Here is our Family Christmas Picture.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
We thank the Lord for Electricity
I'm sure if you watch the news you will already know that Washington was hit with a huge wind storm last Thursday night. It was scary listening to the wind as it was blowing so hard, it sounded like our windows would break. We were blessed in the fact that we didn't have any trees fall in our yard. Many of our neighbors were not so blessed, I will try to show some pictures today to let you see how crazy it was.
We along with one and half million others lost our power on Thursday night. I was sitting holding Luke, as he was having a rough night and all the sudden everything went black. It was challenging to say the least. The machines that we rely on most run all through the night, but they only have a battery capacity of a few hours. Needless to say I had to wake up about every hour to check Luke's oximeter machine to make sure his oxygen levels were okay, since he was having a bad night. We didn't get our power back until Saturday afternoon, which we were very thankful for as my sister still is without power. Gordy went out and bought a propane heater, we do have two fireplaces but they don't put out enough heat to warm our entire home. We talked about going to a hotel, but decided we could rough it out at home. When we woke up on Saturday morning it was down to 29 degrees outside and 50 degrees in our home. I got Gordy up to get the propane heater going and woke up Daniel and Josh, who was spending the night to get a fire going downstairs. I guess a little excitement is kind of fun, but I'm hoping that we don't lose power again for a very long time.
I want to share a wonderful testimony of God's goodness and provision in our lives. I have been wanting to get Luke back into the Hyperbaric chamber for a long time now, but because of time and money it has been challenging. I finally decided since we are taking a Christmas break from most of our normal activities that the next three weeks I can get him in at least 3 times a week. As I was mentioning this to Daniel on Saturday, he worked that day making extra money, I said I wish there was a way I could make some extra cash so that I could get Luke into HBOT again. The great news is the next day after church he came up to give me a tithing envelope with this written on the front "Please give this to Sue Searles for Luke to get a Hyperbaric treatment," and it said "Merry Christmas", I began to cry knowing this was a gift from God. I took this envelope into the HBOT place and handed it to pay them and the next day when we went for another dive, Doug the owner said that he too would like to bless us with a Christmas free dive. GOD IS SO GOOD!
I am hoping to get our Christmas card out this week, we actually had them finished before the beginning of December, but have been too busy to get them into the mail, along with finishing up my shopping, doing some Christmas baking, wrapping presents, keeping the house picked up, taking Luke to HBOT and getting ready for family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I really don't have much to do this week, HA HA. Once again I am extremely grateful for my precious daughters, who without there help I would be going crazy. I am hoping to post our Christmas card next time I blog. Thank you for all your Christmas cards and letters, we love receiving them.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
We along with one and half million others lost our power on Thursday night. I was sitting holding Luke, as he was having a rough night and all the sudden everything went black. It was challenging to say the least. The machines that we rely on most run all through the night, but they only have a battery capacity of a few hours. Needless to say I had to wake up about every hour to check Luke's oximeter machine to make sure his oxygen levels were okay, since he was having a bad night. We didn't get our power back until Saturday afternoon, which we were very thankful for as my sister still is without power. Gordy went out and bought a propane heater, we do have two fireplaces but they don't put out enough heat to warm our entire home. We talked about going to a hotel, but decided we could rough it out at home. When we woke up on Saturday morning it was down to 29 degrees outside and 50 degrees in our home. I got Gordy up to get the propane heater going and woke up Daniel and Josh, who was spending the night to get a fire going downstairs. I guess a little excitement is kind of fun, but I'm hoping that we don't lose power again for a very long time.
I want to share a wonderful testimony of God's goodness and provision in our lives. I have been wanting to get Luke back into the Hyperbaric chamber for a long time now, but because of time and money it has been challenging. I finally decided since we are taking a Christmas break from most of our normal activities that the next three weeks I can get him in at least 3 times a week. As I was mentioning this to Daniel on Saturday, he worked that day making extra money, I said I wish there was a way I could make some extra cash so that I could get Luke into HBOT again. The great news is the next day after church he came up to give me a tithing envelope with this written on the front "Please give this to Sue Searles for Luke to get a Hyperbaric treatment," and it said "Merry Christmas", I began to cry knowing this was a gift from God. I took this envelope into the HBOT place and handed it to pay them and the next day when we went for another dive, Doug the owner said that he too would like to bless us with a Christmas free dive. GOD IS SO GOOD!
I am hoping to get our Christmas card out this week, we actually had them finished before the beginning of December, but have been too busy to get them into the mail, along with finishing up my shopping, doing some Christmas baking, wrapping presents, keeping the house picked up, taking Luke to HBOT and getting ready for family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I really don't have much to do this week, HA HA. Once again I am extremely grateful for my precious daughters, who without there help I would be going crazy. I am hoping to post our Christmas card next time I blog. Thank you for all your Christmas cards and letters, we love receiving them.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Luke gets a good report from the Orthopedic Dr.
I want to begin by letting you all know that I did end up going to Chicago with Gordy for a few days. What I thought would be a relaxing time ended up being a wonderful busy time spent with some great cousins and some old best friends. Gordy and I left on Saturday, our plane was delayed for 5 hours because of many little things adding up to lots of big things. I wasn't stressed though because I took the opportunity to spend some uninterrupted time reading. On Sunday we were treated to a delicious dinner at Magianno's Restaurant by my cousins, some of whom I had only met once in my life. We went on a lovely tour through their village of Schaumburg and ended up at their home for a nice long visit. Monday my good friend Denise picked me up and took me to their lovely village of Naperville for the day, it was so great spending a day of visiting and catching up on each other's life, they then had Gordy over that night for dinner. On Tuesday my cousin Ellen took me on a tour of downtown Chicago. I loved Chicago, even with it's biting cold weather, I don't think it got any warmer than 34 the whole time I was there. I then came home Wednesday evening, ready to run with a full schedule ahead of me to finish out the week.
All the children did great at home. Luke seemed to enjoy his time at the Rodriguez's home and his day spent at Aunt Cindy's home. He did struggle a little bit with a low grade fever, but nothing too bad. I noticed the morning after I got home he is really struggling with his muscle tone, I'm not sure if he is tense because he is still getting over his bit of flu or what is going on. I do know that I really need to get him back into the Hyperbaric chamber, it really helps with his muscle tone. I'm praying that I will be able to fit in some dives during our Christmas break and that God will provide the money for them as well, since this is a tight time of the year.
I really struggled with whether I should take him into his Orthopedic appt. on Friday because I knew that his muscle tone was so high we'd probably not get a good report. I'm glad I did take him, I really liked his Dr., he basically was looking at three different area's his back, hips and feet. He said his back is looking good, quite often with kids like Luke they have scoliosis, but Luke's back is perfectly straight. At first when he was checking out his knee's he thought they were dislocated, but after straighting out his legs he said they were fine. He said his hips are doing fine and that his feet look good too. He said that he is sitting up nicely and looks great overall, that he could tell that he has great care, because he could not see any skin break down or problem area's. I left there with a huge sigh of relief, telling Luke that even though the Dr. basically said numerous times that Luke would be this way forever, we know different, that we know God will heal him and then he can give God the glory for his healing, knowing that once again we were told that it would be impossible for Luke to walk without a miracle.
I know it's easy to get distracted from the real reason for the season by becoming too busy and distracted by our crazy busy schedules, but I hope you are able to slow down and enjoy this Christmas season. We would love to hear from you and enjoy putting faces with those that are praying for Luke's healing and for our family. If you would like our address or want to get a Christmas picture from us, just e-mail us at howslukedoing@yahoo.com.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
All the children did great at home. Luke seemed to enjoy his time at the Rodriguez's home and his day spent at Aunt Cindy's home. He did struggle a little bit with a low grade fever, but nothing too bad. I noticed the morning after I got home he is really struggling with his muscle tone, I'm not sure if he is tense because he is still getting over his bit of flu or what is going on. I do know that I really need to get him back into the Hyperbaric chamber, it really helps with his muscle tone. I'm praying that I will be able to fit in some dives during our Christmas break and that God will provide the money for them as well, since this is a tight time of the year.
I really struggled with whether I should take him into his Orthopedic appt. on Friday because I knew that his muscle tone was so high we'd probably not get a good report. I'm glad I did take him, I really liked his Dr., he basically was looking at three different area's his back, hips and feet. He said his back is looking good, quite often with kids like Luke they have scoliosis, but Luke's back is perfectly straight. At first when he was checking out his knee's he thought they were dislocated, but after straighting out his legs he said they were fine. He said his hips are doing fine and that his feet look good too. He said that he is sitting up nicely and looks great overall, that he could tell that he has great care, because he could not see any skin break down or problem area's. I left there with a huge sigh of relief, telling Luke that even though the Dr. basically said numerous times that Luke would be this way forever, we know different, that we know God will heal him and then he can give God the glory for his healing, knowing that once again we were told that it would be impossible for Luke to walk without a miracle.
I know it's easy to get distracted from the real reason for the season by becoming too busy and distracted by our crazy busy schedules, but I hope you are able to slow down and enjoy this Christmas season. We would love to hear from you and enjoy putting faces with those that are praying for Luke's healing and for our family. If you would like our address or want to get a Christmas picture from us, just e-mail us at howslukedoing@yahoo.com.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Friday, December 01, 2006
Wow! All I can say is Wow, Luke is doing great!
Wow! All I can say is WOW, Luke is doing great! I can not even begin to tell you how hard yesterday was, Luke was doing absolutely horrible. He was on the most oxygen that we've ever had him on here at home. We are thankful we have a Oxygenator machine, which is a machine that takes normal air and turns it into oxygen. We were able to put a nasal canulla in his nose with the tank and a mask on his face with the oxygenator machine. I kept thinking yesterday we should be going to the Hospital, but it was so cold outside and I knew as long as we could meet his oxygen needs there wouldn't be anything they could do that we couldn't do here at home. He never threw up again after the morning feeding and his fever was under control with the Tylenol and Ibruprofen that we gave him. By the time we put him to bed he was down to 1/2 the oxygen he had been on earlier and his heart rate was down to 112 which is a good rate for Luke.
Today he slept most of the day and was on just a little bit of oxygen. By this evening he was completely off the oxygen. I just went to check on him and he was showing 100% oxygen and 100 heart rate. I can not remember the last time I've seen such awesome numbers. I can not even tell you what relief I feel, I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes at God's goodness to our family. I know without a shadow of a doubt the only reason that Luke is doing so well is because people are praying for Luke. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your faithful prayers.
Last night I sat and listened to a sermon by Pastor Bill Johnson, on the computer from Bethel Church in Redding,CA. It is an excellent message and he ended it with the song, "I Need You More," it's a powerful song it says, I need you more, need you more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more, than ever before I need you Lord, I need you Lord, I need you more, need you more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more than ever before, I need you Lord, I need you Lord, More than the air I breath, more than the song I sing, more than the next heart beat, I need you more than anything, though as time goes by, I'll be by your side, cause I never want to go back to my old life, I need you more, more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more, than ever before, I need you Lord, I need you Lord. After singing this song I ended up on my face before God, letting Him know that I need Him more than I need anything else in my life, that means I need Him more than I need to see Luke healed, more than I need sleep, more than I need any other thing in my life. Needless to say I went to sleep as I was praying and woke up knowing I needed to get to bed, I woke up this morning with a song and prayer on my heart. I've said it time and time again God's peace means more than anything in my life, without His strength, I would be a basket case. My prayer for you is that you realize that you need God, I know many of you are Christ followers, but for those of you that read this blog that are not, I pray that you will find that wonderful peace that you can have when you reach out to a relationship with my precious Saviour Jesus Christ.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Today he slept most of the day and was on just a little bit of oxygen. By this evening he was completely off the oxygen. I just went to check on him and he was showing 100% oxygen and 100 heart rate. I can not remember the last time I've seen such awesome numbers. I can not even tell you what relief I feel, I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes at God's goodness to our family. I know without a shadow of a doubt the only reason that Luke is doing so well is because people are praying for Luke. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your faithful prayers.
