it a priority to go out on a date a couple of times a month and get away at least once a year for at least a night or two. We really believe it helps everyone in the family to keep your marriage strong and our retreat was just what we needed after getting through, what we would both agree has been the most stressful year of our lives. We are blessed to have such a great relationship, as so many that have gone through a tragedy of having a child nearly drown have had their relationship fall apart, especially with one of the spouses blaming the other for what happened. God has laid it upon my heart to really pray that those that go through any kind of tragedy in the family will keep their marriage strong and perhaps you could do the same with those that you know are going through similar experiences.

Luke has been doing pretty good. He is still battling a deep cough from his chest, which I believe is still due to his sinus' being infected, I've wondered on a daily basis whether I should take him into the Dr. It seems to be a fine line of not wanting him on too many antibiotics and wanting him to stay healthy at the same time. He seems to be getting stronger all the time, his head control is coming back and he is sitting up so much better than just a week ago. We took him to a special healing service on Thursday night and many people prayed for him and during that time as I was holding him on my lap he began to really move his legs more than he has since the accident, he has continued to move them slightly on request since then, that was very exciting to say the least. God continues to give us little glimmers of His healing power weekly.

I had to take in both Lily and Isaiah into the Dr. on Tuesday, they've both been struggling with runny noses and Lily was not being her happy little self, sure enough they both had bad ear infections so they are on antibiotics. Like I said antibiotics can be a good thing when they are not used often and they are both doing so much better.

We had our "Miller", which is my Maiden name Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, which turned out to be a awesome day. Then on Sunday we had Gordy's sister Pam and family over for a Mexican Thanksgiving dinner, which turned out to be a great day. We are actually planning to head over to my sister Lori and her husband Lonnie's home for one more Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day. If Luke stays healthy we plan to leave on Wednesday and spend one night in Leavenworth, which is a fun little Bavarian town in Eastern Washington and then head over to their home which is basically in the middle of Eastern Washington in the middle of "no where" until Saturday. I guess we are truly blessed to be have so many "thanksgiving celebrations."

We pray that you will be blessed with a wonderful Thanksgiving Day no matter where you are in the world. I know that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving Day, but whether you do or don't I hope that you have a lot to be thankful for. I know that I've mentioned this before but my Grandma's favorite Bible verse that she quoted just before dying talks about offering our thanks to God, Philippians 4:6 & 7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I also love this scripture and I on a daily basis thank the Lord for all that I'm blessed with, a wonderful husband, beautiful children, a great family, good friends, the freedom that I have to worship God freely in this wonderful country that I live in, more provisions that most in this world have, I could go on and on, but I don't want make this too long.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Love in Christ,

Luke's Mommy Sue

God's word to me is "Keep pressing on!"

Luke is doing fine and is completely off oxygen which is a answer to prayer. We continue to up his feedings during the day time and lower them at night. We have been experimenting with his new "real food" formula. Our biggest challenge is getting it where is the perfect consistency for his drip feeding during the night. We've lost a few hours of sleep over the past week over getting this just right. I've really noticed a change in his coughing and secretions, I really feel that changing him over to real food is going to have a huge impact on him. His PT kept saying on Monday how she thought that his breathing sounded better than ever before and we did not have to deal with any coughing issues. PTL!

I was sharing today with a friend of mine, who happens to be a PT, about Luke perhaps losing some ground this past week or so as far as his head control and his tone issues in his legs. She happened to say that she thinks that perhaps he is still recovering from his recent surgery that she had heard it said that it can take up to 6 months for all the anesethia to come out of his body. Please be praying that this will happen quickly and we will begin to see some awesome changes in Luke's muscle tone and head control.

As I shared last time with you all I have really been dealing with a bit of depression and just plain ole anxiousness about Luke's healing. Gordy and I were just talking about all the decisions and choices we constantly have to deal with, for Luke's health issues. It can be overwhelming at times knowing what steps God wants us to take in helping him to get better. There are so many wonderful supplements we hear about and different therapies that we wish we could do if only money wasn't an issue. When we first began this journey, people would ask us if we need money and we would say no, though we never in a million years would realize how much we would be spending each month on his medical bills, we constantly say that we are so thankful for those that gave even though we did not ask, they took off the financial burden that could of been overwhelming without their assistance. God has always provided for our needs and we continue to trust Him whole heartedly for provision for those things that He wants us to continue doing for Luke. I guess I tell you all of that for one reason and that is for you to really be praying that God will continue to give us His wisdom in knowing what we need to be pursuing towards Luke's journey back to wholeness.

Last but not least I was reading a little devotional book that I get from Peacemakers Ministries on Wednesday the message was Keep Pressing on!, it was saying, You've got to learn how to get alone and give yourself a good talking to! You've got to learn how to pray for yourself and quote God's promises to yourself. Here's one worth quoting: "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Ps. 30:5) Did you get that? Joy is coming! Help is on the way! You must learn how to rise up and say, "What does not destroy me will only make me stronger. No day lasts forever. This too shall pass. In the meantime I'll let it drive me closer to God." Come on - start talking to yourself! Your weakness can be the discovery point for strengths you never knew you had. It's the biggest battles that produce the biggest victories. When Joseph recalled the worst time of his life he said, "God turned into good what you meant for evil" ( Gen. 50:20 TLB) Others don't control your destiny, God does and He's not like others! You'll come out of this a better person. Look beyond the pain and you'll find perspective. This really ministered to my heart, it was God's way of saying Sue you will get through this and you will find your joy once again, just continue to trust me even when you can't see what I'm doing in your life.