Last night I sat and listened to a sermon by Pastor Bill Johnson, on the computer from Bethel Church in Redding,CA. It is an excellent message and he ended it with the song, "I Need You More," it's a powerful song it says, I need you more, need you more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more, than ever before I need you Lord, I need you Lord, I need you more, need you more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more than ever before, I need you Lord, I need you Lord, More than the air I breath, more than the song I sing, more than the next heart beat, I need you more than anything, though as time goes by, I'll be by your side, cause I never want to go back to my old life, I need you more, more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more, than ever before, I need you Lord, I need you Lord. After singing this song I ended up on my face before God, letting Him know that I need Him more than I need anything else in my life, that means I need Him more than I need to see Luke healed, more than I need sleep, more than I need any other thing in my life. Needless to say I went to sleep as I was praying and woke up knowing I needed to get to bed, I woke up this morning with a song and prayer on my heart. I've said it time and time again God's peace means more than anything in my life, without His strength, I would be a basket case. My prayer for you is that you realize that you need God, I know many of you are Christ followers, but for those of you that read this blog that are not, I pray that you will find that wonderful peace that you can have when you reach out to a relationship with my precious Saviour Jesus Christ.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Luke's caught the nasty flu bug, please pray!
We've had a nasty flu bug going around our home, it started last week with Lily and Ezekiel, then on Sunday Isaiah caught it, I kept hoping that it would bypass Luke, but last night it finally caught up to him. He has basically been throwing up since last night around 11:00 p.m., then at 4:00 a.m. he threw up again and had a horrible runny diarrhea diaper, I had to completely change him and clean him up. We tried to feed him again this morning only to have it all come out again. We are now trying to give him some Pedialyte, we are praying that will stay in him. It seems that his oxygen levels are staying about normal for him, so that is a praise. After I wrote this we decided to check his oxygen levels and heart rate and they were terrible. His fever got up to 103.6 and his oxygen was down in the 70's and his heart rate up to the 180's. It is now 6:00 and his fever is finally coming down, he's doing a little better with his heart rate and oxygen, though he is still on a lot of oxygen. If he doesn't get better soon, we will probably have to take him into the Hospital.
Please be praying that he will get better soon, as I mentioned in my last post Gordy and I are planning to go to Chicago this Saturday. I know that I will not be able to go if my children aren't completely better. I'm praying that Luke's sickness will only last for 24 hours like Isaiah and Ezekiel's did. Lily still seems to be fussy, but I'm pretty sure it is just her teeth, she seems to be getting new ones breaking through each day lately.
Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall. Psalms 55:22 I continue to give all my cares to God, knowing that I can trust Him totally and completely to give me peace through this storm. I pray that you too can trust Him with all your cares and needs.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Please be praying that he will get better soon, as I mentioned in my last post Gordy and I are planning to go to Chicago this Saturday. I know that I will not be able to go if my children aren't completely better. I'm praying that Luke's sickness will only last for 24 hours like Isaiah and Ezekiel's did. Lily still seems to be fussy, but I'm pretty sure it is just her teeth, she seems to be getting new ones breaking through each day lately.
Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall. Psalms 55:22 I continue to give all my cares to God, knowing that I can trust Him totally and completely to give me peace through this storm. I pray that you too can trust Him with all your cares and needs.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Monday, November 27, 2006
My Goal, is to be anxious about nothing!
I'm tired! I know that I just posted about what I'm thankful for and I know that I have so much to be thankful for, but there days that I just want to curl up in bed all day and forget that I have so much on my plate, but that is just not possible or practical. Have any of you just been tired to the bone? Perhaps like myself you find that you know you need to go to bed earlier, but you've got yourself into a bad habit of going to bed so very late each night. Quite often when Luke is not doing so well I would rather stay up than get all nice and cozy just to have to jump out of bed to an alarm. Oh well, they say that confession is good for the soul, therefore I guess I'm just letting you all know once again how human and broken I really am.
Luke has been doing pretty good lately, except for the fact that he continues to deal with his congestion problems. It seems like just when he has a great day and I think that we are over what we've been going through he will hit another wall with more of something else. He has been doing amazingly well lately with making some new sounds, he wants to let us know that he is in the room and wants attention, which is an awesome thing. I've been praying that God would open his mouth once again to speaking. When we were in CA one lady prayed that God would loose his tongue and help him overcome his muteness, since that day I've been praying the same prayer.
The scripture that I've been thinking about a lot lately was my Grandma's favorite verse in the Bible, in fact she quoted it just before passing away, it is Philippians 4:6 & 7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I have been having a hard time truly giving my fears of what the Orthopedic Dr. is going to say at Luke's appt. on December 8th, to say that I'm dreading this appt. is a huge understatement. Please be praying that this appointment will go great and this Dr. will be optimistic about Luke's legs and not want to do any surgery.
Here is some other news, Amy's graduation celebration on Saturday was awesome, we were so blessed to have people come and share with us this great milestone in her life. Gordy and I are leaving for Chicago, IL this Saturday. He has a class he needs to take for his work, so I'm using some of our free air miles to join him, since the Hotel and car rental are being paid by his work, it is basically a free trip for me. Please be praying that all goes smooth here at the home front, I have some wonderful people in our lives that have generously offered to help with the children. I've decided to let Luke and Lily spend the night at Tia Yoli's and Tio Juan's home, this is the first time that he has spent the night with someone other than a family member since his accident. I'm sure that it will go smoothly, I'm just praying that they will get some sleep those two nights. The rest of the time Luke will be at home, while the other children will be spread out to other wonderful family and friends. I am so blessed to be able to go, I'm just praying that everyone will stay healthy and everything will go a smooth as possible.
Be blessed today!
Luke's Mommy Sue
Luke has been doing pretty good lately, except for the fact that he continues to deal with his congestion problems. It seems like just when he has a great day and I think that we are over what we've been going through he will hit another wall with more of something else. He has been doing amazingly well lately with making some new sounds, he wants to let us know that he is in the room and wants attention, which is an awesome thing. I've been praying that God would open his mouth once again to speaking. When we were in CA one lady prayed that God would loose his tongue and help him overcome his muteness, since that day I've been praying the same prayer.
The scripture that I've been thinking about a lot lately was my Grandma's favorite verse in the Bible, in fact she quoted it just before passing away, it is Philippians 4:6 & 7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I have been having a hard time truly giving my fears of what the Orthopedic Dr. is going to say at Luke's appt. on December 8th, to say that I'm dreading this appt. is a huge understatement. Please be praying that this appointment will go great and this Dr. will be optimistic about Luke's legs and not want to do any surgery.
Here is some other news, Amy's graduation celebration on Saturday was awesome, we were so blessed to have people come and share with us this great milestone in her life. Gordy and I are leaving for Chicago, IL this Saturday. He has a class he needs to take for his work, so I'm using some of our free air miles to join him, since the Hotel and car rental are being paid by his work, it is basically a free trip for me. Please be praying that all goes smooth here at the home front, I have some wonderful people in our lives that have generously offered to help with the children. I've decided to let Luke and Lily spend the night at Tia Yoli's and Tio Juan's home, this is the first time that he has spent the night with someone other than a family member since his accident. I'm sure that it will go smoothly, I'm just praying that they will get some sleep those two nights. The rest of the time Luke will be at home, while the other children will be spread out to other wonderful family and friends. I am so blessed to be able to go, I'm just praying that everyone will stay healthy and everything will go a smooth as possible.
Be blessed today!
Luke's Mommy Sue
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving
I know that I am dreadfully behind in my updates to the blog, please forgive me and thank you for your patience. I would like to begin by wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day. I have always enjoyed going around the table on Thanksgiving day listening to everyone share something that they are thankful for, therefore I thought it would be appropriate for me to share with you some of the things that I'm thankful for today.
First of all I'm most thankful to a loving Father, my precious savior Jesus Christ, without Him by my side each day I would not have the strength to continue on this journey that He has chosen our family to walk through each day.
I'm very thankful for my wonderful, loving husband. I'm so blessed to be married to a kind, compassionate man, who loves me dearly and is a great father to our children.
I thank the Lord for blessing me with 7 wonderful children. Each one of them is so dear to my heart, Daniel is such an awesome son and big brother, Amy is so helpful and sweet, Natalie is always ready to lend a helping hand, Isaiah is the most wonderful hugger in the world, Ezekiel is so kind and compassionate to his little sister, Luke is so wonderful to hold and to love on and Lily keeps us all entertained by being such a sweet little girl.
I'm very thankful for wonderful, Godly parents who support me by their prayers most importantly and they are always so quick to lend a helping hand. For my sister Cindy who comes over most weekdays to lend a helping hand with Luke. Also for the rest of my family and Gordy's wonderful family.
For some awesome friends, like Yoli, Barb, Mary, Julie and too many others to mention each of their names, they are always there when I call with a prayer request or need someone to help out with the children. Also for those friends at church that faithfully lift up our family in their prayers.
For our faithful blog followers who keeps us in your prayers and continue to check up on the progress that Luke is making, thank you for your comments they always mean so much to us.
Just to let you know our family went to Redding, CA last weekend. We have a friend that lives down there and was telling us about the awesome church meetings that they are having at Bethel Church. People from all over the world are visiting Bethel and they are being healed. Just last week a man who had lost the vision in his right eye and the hearing in his right ear, because of a battle he fought in years ago in Beruit, was completely healed, his vision was restored during their worship time and after church they prayed for his hearing and it also was restored. We went hoping that this would be God's timing to heal Luke, but God had other plans. We know he will be healed it's just a matter of God's timing. I'll be honest I was a bit disappointed to leave there without our miracle, but I know that it will happen in God's perfect timing. We needed some healing in our family and that is exactly what happened we were all blessed by the prayer times we had and by the services that we attended. During our 10 hour drive home, we had a wonderful time, with lots of laughter and a light hearted spirit that filled our 15 passenger van.
It was interesting for me to find out that Luke did not suffer with a runny nose while we were gone, but the night we got back and I put him to bed he almost immediately got all stuffed up and his nose began to run right away. I'm convinced more than ever that he is probably allergic to something in our home, because I fed him the same food that he eats here at home while we were gone and he did just fine with it. It's kind of comforting to know that it's not his food that is causing his problems, but at the same time it's a bummer to know that now not only is Gordy's allergies horrible here at home, but so are Luke's. It makes me think that we should apply for that Extreme Home Makeover all the sooner. Our biggest constraints is finding the time to fill out the paperwork and do the video needed for the show and of course knowing that our family is probably not as desperate as some of the other families that apply, therefore feeling what's the use.
As I mentioned in my last blog we are celebrating Amy's Graduation this Saturday, so I have had to hit the pavement running after coming home from CA to get all the preparations finalized for her open house. I'm thankful that we are going to Gordy's sister's home for Thanksgiving Dinner, with the girls doing the baking I really don't have a lot to for the day. I'm praying that everyone will be healthy, Lily and Ezekiel had a 24 hour bug last night and tonight Luke was running a fever and had some bad congestion.
If you have a minute, we would love to hear what you are thankful for today, but if you don't have enough time at least let the ones you love the most know that you are thankful for them! You will be amazed at how wonderful you will feel expressing yourself to them and they will be blessed by knowing how much you care.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
First of all I'm most thankful to a loving Father, my precious savior Jesus Christ, without Him by my side each day I would not have the strength to continue on this journey that He has chosen our family to walk through each day.
I'm very thankful for my wonderful, loving husband. I'm so blessed to be married to a kind, compassionate man, who loves me dearly and is a great father to our children.
I thank the Lord for blessing me with 7 wonderful children. Each one of them is so dear to my heart, Daniel is such an awesome son and big brother, Amy is so helpful and sweet, Natalie is always ready to lend a helping hand, Isaiah is the most wonderful hugger in the world, Ezekiel is so kind and compassionate to his little sister, Luke is so wonderful to hold and to love on and Lily keeps us all entertained by being such a sweet little girl.
I'm very thankful for wonderful, Godly parents who support me by their prayers most importantly and they are always so quick to lend a helping hand. For my sister Cindy who comes over most weekdays to lend a helping hand with Luke. Also for the rest of my family and Gordy's wonderful family.
For some awesome friends, like Yoli, Barb, Mary, Julie and too many others to mention each of their names, they are always there when I call with a prayer request or need someone to help out with the children. Also for those friends at church that faithfully lift up our family in their prayers.
For our faithful blog followers who keeps us in your prayers and continue to check up on the progress that Luke is making, thank you for your comments they always mean so much to us.
Just to let you know our family went to Redding, CA last weekend. We have a friend that lives down there and was telling us about the awesome church meetings that they are having at Bethel Church. People from all over the world are visiting Bethel and they are being healed. Just last week a man who had lost the vision in his right eye and the hearing in his right ear, because of a battle he fought in years ago in Beruit, was completely healed, his vision was restored during their worship time and after church they prayed for his hearing and it also was restored. We went hoping that this would be God's timing to heal Luke, but God had other plans. We know he will be healed it's just a matter of God's timing. I'll be honest I was a bit disappointed to leave there without our miracle, but I know that it will happen in God's perfect timing. We needed some healing in our family and that is exactly what happened we were all blessed by the prayer times we had and by the services that we attended. During our 10 hour drive home, we had a wonderful time, with lots of laughter and a light hearted spirit that filled our 15 passenger van.
It was interesting for me to find out that Luke did not suffer with a runny nose while we were gone, but the night we got back and I put him to bed he almost immediately got all stuffed up and his nose began to run right away. I'm convinced more than ever that he is probably allergic to something in our home, because I fed him the same food that he eats here at home while we were gone and he did just fine with it. It's kind of comforting to know that it's not his food that is causing his problems, but at the same time it's a bummer to know that now not only is Gordy's allergies horrible here at home, but so are Luke's. It makes me think that we should apply for that Extreme Home Makeover all the sooner. Our biggest constraints is finding the time to fill out the paperwork and do the video needed for the show and of course knowing that our family is probably not as desperate as some of the other families that apply, therefore feeling what's the use.
As I mentioned in my last blog we are celebrating Amy's Graduation this Saturday, so I have had to hit the pavement running after coming home from CA to get all the preparations finalized for her open house. I'm thankful that we are going to Gordy's sister's home for Thanksgiving Dinner, with the girls doing the baking I really don't have a lot to for the day. I'm praying that everyone will be healthy, Lily and Ezekiel had a 24 hour bug last night and tonight Luke was running a fever and had some bad congestion.
If you have a minute, we would love to hear what you are thankful for today, but if you don't have enough time at least let the ones you love the most know that you are thankful for them! You will be amazed at how wonderful you will feel expressing yourself to them and they will be blessed by knowing how much you care.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
We are thanking the Lord, the rain has finally stopped!
The rain has finally stopped, it rained for 4 straight days and made record breaking history here in Washington. I thank the Lord that we don't live in a flood zone, though I did have to take a few detours today and drove through a huge puddle. Luke is finally doing better, he was struggling with a high fever every night for about 4 nights, but during the day it would go away. He is also doing better with his digestion and sounds a bit better when he is breathing. We are amazed that this time during his high temperatures he would not need the high oxygen that he normally needs during his sick times. This is a huge change in Luke and we are praising God for his faithfulness in this area of his life.
Luke continues to make small changes on a daily basis. He is getting so much more alert, he will actually look at a book when we read it to him. I know that Auntie Cindy working with him has been the stimulation that he needs on a daily basis. It seems that at PT he is doing better, his Physical Therapist has commented a few times lately how much better his head control is getting and has made some other positive comments, about his posture and the fact that his arms looking more relaxed. I did finally make a Orthopedic appointment for Luke in December, I'm not really looking forward to that appt. Quite often Dr.'s will either write off kids like Luke or they will want to do all kinds of invasive surgeries and such. I'm not sure if I want either of those things to happen. I continue to give Luke's legs to the Lord, while his hands and arms have gotten so much better, we still have major problems with his legs bending the way they should.
I continue to mess around with his diet. As I've told you in the past we have been making his food for about a year now. It is very time consuming, but I feel worth the fact that it has only good ingredients in it for what Luke needs right now. Often I find myself looking forward to the day that he will be able to once again eat what everyone else is eating. We feed him 3 times a day and then have to complete the rest of his calories at night, which can be very trying at times. We drip it into his feeding tube from a feeding pump and sometimes it will get clogged or he will stretch and move the feeding tube out, which makes for some huge messes. We have to wash his bedding on almost a daily basis. I often say Luke's laundry pile is bigger than 4 other people put together, but I praise the Lord that he has laundry to wash.
We are getting ready to celebrate Amy's Graduation, we have planned a open house for her on November 25th. Amy has been a huge help these past few years with Luke's care, taking over the home duties anytime I have to take Luke to an appointment or he has been in the Hospital. She has gone beyond the call of an awesome daughter, learning how to suction him when he had his trache in, being the only one who we could leave him with during that time with his trache because of the special training needed for his care. Needless to say, she was not able to get all the school work that we require for graduation done in time to graduate last June, then on top of that we left in May for our vacation. I tell my girls and anyone who will listen that I'm so thankful for their servants attitudes and helpful hands, without their help our roller coaster ride with Luke would of been extremely harder these past two years.
Just to update you on the prayer requests from our last blog, Isaiah is doing much better with the rash that he has had for some time now. In fact he decided that tonight was his night to make dinner for the family. He made Nachos with cheese cooked on top, the only big mistake he made was cooking them on a Tupperware plate in toaster oven, thankfully Amy came into the kitchen in time to stop a disaster from happening. I already mentioned that Luke is doing better, but he still needs to get over the congestion that he gets at times through out the day. I need great wisdom on making his food, I tackled that big job today, with the girls help. I'm praying that this batch will be just what he needs to clear up the congestion that he has been experiencing and put some more meat on his skinny bones.
I pray that God will bless you today, just remember: Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. This scripture was given to us the day after Luke's accident by the Dr. in the PICU, to bring us comfort in our time of need and I continue to find amazing strength in knowing that God is truly in control.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Luke continues to make small changes on a daily basis. He is getting so much more alert, he will actually look at a book when we read it to him. I know that Auntie Cindy working with him has been the stimulation that he needs on a daily basis. It seems that at PT he is doing better, his Physical Therapist has commented a few times lately how much better his head control is getting and has made some other positive comments, about his posture and the fact that his arms looking more relaxed. I did finally make a Orthopedic appointment for Luke in December, I'm not really looking forward to that appt. Quite often Dr.'s will either write off kids like Luke or they will want to do all kinds of invasive surgeries and such. I'm not sure if I want either of those things to happen. I continue to give Luke's legs to the Lord, while his hands and arms have gotten so much better, we still have major problems with his legs bending the way they should.
I continue to mess around with his diet. As I've told you in the past we have been making his food for about a year now. It is very time consuming, but I feel worth the fact that it has only good ingredients in it for what Luke needs right now. Often I find myself looking forward to the day that he will be able to once again eat what everyone else is eating. We feed him 3 times a day and then have to complete the rest of his calories at night, which can be very trying at times. We drip it into his feeding tube from a feeding pump and sometimes it will get clogged or he will stretch and move the feeding tube out, which makes for some huge messes. We have to wash his bedding on almost a daily basis. I often say Luke's laundry pile is bigger than 4 other people put together, but I praise the Lord that he has laundry to wash.
We are getting ready to celebrate Amy's Graduation, we have planned a open house for her on November 25th. Amy has been a huge help these past few years with Luke's care, taking over the home duties anytime I have to take Luke to an appointment or he has been in the Hospital. She has gone beyond the call of an awesome daughter, learning how to suction him when he had his trache in, being the only one who we could leave him with during that time with his trache because of the special training needed for his care. Needless to say, she was not able to get all the school work that we require for graduation done in time to graduate last June, then on top of that we left in May for our vacation. I tell my girls and anyone who will listen that I'm so thankful for their servants attitudes and helpful hands, without their help our roller coaster ride with Luke would of been extremely harder these past two years.
Just to update you on the prayer requests from our last blog, Isaiah is doing much better with the rash that he has had for some time now. In fact he decided that tonight was his night to make dinner for the family. He made Nachos with cheese cooked on top, the only big mistake he made was cooking them on a Tupperware plate in toaster oven, thankfully Amy came into the kitchen in time to stop a disaster from happening. I already mentioned that Luke is doing better, but he still needs to get over the congestion that he gets at times through out the day. I need great wisdom on making his food, I tackled that big job today, with the girls help. I'm praying that this batch will be just what he needs to clear up the congestion that he has been experiencing and put some more meat on his skinny bones.
I pray that God will bless you today, just remember: Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. This scripture was given to us the day after Luke's accident by the Dr. in the PICU, to bring us comfort in our time of need and I continue to find amazing strength in knowing that God is truly in control.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Sunday, October 29, 2006
We are ready to get off this crazy roller coaster ride
Here we are once again, Luke and I just home from church. You would think after 2 years of taking Luke to church that I would learn to take extra clothes for him in case anything happens. He threw up really bad and because I didn't bring extra clothes we just walked home. We are blessed to live so close to church, if we didn't walk the whole family would of had to come home. For those of you that are followers of Christ, you know what it's like to experience spiritual warfare. I will tell you that it has been intense this past month. I was talking to God on the way home from church telling him that I will not stop trusting in Him or serving Him no matter how hard life becomes, also letting satan know that he will not be victorious in my life!
Let me tell you a bit about our month. I know that I already told you about my crazy week, if you times that craziness by about 4 times you will know just exactly what our month has been like. We have battled sickness, exhaustion, pain, depression, just to name a few things that our family has been going through. Don't get me wrong it has not been a horrible month, just a hard one. Luke has gone through more oxygen at night than he has in months, he has also been battling major congestion the whole month. Just when we think we are getting his food right, he begins throwing up again. The roller coaster ride gets crazier, the longer we are on it. Once again, I'm not giving up on our miracle it's going to happen, we are not going to give up, through Christ precious name we will be victorious.
I've been thinking about applying for Extreme Home Makeover. We are coming to the realization that while we are waiting for Luke's miracle to happen, our house is just not going to cut it soon. We live in a bi-level home, which means you go in the front door and and must either go up or down. We bought this home from my parents 19 years ago and we just keep adjusting it for our growing family, we split our downstairs family room into two rooms to add another bedroom, then when Luke's accident happened we added another room in the garage for Daniel. At this time we all fit tight and snug, but reality says that we are soon going to have to put Luke into a wheelchair because he is getting bigger. We've looked at different homes, that have a level entry, but the thought of leaving Lakewood is just not pleasant, our friends, church, YMCA and most importantly my sister lives right behind us, our yards connect with a gate between. As I've said on numerous occasions she has been helping me at least a few days a week with Luke so that I can continue to homeschool my other children. We have looked at homes and we are finding that what we need, we really can't afford, don't get me wrong we are very blessed Gordy definitely makes good money, but we have spent probably closed to $35,000 on Luke's care these past few years. We've been blessed many times by generous gifts of money and that has taken the stress off us as we've dealt with the medical bills and special therapies that we've taken Luke to, but our money has been stretched and we know that God will always supply just what we need, but we need to be wise on our part also. Why am I telling you all this, I guess just to ask for prayer for our family as we continue to have to make tough decisions on this journey that we are walking and also to ask God that we will have favor with our application to Extreme home makeover, if that is His will for our family.