One last prayer request I have for you, is that Gordy and I are going to a Marriage retreat this weekend with some couples from our church. We have been married 22 years this past summer and this is our second couples retreat that we are going on. Amy, Natalie and Daniel will be taking care of the kids, I know that they are fully capable and more than able to do this for us while we are gone. I would just like to ask you to keep us all in your prayers that I will be able to rest knowing that all will be fine with Luke and that he won't have any major health issues while we are gone. Thank you once again in advance for your continued support and prayers, may God richly bless you.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke and I are thankful to be back home again

I know many of you are wondering how Luke could end up in the Hospital after I had just posted that he was doing so good after his surgery. Well it was a bad head cold that got his nose so stuffed up that he could not breathe very well, I knew he had a bad runny nose but did not realize how bad it was until we got to the Dr.'s office, on Monday for Luke's post op appt, to make sure his surgery scars were healing okay. When they went to check his oxygen levels, which is something that is pretty standard for him, he was only registering in the mid 80's. I was totally shocked since when I had unhooked him from his oximeter in the morning right before getting him ready for his appt. he was at 94%. They decided that we needed to get an x-ray to make sure it wasn't pneumonia, though I knew it wasn't, then sent us upstairs to his pulmonologist, where I spent the next 4 hours while they gave him breathing treatments and suctioned him until his poor little nose couldn't take much more. I'm thankful that I've gotten to know the RT's at the Hospital, they trust me to know how to best get Luke to cough when he needs a little help. The Dr. then decided that since we couldn't get him lower than 4 liters of oxygen we needed to go check in to the Hospital.

The next day I was "ambushed" by a visit from both Luke's pulmonologist and pediatrician, telling me that this is what I should expect for the rest of Luke's life and that I better get used to many Hospital visits. To say I was upset is putting it mildly. It's so frustrating at times just because Luke can't walk or talk yet, doesn't mean that he hasn't made significant progress this past year. Perhaps the Lord sent Luke back to the Hospital so that I could remind his Dr.'s that I believe that God is healing Luke and I have the faith to believe that though we can not see with our human eyes yet that God is working on Luke from the inside out and one day I truly believe he will be walking and talking and doing all the wonderful things that little boys do.

I'm just thankful that we had many people praying for Luke and we were out of the Hospital the next night. I spent many hours praying and singing praise songs to God during our stay in the Hospital, though it was a very difficult time it was also a sweet time with my Jesus. I told the nurses that I needed to be home since it was going to be Ezekiel's 5th Birthday the next day and he needed his mommy home with him on his Birthday. Since Luke once again far exceeded any expectations of the Dr.'s and nurses and was doing so well, I firmly told them that we were ready to go home, since we have all the equipment at home I knew we would be able to care for him just as good if not better than they could at the Hospital. Luke is doing so much better each day, he only needed to be on very little oxygen today, which is 100% better than the other day. I am continually thanking my sweet Jesus for his strength and though I'm very weary right now, I'm sure that a few good nights of sleep will help immensely.

Please continue to pray that Luke will continue to get better and better each day. I would also like to ask for prayer for myself, I feel selfish doing so at times, but really feel that I need to be encouraged, I'm feeling overwhelmed with all that I need to get done each day now that I don't have our wonderful nurse Mary to help out with Luke's massaging, patterning and special exercises that really need to be done daily. Gordy and I are talking about perhaps hiring someone to help out a few days a week, please pray that God will provide the resources to do so and bring along the perfect person to ask. Thank you in advance for your continued prayers, they are what makes me get through another day.

Love in Christ,

Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke is home again!!!

Well, it has been a long day of not being sure whether Luke was coming home or not. This evening Luke was released from the hospital with good numbers 96% on 1 liter. Thank you for the prayers, it has made a big difference. Luke is sleeping peacefully in his bed as I type this blog post.

Tonight as I got off the elevator, the waiting area was standing room only. Many faces with worry and stress written all over them. I thought back to my own experience sitting in those same chairs and the people I met and the opportunities I had to reach out. A man named Josh with a little girl named Emily and a chance to pray. Sue and I have talked about the possibility of visiting once in a while with the purpose of encouraging hurting people. Pray that God's timing would be perfect and that we would make the time as well as have the energy to actually do it.

Luke is in the hospital

Luke was hospitalized yesterday afternoon because his oxygen level was too low. It appears that Luke has gotten a cold and as a result his sinus' and nose are congested. Because he mainly breaths through his nose, his oxygen levels remain low. Last night he was on 6 liter of oxygen and the doctor wants him to be at 2 liter or less before they will let Luke go home. I just spoke with Sue and Luke is about the same this morning as he was last night. Still on high level of oxygen and his heart rate is high. He does have a slight fever. They have put him on an antibiotic to prevent him from getting an infection. Please pray that his sinus' will clear up so he can breath fine and then can come home.