I humbly ask you once again, if I may to share some prayer requests for you to pray about: Luke as I mentioned has been congested quite often lately, though he has been doing a bit better the last few days, also that I can get his feedings and supplements down to just exactly what he needs to get and stay healthy. Isaiah also needs some prayer, he has some kind of bad infection all over his body, we took him into the Dr. on Friday and he told us that what has happened is he had a few bug bites that got infected and because he was itching them he basically spread that bacteria to other parts of his body. I know that God has not given us a spirit of fear but I've been battling my thoughts lately hoping that this doesn't get any worse than it already is, the thought of going back to the Hospital with any of my children is not pleasant, that has not been mentioned by the Dr, just in my thoughts.
I will end by sharing with you the scripture that I have been dwelling on these days it is, He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. Job 5:9 This means that God is still in the miracle working business, Hebrews 13:7 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, therefore that tells me the miracles he performed during His time on earth He is able to make happen today. If you need a miracle don't think that God is too small to give it to you, just ask with faith, believing it will happen.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Let me tell you a bit about our month. I know that I already told you about my crazy week, if you times that craziness by about 4 times you will know just exactly what our month has been like. We have battled sickness, exhaustion, pain, depression, just to name a few things that our family has been going through. Don't get me wrong it has not been a horrible month, just a hard one. Luke has gone through more oxygen at night than he has in months, he has also been battling major congestion the whole month. Just when we think we are getting his food right, he begins throwing up again. The roller coaster ride gets crazier, the longer we are on it. Once again, I'm not giving up on our miracle it's going to happen, we are not going to give up, through Christ precious name we will be victorious.
I've been thinking about applying for Extreme Home Makeover. We are coming to the realization that while we are waiting for Luke's miracle to happen, our house is just not going to cut it soon. We live in a bi-level home, which means you go in the front door and and must either go up or down. We bought this home from my parents 19 years ago and we just keep adjusting it for our growing family, we split our downstairs family room into two rooms to add another bedroom, then when Luke's accident happened we added another room in the garage for Daniel. At this time we all fit tight and snug, but reality says that we are soon going to have to put Luke into a wheelchair because he is getting bigger. We've looked at different homes, that have a level entry, but the thought of leaving Lakewood is just not pleasant, our friends, church, YMCA and most importantly my sister lives right behind us, our yards connect with a gate between. As I've said on numerous occasions she has been helping me at least a few days a week with Luke so that I can continue to homeschool my other children. We have looked at homes and we are finding that what we need, we really can't afford, don't get me wrong we are very blessed Gordy definitely makes good money, but we have spent probably closed to $35,000 on Luke's care these past few years. We've been blessed many times by generous gifts of money and that has taken the stress off us as we've dealt with the medical bills and special therapies that we've taken Luke to, but our money has been stretched and we know that God will always supply just what we need, but we need to be wise on our part also. Why am I telling you all this, I guess just to ask for prayer for our family as we continue to have to make tough decisions on this journey that we are walking and also to ask God that we will have favor with our application to Extreme home makeover, if that is His will for our family.
I humbly ask you once again, if I may to share some prayer requests for you to pray about: Luke as I mentioned has been congested quite often lately, though he has been doing a bit better the last few days, also that I can get his feedings and supplements down to just exactly what he needs to get and stay healthy. Isaiah also needs some prayer, he has some kind of bad infection all over his body, we took him into the Dr. on Friday and he told us that what has happened is he had a few bug bites that got infected and because he was itching them he basically spread that bacteria to other parts of his body. I know that God has not given us a spirit of fear but I've been battling my thoughts lately hoping that this doesn't get any worse than it already is, the thought of going back to the Hospital with any of my children is not pleasant, that has not been mentioned by the Dr, just in my thoughts.
I will end by sharing with you the scripture that I have been dwelling on these days it is, He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. Job 5:9 This means that God is still in the miracle working business, Hebrews 13:7 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, therefore that tells me the miracles he performed during His time on earth He is able to make happen today. If you need a miracle don't think that God is too small to give it to you, just ask with faith, believing it will happen.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Let me tell you about my crazy week
Our week began on Sunday, we were finally able to go visit my Uncle and Auntie's church out in Yelm, WA. They asked us to come on numerous occasions, but it seemed that each time we planned to go Luke would get sick. It was a blessing to meet so many of their friends that pray faithfully for Luke and share a little testimony of thanks and God's healing power in Luke's life. Sunday afternoon we went to see Facing the Giants, it was the first time in forever that I can remember being so excited about seeing a movie. If you have the opportunity you should go see it, by the end of the movie I was literally sobbing it was so touching. They kept saying "nothing is impossible with God," it was refreshing to see a movie that truly gave God all the glory for the victories in this movie.
On Monday, I finally got around to testing Amy and Natalie, in the state of Washington it is law that you need to test your children once a year and we usually do this in May or June, but since we were gone on our vacation it got extremely delayed. Gordy took the day off to help watch Luke, Lily, Isaiah and Ezekiel so that we could go to my parent's home for a completely quiet place to test.
Tuesday I took Luke into to the Chiropractor/Natauropath Dr. to ask for some more help with his feedings. I left there with some much needed answers and help on feeding Luke and his feedings are going better since then. I then took Natalie, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Luke to the YMCA. I took Luke on a power walk and then we went for a swim, he seemed to really enjoy the water and the hot tub, I was able to work with his muscles he loosed up as we sat there for awhile. I left there and got home in time to take Lily to a 3:30 appt. with the Dr. She had been having a bad cough for a few days and I thought I better have it checked out, boy was I thankful I took her in the Dr. told me she had pneumonia, he checked her oxygen rate and it was low, so they gave her a breathing treatment, which brought it up and sent us home with meds. She thankfully recovered quickly and by that night was finally sleeping through the night once again without coughing.
Wednesday after taking Natalie to piano lessons and doing some much needed errands, I proceeded to pick up my sister Cindy and husband at the airport. When I got home we decided to take a trip to LA to pick up her daughter. This was very last minute but needed to be done right away, so we left at 5:30 p.m. and got to LA by 11:30 the next day, stayed for about 3 hours and then left to come home. We got home by 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning. It was a grueling 35 hour trip in the car, we both would sleep for a few hours and then press on to be home in time for Amy's Birthday.
Friday, as I mentioned was Amy's 19th Birthday, so after going to bed for about 3 hours I had to get up to get some errands done before her party. She had planned to have a photo shoot that day, but we decided to delay it until next week, I'm praying that the weather will be just a beautiful as her actual birthday was. I went to bed absolutely exhausted praying for a good nights sleep and the good Lord did bless me with a excellent sleep.
Today I once again had to get up early to go with Amy, Natalie to a beautiful Mother/Daughter Tea, one day retreat. It was a put on by the Washington Heritage Homeschool group, it was very inspiring, uplifting and at time convicting. When I got home I held Luke for about an hour and then decided to spend some time with Isaiah and Ezekiel, I needed to get gas in the van and decided to get it washed they love going through car washes and then I treated them to dinner at there favorite place to eat MacDonalds, I let them play on the big toy for awhile and then brought them home to put all the little ones to bed.
Well that pretty much somes up my crazy week, it is totally amazing to me that God has truly been my strength this week, I'm not even completely exhausted tonight and I give God all the glory for his amazing strength, one scripture I quote often is when we are weak, He is strong. God said it and I believe it!
Please keep Luke in your prayers as he is still getting over that nasty cold he caught, along with Natalie and Isaiah, who has been suffering with the same cold. May God richly bless you with good health.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
On Monday, I finally got around to testing Amy and Natalie, in the state of Washington it is law that you need to test your children once a year and we usually do this in May or June, but since we were gone on our vacation it got extremely delayed. Gordy took the day off to help watch Luke, Lily, Isaiah and Ezekiel so that we could go to my parent's home for a completely quiet place to test.
Tuesday I took Luke into to the Chiropractor/Natauropath Dr. to ask for some more help with his feedings. I left there with some much needed answers and help on feeding Luke and his feedings are going better since then. I then took Natalie, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Luke to the YMCA. I took Luke on a power walk and then we went for a swim, he seemed to really enjoy the water and the hot tub, I was able to work with his muscles he loosed up as we sat there for awhile. I left there and got home in time to take Lily to a 3:30 appt. with the Dr. She had been having a bad cough for a few days and I thought I better have it checked out, boy was I thankful I took her in the Dr. told me she had pneumonia, he checked her oxygen rate and it was low, so they gave her a breathing treatment, which brought it up and sent us home with meds. She thankfully recovered quickly and by that night was finally sleeping through the night once again without coughing.
Wednesday after taking Natalie to piano lessons and doing some much needed errands, I proceeded to pick up my sister Cindy and husband at the airport. When I got home we decided to take a trip to LA to pick up her daughter. This was very last minute but needed to be done right away, so we left at 5:30 p.m. and got to LA by 11:30 the next day, stayed for about 3 hours and then left to come home. We got home by 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning. It was a grueling 35 hour trip in the car, we both would sleep for a few hours and then press on to be home in time for Amy's Birthday.
Friday, as I mentioned was Amy's 19th Birthday, so after going to bed for about 3 hours I had to get up to get some errands done before her party. She had planned to have a photo shoot that day, but we decided to delay it until next week, I'm praying that the weather will be just a beautiful as her actual birthday was. I went to bed absolutely exhausted praying for a good nights sleep and the good Lord did bless me with a excellent sleep.
Today I once again had to get up early to go with Amy, Natalie to a beautiful Mother/Daughter Tea, one day retreat. It was a put on by the Washington Heritage Homeschool group, it was very inspiring, uplifting and at time convicting. When I got home I held Luke for about an hour and then decided to spend some time with Isaiah and Ezekiel, I needed to get gas in the van and decided to get it washed they love going through car washes and then I treated them to dinner at there favorite place to eat MacDonalds, I let them play on the big toy for awhile and then brought them home to put all the little ones to bed.
Well that pretty much somes up my crazy week, it is totally amazing to me that God has truly been my strength this week, I'm not even completely exhausted tonight and I give God all the glory for his amazing strength, one scripture I quote often is when we are weak, He is strong. God said it and I believe it!
Please keep Luke in your prayers as he is still getting over that nasty cold he caught, along with Natalie and Isaiah, who has been suffering with the same cold. May God richly bless you with good health.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Thursday, October 05, 2006
The Prayer factor has worked again, Luke is doing better!
Thank you once again for your prayers, Luke is doing much better. He had a great night last night and woke up sounding a whole lot better. He did throw up a few times today, but over all had a great day, considering yesterday was so horrible. Tonight when I put him to bed his oxygen numbers were great and his heart rate was back to normal. I haven't had to put oxygen on him yet, I'm praying he makes it through the night without any.
I remember explaining to one of Luke's Dr.'s that he needed to take into consideration the prayer factor for Luke's speedy recoveries. Most of the Dr.'s and nurses quite often are surprised by his quick turn around. I'm even amazed sometimes by his quick recoveries, I guess I know that God answers prayers, but when He does it so quickly it takes me by surprise at times. I truly believe the scripture in Mark 9:23 Everything is possible to him who believes, once again God said it and I believe it.
Just to let you know that we are getting into a great schedule this year with our homeschooling. The past two years I have been so distracted with Luke's care and appointments I kind of checked out of the homeschooling arena. I'm so thankful to my sister Cindy and my mom, who taught the girls grammar, for picking up the ball with the kids in their schooling during that time. Now Cindy has volunteered to come over every morning to help with Luke, so that I can take over the schooling again. Even though I've been teaching the kids for 11 years, this is the first time I've taught kindergarten, since all my older children went to a Christian school for a short time, I'm really enjoying it.
I know I've said this many times before, but I would like to remind you that if you have any prayer requests, I want to pray for them. I feel selfish asking for the prayers all the time, the Bible says to share one anothers burdens and that is what I would like to do, if you'll let me. You can share them in the comments or e-mail me if you want to, I'll get them either way.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy, along with Daniel, Amy, Natalie, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Lily's Mommy, Sue
I remember explaining to one of Luke's Dr.'s that he needed to take into consideration the prayer factor for Luke's speedy recoveries. Most of the Dr.'s and nurses quite often are surprised by his quick turn around. I'm even amazed sometimes by his quick recoveries, I guess I know that God answers prayers, but when He does it so quickly it takes me by surprise at times. I truly believe the scripture in Mark 9:23 Everything is possible to him who believes, once again God said it and I believe it.
Just to let you know that we are getting into a great schedule this year with our homeschooling. The past two years I have been so distracted with Luke's care and appointments I kind of checked out of the homeschooling arena. I'm so thankful to my sister Cindy and my mom, who taught the girls grammar, for picking up the ball with the kids in their schooling during that time. Now Cindy has volunteered to come over every morning to help with Luke, so that I can take over the schooling again. Even though I've been teaching the kids for 11 years, this is the first time I've taught kindergarten, since all my older children went to a Christian school for a short time, I'm really enjoying it.
I know I've said this many times before, but I would like to remind you that if you have any prayer requests, I want to pray for them. I feel selfish asking for the prayers all the time, the Bible says to share one anothers burdens and that is what I would like to do, if you'll let me. You can share them in the comments or e-mail me if you want to, I'll get them either way.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy, along with Daniel, Amy, Natalie, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Lily's Mommy, Sue
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Luke is sick and needs some prayer
Luke needs some prayer. He started getting sick on Saturday evening. At first I thought it was because he had been outside while we were cleaning up and raking our yard, I thought the dust might of caused an allergic reaction. His nose was running like crazy that evening and he needed oxygen all night long. The next morning he woke up with a little fever and was not doing much better. Well he seemed to be feeling a bit better on Monday, but that night he did not have a good night and needed even more oxygen. I took him in to see his Pediatrician today and he thought he had a respiratory infection so he started him on Amoxillion. I hate putting him on antibiotics but I know that if we don't catch this fast it could perhaps take a turn for the worse.
I gave him a breathing treatment when we came home but as usual Albuterol raises his heart rate, which was already high because of his 102.8 fever. The Dr. prescribed Xopenex which does better at not getting his heart rate so high, but they did not have it in the pharmacy, I have to go back tomorrow to pick it up. The Dr. also suggested we go to an Orthropedic Dr. to take a look at his legs, so he put in a referral for that, I'm not looking forward to that appointment.
This evening we had a lazy night, I basically held Luke for a couple of hours so that he would stay calm and go to sleep. I guess that is one way of slowing down my schedule. Amy, Natalie and I actually sat down to watch an old movie, we even made some popcorn. When I did put Luke down his oxygen numbers looked good and his heart rate had come down at least 35 points to about 140, which isn't that great but a whole lot better than it had been.
Things to pray about that this infection will leave quickly, that we will be able to wean him off the oxygen quickly and that it won't spread around the home, I think he might of caught Isaiah's runny nose, which is doing better.
Just remember God's word says, If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "move from here to there" and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20. God's word says it and I believe it!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
I gave him a breathing treatment when we came home but as usual Albuterol raises his heart rate, which was already high because of his 102.8 fever. The Dr. prescribed Xopenex which does better at not getting his heart rate so high, but they did not have it in the pharmacy, I have to go back tomorrow to pick it up. The Dr. also suggested we go to an Orthropedic Dr. to take a look at his legs, so he put in a referral for that, I'm not looking forward to that appointment.
This evening we had a lazy night, I basically held Luke for a couple of hours so that he would stay calm and go to sleep. I guess that is one way of slowing down my schedule. Amy, Natalie and I actually sat down to watch an old movie, we even made some popcorn. When I did put Luke down his oxygen numbers looked good and his heart rate had come down at least 35 points to about 140, which isn't that great but a whole lot better than it had been.
Things to pray about that this infection will leave quickly, that we will be able to wean him off the oxygen quickly and that it won't spread around the home, I think he might of caught Isaiah's runny nose, which is doing better.
Just remember God's word says, If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "move from here to there" and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20. God's word says it and I believe it!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Here's an update on Luke's Dr.'s appointments this past week
On Monday I took Luke in to see his pulmonologist and gastronologist, I had put off these appts. for too long. On the one hand it was very encouraging and then on the other hand it was a bit discouraging. I guess we continue to ride this long bumpy roller coaster ride. Let me explain a bit more, his pulmonologist said that he seemed to be doing okay, he was a bit course when he listened to his lungs, which lately has not been the case. He told me that he doesn't need to come back for 6 to 12 months which was good news and he did not mention anything about putting the trache back in which was great to not hear. He did say that he thought we should see the dietician as his weight gain has not been so good since his last visit. This really bummed me since I know that he had gained at least 3 pounds over the summer, but because of all his throwing up for awhile he had lost 2 of those pounds. I was happy to tell him I was seeing the dietician and gastronologist after his appt.
I went on up to his next appt with his gastronologist and was told the dietician was not in, she had called in sick that morning so I was not able to see her. The gastronologist didn't have much to say, didn't even comment about us taking him off of his previcad, which had made me a bit nervous wondering what he would say, he examed him and said that he didn't think he needed to come in again for 12 months. He said that he would set up an appointment for Luke to have another swallow gram done to see if we can start feeding him by mouth, this was good news. One of the best part of these appts. was being able to say that Luke is off all Medications, one of the nurses thought it was a mistake and asked me if this was right as she was reading his record, it was great to say it was right. They don't see many kids like Luke with no medications.
So you might be saying Sue everything you've said so far has been good news, where is the bad news. I guess I left there thinking about the fact that they didn't want to see Luke back for a year, this means that they are thinking that there will not be any changes to him as is normal with his type of brain injury. I know that God is mighty and can change things quickly, but as we've experienced this past 2 years God has choosen to take us down a slower road of recover. Don't get me wrong I'm very happy that Luke continues to make progress, it's just some days it seems to be taking so very long. Yesterday was a bit difficult as Luke woke up with a fever and then threw up after his first feeding. I was crying out to God to touch him and Ezekiel who is my little prayer warrior said, "Mommy, lets prayer for Luke to get better today, maybe this is the day he will start to walk and talk again." Oh the faith of a child. Well I'm happy to say that God did answer our prayers, he began to feel better and last night when I put him to bed his oxygen levels where at 99 and his heart rate was very good again. He has been doing great without being on oxygen for quite a few nights now, which is a great answer to prayer. Though this is not the case tonight, he is back on a bit of oxygen tonight, I guess he's still not at 100% yet.
Just to let you know we began home schooling on Monday and this week has been a good week, we are getting back into a good schedule. I purposefully made Luke's PT and Natalie's Piano lesson on the same day at the same time, her teacher is flexible with me dropping her off a bit early, I'm hoping this will cut down on being out the house so often. My sister Cindy has been coming over each morning to help with Luke's feeding and doing some of his program with him, which has been very helpful. Joanne asked about his program, it is a program put together by a Neurodevelopmentalist, that includes patterning exercises, tastes of foods to help with his taste buds coming back to life again, special pin hole glasses to help him see better, lots of stimulation with toys and activities, a listening program we haven't got started yet and some other activities to help his brain reconnent. If you want more information you can e-mail me, as you can see we've put our e-mail address on the side of the blog so that any of you can e-mail us, we always enjoy hearing from you.
Here's a scripture that has really encouraged me this week, it is Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I had memorized this verse many years ago and God gently reminded me that though I may not see His answer today, I still need to believe that it is coming. I hope that you have your faith renewed today and don't ever stop believing in your miracle, with God nothing is impossible!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
I went on up to his next appt with his gastronologist and was told the dietician was not in, she had called in sick that morning so I was not able to see her. The gastronologist didn't have much to say, didn't even comment about us taking him off of his previcad, which had made me a bit nervous wondering what he would say, he examed him and said that he didn't think he needed to come in again for 12 months. He said that he would set up an appointment for Luke to have another swallow gram done to see if we can start feeding him by mouth, this was good news. One of the best part of these appts. was being able to say that Luke is off all Medications, one of the nurses thought it was a mistake and asked me if this was right as she was reading his record, it was great to say it was right. They don't see many kids like Luke with no medications.
So you might be saying Sue everything you've said so far has been good news, where is the bad news. I guess I left there thinking about the fact that they didn't want to see Luke back for a year, this means that they are thinking that there will not be any changes to him as is normal with his type of brain injury. I know that God is mighty and can change things quickly, but as we've experienced this past 2 years God has choosen to take us down a slower road of recover. Don't get me wrong I'm very happy that Luke continues to make progress, it's just some days it seems to be taking so very long. Yesterday was a bit difficult as Luke woke up with a fever and then threw up after his first feeding. I was crying out to God to touch him and Ezekiel who is my little prayer warrior said, "Mommy, lets prayer for Luke to get better today, maybe this is the day he will start to walk and talk again." Oh the faith of a child. Well I'm happy to say that God did answer our prayers, he began to feel better and last night when I put him to bed his oxygen levels where at 99 and his heart rate was very good again. He has been doing great without being on oxygen for quite a few nights now, which is a great answer to prayer. Though this is not the case tonight, he is back on a bit of oxygen tonight, I guess he's still not at 100% yet.
Just to let you know we began home schooling on Monday and this week has been a good week, we are getting back into a good schedule. I purposefully made Luke's PT and Natalie's Piano lesson on the same day at the same time, her teacher is flexible with me dropping her off a bit early, I'm hoping this will cut down on being out the house so often. My sister Cindy has been coming over each morning to help with Luke's feeding and doing some of his program with him, which has been very helpful. Joanne asked about his program, it is a program put together by a Neurodevelopmentalist, that includes patterning exercises, tastes of foods to help with his taste buds coming back to life again, special pin hole glasses to help him see better, lots of stimulation with toys and activities, a listening program we haven't got started yet and some other activities to help his brain reconnent. If you want more information you can e-mail me, as you can see we've put our e-mail address on the side of the blog so that any of you can e-mail us, we always enjoy hearing from you.
Here's a scripture that has really encouraged me this week, it is Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I had memorized this verse many years ago and God gently reminded me that though I may not see His answer today, I still need to believe that it is coming. I hope that you have your faith renewed today and don't ever stop believing in your miracle, with God nothing is impossible!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Monday, September 11, 2006
Luke gets an awesome report from his Neurodevelopmentalist evaluation
I want to begin by saying "thank you" for all your wonderful comments, it continues to amaze me that so many of you are still faithfully praying for Luke's recovery and reading this blog. So many of you have become wonderful friends even though we've never met in person, I just hope that someday I will be able to meet many of you face to face.
My sister Cindy and I took Luke up to Anacortes which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive for a Neurodevelopmentalist evaluation. It was will worth the drive as we received such a wonderful report. She was very encouraged by what see saw with Luke's progress. She said that he is definitely following commands, has sensation in all his limbs, is much more interested in what is happening around him, is ready to start moving with help and his muscles seemed to respond when she put him on his stomach with his arms in front of him and moved him forward. She thinks with a lot of stimulation and encouragement that Luke should begin to reach for toys very soon. When she asked him to reach up and touch my hand he actually did a few times, to say that we were excited is putting it mildly. She thinks that if we are faithful in doing the program she set up for us that we will begin to see big changes in Luke's abilities.
My prayer is that we can find some people that would be willing to help a few days a week to get Luke through all the exercises that she gave us to do with him. My sister Cindy said that she is willing to come over daily to help with Luke's feeding and program, I can never even begin to tell you how much this will help out. As I've said before it is very challenging to try to find the time to get all that needs to be done everyday, with Lily's care, homeschooling the children, keeping the house clean, cooking, going to the YMCA for PE and choir, piano lessons, Luke's PT and other appointments, you get the picture. I am really excited and hoping that this year Luke will stay healthy so that we can really get on a good schedule. I recently read in a book that said the only schedule we really need to live up to is the one that we fell the Lord is directing us toward, so I'm really praying for wisdom in knowing exactly what He wants me to accomplish each day.
We had a great camping trip, the weather was beautiful, we had some awesome days at the beach, we ate some delicious smores as we sat around the camp fire, played some fun games and Luke stayed healthy for the most part, though he had a few rough nights. We had a few unwelcome guests the raccoons decided to get into our food, they ate a whole loaf of bread, 9 eggs and drank quite a few of our sodas, or it could of been the skunk we saw run through our campsite.
Specific prayer requests for Luke, he continues to struggle with his feeding times, he continues to gag and throw up at least once a day, today though was one of the best days he's had in a while. Continue to pray that the congestion that he deals with so often will clear up once and for all. Last but not least the same prayer request that we've been asking for faithfully all these past two years is that his legs will become limber, that his knees will bend normally and his feet will come to point forward again.
I know many of you have been praying for Gabby, as her link is at the side of this page. I just want to ask you to keep her family in your prayers as she passed away on August 31st. It's hard to know why God chose to take her home at such a young age, but we know that He is sovereign and His ways are not always what we would chose. Her mom has been a blessing in my life, though I've never met her in person her blog has really ministered to me in ways I cannot begin to express.
May God bless you and keep you in His arms of love today.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
My sister Cindy and I took Luke up to Anacortes which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive for a Neurodevelopmentalist evaluation. It was will worth the drive as we received such a wonderful report. She was very encouraged by what see saw with Luke's progress. She said that he is definitely following commands, has sensation in all his limbs, is much more interested in what is happening around him, is ready to start moving with help and his muscles seemed to respond when she put him on his stomach with his arms in front of him and moved him forward. She thinks with a lot of stimulation and encouragement that Luke should begin to reach for toys very soon. When she asked him to reach up and touch my hand he actually did a few times, to say that we were excited is putting it mildly. She thinks that if we are faithful in doing the program she set up for us that we will begin to see big changes in Luke's abilities.
My prayer is that we can find some people that would be willing to help a few days a week to get Luke through all the exercises that she gave us to do with him. My sister Cindy said that she is willing to come over daily to help with Luke's feeding and program, I can never even begin to tell you how much this will help out. As I've said before it is very challenging to try to find the time to get all that needs to be done everyday, with Lily's care, homeschooling the children, keeping the house clean, cooking, going to the YMCA for PE and choir, piano lessons, Luke's PT and other appointments, you get the picture. I am really excited and hoping that this year Luke will stay healthy so that we can really get on a good schedule. I recently read in a book that said the only schedule we really need to live up to is the one that we fell the Lord is directing us toward, so I'm really praying for wisdom in knowing exactly what He wants me to accomplish each day.
We had a great camping trip, the weather was beautiful, we had some awesome days at the beach, we ate some delicious smores as we sat around the camp fire, played some fun games and Luke stayed healthy for the most part, though he had a few rough nights. We had a few unwelcome guests the raccoons decided to get into our food, they ate a whole loaf of bread, 9 eggs and drank quite a few of our sodas, or it could of been the skunk we saw run through our campsite.
Specific prayer requests for Luke, he continues to struggle with his feeding times, he continues to gag and throw up at least once a day, today though was one of the best days he's had in a while. Continue to pray that the congestion that he deals with so often will clear up once and for all. Last but not least the same prayer request that we've been asking for faithfully all these past two years is that his legs will become limber, that his knees will bend normally and his feet will come to point forward again.
I know many of you have been praying for Gabby, as her link is at the side of this page. I just want to ask you to keep her family in your prayers as she passed away on August 31st. It's hard to know why God chose to take her home at such a young age, but we know that He is sovereign and His ways are not always what we would chose. Her mom has been a blessing in my life, though I've never met her in person her blog has really ministered to me in ways I cannot begin to express.
May God bless you and keep you in His arms of love today.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Praise God, Two years ago today Luke was brought back to life after being dead!
I have so much to be thankful for, as today is the anniversary of Luke's miraculous journey back to life. He seems to be doing fine not having his Previcad, this is a huge answer to prayer as I said we've tried before to discontinue this med only to have to get him back on it within a day. He is also doing so much better at taking his food, thank you for your prayers, they continue to make all the difference in the world.
I had a pretty good day, didn't even shed a tear until this evening when I began to think about this time two years ago. As you can imagine it is a very emotional memory for our family. I decided to go to church, which I'm so glad I did, it was just what I needed. We had an awesome prayer time and as I was crying out to God to complete the healing in Luke, I really felt like the Lord was telling me that He would be doing a awesome work in Luke soon and the healing process would sped up. I was very encouraged to hear this and as I continued to cry out to the Lord He showed me that just as he raised Luke up from the dead, He would also be spiritually raising up those loved ones in our church family that need a definite touch from God to begin living a holy and righteous life for our Lord and Saviour.
As I think back to these past two years I have to shout to the world how thankful I am to still have our precious Lukie with us, God could of taken Him to heaven, where I'm sure he would of been much more comfortable there, then here in his broken body.
Here is a list of things that I'm most thankful for:
Gordy - He has been and will always be my best friend, this journey we've been on has not been easy, but with Gordy by my side the whole way it has been so much easier. His love and strength are amazing!
Daniel - He continues to bless my life, I'm so thankful that God has brought him through these past years a stronger and mightier man of God.
Amy - Wow, where do I begin. I was just telling a friend of mine yesterday, I don't know what I would of done without my older girls help during these past two years. Amy has been an amazing example of God's love and has gone above the call of duty more than I can even begin to tell you about.
Natalie - She has been a constant help without any words of complaint coming out her mouth. She is my right hand so often, I constantly have to guard against taking advantage of her and her servants heart.
Isaiah - He loves to give wonderful hugs and is getting to be more helpful all the time, I'm thankful that he is such a sweet boy.
Ezekiel - He is my little prayer warrior, he prays almost everyday that this will be the day that God will heal Luke, he has such a compassionate heart.
Luke - He has taught me more than I could of learned in 50 years. He is so precious to love on and his smiles keep me going on the rough days.
Lily - She has been such a joy and I'm so thankful that God blessed our family with her sweet kisses and hugs.
I continue to be so thankful to my family, they have been a rock to lean on, without their support this journey would of been almost impossible to continue on. I am so appreciative of all our friends who have stood by us with a helping hand and of course, I know that we could not of made it without all the prayers from our faithful blog followers.
I thank my precious Heavenly Father the most, without his help and support I would of never been able to make it through these past two years. God is my refuge and strength a very present help in trouble. I've grown closer to Him then I ever dreamed was possible and have learned that I can trust in the Lord with all my heart and not to lean on my own understanding.
I hear all the time, Sue I read Luke's blog all the time I've just never commented on it. It would be so wonderful to get a comment from all of you today just to encourage us that you are all still praying for Luke's complete restoration. It's also fun to see just where Luke's blog is reaching across the world, please take a minute today to jot us a note. You are appreciated more than you can imagine!!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
I had a pretty good day, didn't even shed a tear until this evening when I began to think about this time two years ago. As you can imagine it is a very emotional memory for our family. I decided to go to church, which I'm so glad I did, it was just what I needed. We had an awesome prayer time and as I was crying out to God to complete the healing in Luke, I really felt like the Lord was telling me that He would be doing a awesome work in Luke soon and the healing process would sped up. I was very encouraged to hear this and as I continued to cry out to the Lord He showed me that just as he raised Luke up from the dead, He would also be spiritually raising up those loved ones in our church family that need a definite touch from God to begin living a holy and righteous life for our Lord and Saviour.
As I think back to these past two years I have to shout to the world how thankful I am to still have our precious Lukie with us, God could of taken Him to heaven, where I'm sure he would of been much more comfortable there, then here in his broken body.
Here is a list of things that I'm most thankful for:
Gordy - He has been and will always be my best friend, this journey we've been on has not been easy, but with Gordy by my side the whole way it has been so much easier. His love and strength are amazing!
Daniel - He continues to bless my life, I'm so thankful that God has brought him through these past years a stronger and mightier man of God.
Amy - Wow, where do I begin. I was just telling a friend of mine yesterday, I don't know what I would of done without my older girls help during these past two years. Amy has been an amazing example of God's love and has gone above the call of duty more than I can even begin to tell you about.
Natalie - She has been a constant help without any words of complaint coming out her mouth. She is my right hand so often, I constantly have to guard against taking advantage of her and her servants heart.
Isaiah - He loves to give wonderful hugs and is getting to be more helpful all the time, I'm thankful that he is such a sweet boy.
Ezekiel - He is my little prayer warrior, he prays almost everyday that this will be the day that God will heal Luke, he has such a compassionate heart.
Luke - He has taught me more than I could of learned in 50 years. He is so precious to love on and his smiles keep me going on the rough days.
Lily - She has been such a joy and I'm so thankful that God blessed our family with her sweet kisses and hugs.
I continue to be so thankful to my family, they have been a rock to lean on, without their support this journey would of been almost impossible to continue on. I am so appreciative of all our friends who have stood by us with a helping hand and of course, I know that we could not of made it without all the prayers from our faithful blog followers.
I thank my precious Heavenly Father the most, without his help and support I would of never been able to make it through these past two years. God is my refuge and strength a very present help in trouble. I've grown closer to Him then I ever dreamed was possible and have learned that I can trust in the Lord with all my heart and not to lean on my own understanding.
I hear all the time, Sue I read Luke's blog all the time I've just never commented on it. It would be so wonderful to get a comment from all of you today just to encourage us that you are all still praying for Luke's complete restoration. It's also fun to see just where Luke's blog is reaching across the world, please take a minute today to jot us a note. You are appreciated more than you can imagine!!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Saturday, August 26, 2006
We are weaning Luke off his last Prescription Med
I meant to sit down and write a few days ago to let you know that we have finally decided to wean Luke off his last med. He has been taking the equivalent to Zantac since his accident and then it got bumped up to Previcad, which is much stronger. Anyway we've known for some time that it is not good to take this on a regular basis, since it basically kills all the good stomach acids. Stomach acids are important for breaking down your food and helping it to go where it needs to go. Every time we've tried to stop his Previcad before he would get really congested and need a lot of extra suctioning. This time he has been doing much better and we are actually on his 3rd day without his Previcad.
We are blessed to have a friend who happens to be a Chiropractor/Naturiopathic Dr. He has been helping us by giving us some recommendations on what supplements to try to help Luke get his stomach acids working again. We had him and his wife and ten children over for dinner on Tuesday night and he went through a lesson on digestion for Gordy and myself so that we could learn exactly what is probably happening to Luke's little body. The kids had a blast playing with his children and Isaiah asked me if we could have them over again next week, I said we would very soon, but probably not next week, as we are getting ready for our last camping trip of the summer.
For years now we have taken the first week of September, after the schools get going to go camping since the weather is awesome and the campgrounds are pretty empty. We will leave on August 31st and get back on Sept. 6th. Though Daniel will be returning even sooner since he has to get back to work. He began a new job of interning with an electrician, a man from our church who began his own company about 6 months ago. He has not given up on his dream of owning his own music studio, he has just come to the realization that a studio will not bring in enough money to support him. He is enjoying his new job, he had a real peace about the change and if all goes according to plan he will be an electrician within 2 years time.
I know so many of you love to get specific prayer requests for Luke, so here they are: Pray that all will continue to go well with his medicine change, that he will stop throwing up, though he has been doing a little better with this, that he will stay healthy during our last camping trip of the season, that his legs will continue to get a good bend and last but not least that his brain will be completely restored.
Please be praying for me, this is an emotional time for me and at times the grief I feel chokes me with tears always on the surface. I'm so thankful for all that God has done these past two years, I'm especially thankful for so many of you that have lifted Luke and our family up in your prayers so faithfully. I mention this often, but you will never even begin to understand how much it means to us to have you praying for us. I give thanks to the Lord for each and everyone of you, I was thinking recently about the fact if Luke's accident had never happened I would never have gotten to know so many wonderful, caring people. I wish there was a way of contacting each and everyone of you personally, just know that your comments and e-mails to howslukesdoing@yahoo.com are read and reread and are cherished beyond what I can even express.
Once again this blog is way too long, I don't purposefully do that it just seems to happen. May God richly bless you today in ways you can't even begin to imagine!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
We are blessed to have a friend who happens to be a Chiropractor/Naturiopathic Dr. He has been helping us by giving us some recommendations on what supplements to try to help Luke get his stomach acids working again. We had him and his wife and ten children over for dinner on Tuesday night and he went through a lesson on digestion for Gordy and myself so that we could learn exactly what is probably happening to Luke's little body. The kids had a blast playing with his children and Isaiah asked me if we could have them over again next week, I said we would very soon, but probably not next week, as we are getting ready for our last camping trip of the summer.
For years now we have taken the first week of September, after the schools get going to go camping since the weather is awesome and the campgrounds are pretty empty. We will leave on August 31st and get back on Sept. 6th. Though Daniel will be returning even sooner since he has to get back to work. He began a new job of interning with an electrician, a man from our church who began his own company about 6 months ago. He has not given up on his dream of owning his own music studio, he has just come to the realization that a studio will not bring in enough money to support him. He is enjoying his new job, he had a real peace about the change and if all goes according to plan he will be an electrician within 2 years time.
I know so many of you love to get specific prayer requests for Luke, so here they are: Pray that all will continue to go well with his medicine change, that he will stop throwing up, though he has been doing a little better with this, that he will stay healthy during our last camping trip of the season, that his legs will continue to get a good bend and last but not least that his brain will be completely restored.
Please be praying for me, this is an emotional time for me and at times the grief I feel chokes me with tears always on the surface. I'm so thankful for all that God has done these past two years, I'm especially thankful for so many of you that have lifted Luke and our family up in your prayers so faithfully. I mention this often, but you will never even begin to understand how much it means to us to have you praying for us. I give thanks to the Lord for each and everyone of you, I was thinking recently about the fact if Luke's accident had never happened I would never have gotten to know so many wonderful, caring people. I wish there was a way of contacting each and everyone of you personally, just know that your comments and e-mails to howslukesdoing@yahoo.com are read and reread and are cherished beyond what I can even express.
Once again this blog is way too long, I don't purposefully do that it just seems to happen. May God richly bless you today in ways you can't even begin to imagine!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Friday, August 18, 2006
We continue to rely on God's gift of perfect peace
I was going to begin this blog by saying we've had a busy few weeks, but then I guess I say that just about every time I write, so I'll skip saying it for now. Luke has been doing okay, though he has been sick off and on these last few weeks. I'm not sure what is going on with him, he just seems to be more congested at times and has needed a little bit of oxygen every night lately.
I took Luke and the girls to visit my sister, Lori and her husband, Lonnie in Eastern Washington last weekend and he got really sick on Sunday. I knew he wasn't doing well so I hooked him up to the oximeter and sure enough his heart rate was up to 180 and his oxygen levels were very low. I began oxygen and finally had to take it up to 3 liters to get him into the low 90's. We prayed for him and I immediately gave him tylenol, within an hour his heart rate was coming down, but he continued to be on oxygen all day. I was able to turn it down to where he was only on 1/4 of a liter when he went to bed that night. It was another one of those roller coaster ride days for me, I had so looked forward to going to church with my sister in the morning, but ended up staying home with Luke. Just as Lori was leaving she put on a CD for me to listen to and the first song I heard was Blessed be the Name of the Lord, it was God's way of telling me once again to bless Him in the good times and the hard times. What I had looked forward to as a relaxing weekend ended up being at times quite stressful. I had let Natalie drive over and back, she's still learning to drive and needs more experience until she ready to get her license, she did an awesome job, but it is stressful at times teaching someone how to drive. On the way home what usually would only take 4 1/2 hours at the most to get home ended up taking 8 hours because we got stuck behind a horrible accident. Needless to say we were all very happy to get home!
I took Luke to HBOT and PT on Wednesday and his legs are looking better all the time. His PT had him sitting and then standing and the bend in his legs is looking so much better. Luke continues to be more alert and responds to touch more and more all the time. I was playing with him last week, on one of the hot days and put a ice bag in his hand, he did not like holding it so I told him to open his hand and let go and he did this about 4 or 5 times. It is so good to see him responding more to commands and finding him more responsive to the touching of his hands and feet. He smiles all the time when you play with him, he especially likes to have his legs and hands moved very quickly.
Some specific prayer requests for Luke at this time are that he will continue to get a better bend in his knees and that all of him will become more flexible. That he will continue to gain better control of his neck muscles so that his head will not fall so easily. Also that we will be able to figure out what causes him to become congested every time he eats and that he will not have anymore reflux problems. Last but not least that whatever is causing him to have this extra oxygen each night will be cleared up once and for all.
Please also keep us all in prayer as this time of the year can bring back so many memories. I find myself thinking about how different our lives were two years ago and though I am extremely grateful for the progress that Luke has made, I still grieve the fact that he has had to suffer for these past two years. Sometimes the stress of taking care of Luke with alarms going off at all hours of the night, making sure he gets all this meds and feedings on time each day, getting him to his appts., making sure all the other kids don't feel less important, never feeling like I can get all the things I need to get done in a day done, take a toll. I know that God is my refuge and strength and I do go to him on a daily basis, it is only because of His faithfulness that I'm able to go on somedays. Remember, you to can go to the Heavenly Father and find perfect peace to get through your toughest days, He loves you so much and is just waiting for you to ask Him for help.
May God bless each and everyone of you!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
I took Luke and the girls to visit my sister, Lori and her husband, Lonnie in Eastern Washington last weekend and he got really sick on Sunday. I knew he wasn't doing well so I hooked him up to the oximeter and sure enough his heart rate was up to 180 and his oxygen levels were very low. I began oxygen and finally had to take it up to 3 liters to get him into the low 90's. We prayed for him and I immediately gave him tylenol, within an hour his heart rate was coming down, but he continued to be on oxygen all day. I was able to turn it down to where he was only on 1/4 of a liter when he went to bed that night. It was another one of those roller coaster ride days for me, I had so looked forward to going to church with my sister in the morning, but ended up staying home with Luke. Just as Lori was leaving she put on a CD for me to listen to and the first song I heard was Blessed be the Name of the Lord, it was God's way of telling me once again to bless Him in the good times and the hard times. What I had looked forward to as a relaxing weekend ended up being at times quite stressful. I had let Natalie drive over and back, she's still learning to drive and needs more experience until she ready to get her license, she did an awesome job, but it is stressful at times teaching someone how to drive. On the way home what usually would only take 4 1/2 hours at the most to get home ended up taking 8 hours because we got stuck behind a horrible accident. Needless to say we were all very happy to get home!
I took Luke to HBOT and PT on Wednesday and his legs are looking better all the time. His PT had him sitting and then standing and the bend in his legs is looking so much better. Luke continues to be more alert and responds to touch more and more all the time. I was playing with him last week, on one of the hot days and put a ice bag in his hand, he did not like holding it so I told him to open his hand and let go and he did this about 4 or 5 times. It is so good to see him responding more to commands and finding him more responsive to the touching of his hands and feet. He smiles all the time when you play with him, he especially likes to have his legs and hands moved very quickly.
Some specific prayer requests for Luke at this time are that he will continue to get a better bend in his knees and that all of him will become more flexible. That he will continue to gain better control of his neck muscles so that his head will not fall so easily. Also that we will be able to figure out what causes him to become congested every time he eats and that he will not have anymore reflux problems. Last but not least that whatever is causing him to have this extra oxygen each night will be cleared up once and for all.
Please also keep us all in prayer as this time of the year can bring back so many memories. I find myself thinking about how different our lives were two years ago and though I am extremely grateful for the progress that Luke has made, I still grieve the fact that he has had to suffer for these past two years. Sometimes the stress of taking care of Luke with alarms going off at all hours of the night, making sure he gets all this meds and feedings on time each day, getting him to his appts., making sure all the other kids don't feel less important, never feeling like I can get all the things I need to get done in a day done, take a toll. I know that God is my refuge and strength and I do go to him on a daily basis, it is only because of His faithfulness that I'm able to go on somedays. Remember, you to can go to the Heavenly Father and find perfect peace to get through your toughest days, He loves you so much and is just waiting for you to ask Him for help.
May God bless each and everyone of you!
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
Friday, August 04, 2006
Thank you once again for your prayers, PLEASE don't stop praying for Luke's complete healing, God hears your prayers!
It seems like forever since I've actually sat down to blog. Gordy has been doing all the updates lately. It's hard to know where to begin, when I wait so long to write. I guess I will begin by telling you all "THANK YOU" for your prayers for our trip. It was beyond wonderful, Luke stayed healthy and even progressed with smiling almost daily, our family had the best time together. I told Gordy and the kids that there was not really anything from home that I was missing since they were all with me. It was hard coming home and realizing that I had to pick up where I had left off with appts. for Luke and catching up with all that we had missed by being gone, but I'm finally feeling caught up.
Today Natalie and I did a deep clean in Luke and Lily's room. I had not gone through all his medical supplies in probably over a year. Needless to say we threw away two huge bags of garbage and boxed up two boxes of stuff. All day I kept thanking the Lord for the progress Luke has made. We threw away 7 old bottles of medicine and each time I would thank the Lord that Luke no longer needs that med. We also found some old trache ties and supplies, it actually brought tears to my eyes as I once again thanked the Lord that he no longer needs those things. We also got rid of old orthodics for his hands and feet. It brought more tears to my eyes when I realized how tiny his first pair of ankle orthodics where, knowing that his precious little feet have not walked or ran in just about two years. At one time today I made the comment I probably have not completely cleaned out some of the drawers in two years and then it hit me two years ago, we did not need any of these supplies because we had a beautiful healthy little boy. Once again it was a roller coaster ride of emotions for me, thanking the Lord for his progress, but also grieving the little healthy boy he was before his accident.
I had planned to take Luke in for a HBOT treatment today, but he was struggling a bit with his nose running today. He had been sick for a few days, the amazing thing about that is that this time during his sick time he did not need to have huge amounts of oxygen, as he has had happen in the past. God is moving in this area of Luke's life.
Coming into August was tough for a few days, thinking back to this month two years ago brings back horrible memories, as you know our whole lives were changed forever. God is so faithful in encouraging me, on Sunday I had a time of really crying out to God, asking Him why, He is taking so long to complete the healing process. But, as usual God is faithful and has encouraged me with His Words in the Bible and also a book that I read faithfully is a devotional called Streams in the Desert. Last night I copied about 6 pages of little post it notes and hung them up around my bathroom, they are encouraging words, one of them says, "SUE, you can trust the Man who died for you. If you cannot trust Him, then whom can you trust." That pretty much summarizes it for me, it continues to be a trust issue for me, I know deep down in my heart that God is able to reach down this second and make Luke whole once again, I guess what I struggle with is why He is choosing not to complete it today.
I have mentioned this often, but you will never know how much it means to me that a lot of you have not given up praying for Luke's complete healing. PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP, I KNOW THAT GOD CAN DO IT, CONTINUE TO STAND IN THE GAP WITH OUR FAMILY IN BELIEVING FOR THIS MIRACLE.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
PS I know that I've mentioned in the past prayer requests for some other little ones that need a touch from God and right know there is a little girl named Gabby that needs a miracle today. She has a brain tumor and without a touch from God, there is no hope for her recovery. Please keep her in your prayers today, she has a blog called http://www.gabbysmiracle.blogspot.com/
Today Natalie and I did a deep clean in Luke and Lily's room. I had not gone through all his medical supplies in probably over a year. Needless to say we threw away two huge bags of garbage and boxed up two boxes of stuff. All day I kept thanking the Lord for the progress Luke has made. We threw away 7 old bottles of medicine and each time I would thank the Lord that Luke no longer needs that med. We also found some old trache ties and supplies, it actually brought tears to my eyes as I once again thanked the Lord that he no longer needs those things. We also got rid of old orthodics for his hands and feet. It brought more tears to my eyes when I realized how tiny his first pair of ankle orthodics where, knowing that his precious little feet have not walked or ran in just about two years. At one time today I made the comment I probably have not completely cleaned out some of the drawers in two years and then it hit me two years ago, we did not need any of these supplies because we had a beautiful healthy little boy. Once again it was a roller coaster ride of emotions for me, thanking the Lord for his progress, but also grieving the little healthy boy he was before his accident.
I had planned to take Luke in for a HBOT treatment today, but he was struggling a bit with his nose running today. He had been sick for a few days, the amazing thing about that is that this time during his sick time he did not need to have huge amounts of oxygen, as he has had happen in the past. God is moving in this area of Luke's life.
Coming into August was tough for a few days, thinking back to this month two years ago brings back horrible memories, as you know our whole lives were changed forever. God is so faithful in encouraging me, on Sunday I had a time of really crying out to God, asking Him why, He is taking so long to complete the healing process. But, as usual God is faithful and has encouraged me with His Words in the Bible and also a book that I read faithfully is a devotional called Streams in the Desert. Last night I copied about 6 pages of little post it notes and hung them up around my bathroom, they are encouraging words, one of them says, "SUE, you can trust the Man who died for you. If you cannot trust Him, then whom can you trust." That pretty much summarizes it for me, it continues to be a trust issue for me, I know deep down in my heart that God is able to reach down this second and make Luke whole once again, I guess what I struggle with is why He is choosing not to complete it today.
I have mentioned this often, but you will never know how much it means to me that a lot of you have not given up praying for Luke's complete healing. PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP, I KNOW THAT GOD CAN DO IT, CONTINUE TO STAND IN THE GAP WITH OUR FAMILY IN BELIEVING FOR THIS MIRACLE.
Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue
PS I know that I've mentioned in the past prayer requests for some other little ones that need a touch from God and right know there is a little girl named Gabby that needs a miracle today. She has a brain tumor and without a touch from God, there is no hope for her recovery. Please keep her in your prayers today, she has a blog called http://www.gabbysmiracle.blogspot.com/
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Quick update
Hi all, I just wanted to give you a quick update. It have been very hot here (90s) and Luke does not like the heat. So we decided to go camping close by where we could use the AC in the trailer and I could commute to work. Daniel is not with us, as he flew to Missouri to drive back to Washington with his friend Josh. Yesterday evening we went to my friend Craig and Eileens house and they leave very close to a lake. We had a great time picnicing and enjoyed playing on the jetskis and inner tubing. We were blessed to meet a couple Jay and his wife Lee who have been following Luke's story.
I know there are so many of you out there who have been following Luke's progress via the blog and I hope that someday I will get a chance to meet each of you and to be able to say thank you for the encouragement you have been to our family to keep pressing on and pray for Luke's complete healing.
I know there are so many of you out there who have been following Luke's progress via the blog and I hope that someday I will get a chance to meet each of you and to be able to say thank you for the encouragement you have been to our family to keep pressing on and pray for Luke's complete healing.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
A priceless smile
Here is a picture of Luke Smiling. I was playing with his legs and he laughed a bit of a snort. We were excited to see such happiness on his face. Before the accident Luke was a very happy little boy.
Here we are on the beach in Newport OR just a few days before returning home.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
We are home again!
We arrived home this afternoon after being gone for 39 days and over 3500 miles. WOW! So much has happened on this trip. When we started the trip both Isaiah and Ezekiel had training wheels on their bikes and now both ride fine without training wheels. Daniel learned to surf. I taught Sue, Daniel, Amy and Natalie how to play pinochle. Maybe I taught them a bit too well as I did not win very many games. At the beginning of the trip Luke would smile occasionally, and now he smiles daily. The other day I was playing with Luke's legs and he began to smile and then it turned into a big smile. At one point, we think he laughed, although it was more of a snort then a laugh. Needless to say we are very excited at this development.
We feel sooooo blessed to be able to take this vacation and had a wonderful time. I will post some more pictures in a day or two.
Thank you to everyone that has been praying for Luke and our family. Luke made it through the trip and stayed heathly. There were a few moments of anxiety, but all in all an awesome trip.
One of my favorite moments on the trip was getting a chance to be a part of the children's ministry in Mexico and to participate in their water baptisms. On the Sunday morning that we went to church in Mexico it was a blessing to see the children in the classrooms we had painted. At the end of the service Pastor Juan had us come up front along with a missionary couple and a children's pastor from another city. Pastor Juan asked the people to come forward and thank us for ministering to them. It was humbling and a blessing to have so many people express their thanks to us. I know for our entire family this was definitely one of the highlights.
Take care and we love you all
We feel sooooo blessed to be able to take this vacation and had a wonderful time. I will post some more pictures in a day or two.
Thank you to everyone that has been praying for Luke and our family. Luke made it through the trip and stayed heathly. There were a few moments of anxiety, but all in all an awesome trip.
One of my favorite moments on the trip was getting a chance to be a part of the children's ministry in Mexico and to participate in their water baptisms. On the Sunday morning that we went to church in Mexico it was a blessing to see the children in the classrooms we had painted. At the end of the service Pastor Juan had us come up front along with a missionary couple and a children's pastor from another city. Pastor Juan asked the people to come forward and thank us for ministering to them. It was humbling and a blessing to have so many people express their thanks to us. I know for our entire family this was definitely one of the highlights.
Take care and we love you all
Saturday, July 01, 2006
We are in Sunny Newport OR
We arrived in sunny Newport OR yesterday afternoon. Needless to say it seems very cool, okay cold to us. We adjusted to the hotter CA weather and now are wearing coats and sweatshirts, as it is in the low 60s. It may be cool, okay to us it is cold, but it is beautiful. It is bright sunny weather and we are looking forward to a week of nothing. Just like last year we are looking forward to no schedule and just doing whatever we want. Sue is at the beach with Natalie and Luke. Daniel is swimming in the pool with Isaiah and Ezekiel. Amy is reading at the trailer and Lily is resting. I am here at the club house blogging and looking for a cheap ticket for Daniel to fly to St Louis to visit a family friend Josh.
Needless to say with this laid back schedule, we may or may not blog the next few days :)
Take care and have a wonderful 4th of July as you celebrate the freedoms that you enjoy living in this great country. And to those of you outside the US, blessings on each one of you.
Needless to say with this laid back schedule, we may or may not blog the next few days :)
Take care and have a wonderful 4th of July as you celebrate the freedoms that you enjoy living in this great country. And to those of you outside the US, blessings on each one of you.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
We are in Santa Clarita heading for Oregon
We spent several days at Lake Perris State Park and were able to visit with our nephew Joseph and his wife Gina. We had a great time with them. The past two days we have been in Santa Clarita next to Six Flags Magic Mountain. We closed the park both nights at 10 pm. We will be leaving in the morning heading north and arriving at Newport Oregon on Friday.
Thank you for your prayers, Luke has been doing much better.
By the way, did I mention that it was hot at Lake Perris. I know it has been in the 90s back home in Washington, but that would be cool, it was over 100 the day we arrived. It is a dry heat compared to Washington, but it is still hot. We have AC in our trailier and I wasnt sure it was working, as the trailer was very warm. We were not sad to say goodbye to the desert.
I know I am rambling, so I will say goodbye for now. Will blog again in a couple days when we reach Newport, unless we have internet at our hotel along the way.
God's blessing on each one of you.
Thank you for your prayers, Luke has been doing much better.
By the way, did I mention that it was hot at Lake Perris. I know it has been in the 90s back home in Washington, but that would be cool, it was over 100 the day we arrived. It is a dry heat compared to Washington, but it is still hot. We have AC in our trailier and I wasnt sure it was working, as the trailer was very warm. We were not sad to say goodbye to the desert.
I know I am rambling, so I will say goodbye for now. Will blog again in a couple days when we reach Newport, unless we have internet at our hotel along the way.
God's blessing on each one of you.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Leaving San Diego tomorrow...Please Pray
We will be leaving San Diego tomorrow and heading to a state park east of LA. We won't have internet access for 5 days, so after this post it will be quiet on the blog for a few days.
The last few days Luke has struggled with his breathing and has needed oxygen at night. He has also had some problems with throwing up. Please pray that God would touch Luke in both of these areas and allow us to finish this trip in a strong way.
Many have told us of your faithfulness in reading this blog and praying for Luke and our family on a regular basis. I want to say Thank You and we appreciate you. We will be meeting a few of you on the remainder of our trip.
God Bless and we will let you know how Luke is in a few days.
Love GSDANIELL
The last few days Luke has struggled with his breathing and has needed oxygen at night. He has also had some problems with throwing up. Please pray that God would touch Luke in both of these areas and allow us to finish this trip in a strong way.
Many have told us of your faithfulness in reading this blog and praying for Luke and our family on a regular basis. I want to say Thank You and we appreciate you. We will be meeting a few of you on the remainder of our trip.
God Bless and we will let you know how Luke is in a few days.
Love GSDANIELL
Trip Pictures from Mexico - Water Baptisms
Miguel baptizes one of the children
This is at the start with Pastor Juan, Miguel and me in the deep end and the people ready to be baptized on each side.
Here we are baptizing one of the men
Here you can see there were a lot of people watching all around the pool
Group shot of all the people that were baptized. I think it was 44 people in all.
Trip Pictures from Mexico - Childrens Ministry
Miguel and family. They host the weekly childrens ministry at their home every week. That is Pastor Juan holding the hotdog :)
Isiah and Miguels daughter enjoy a mango freeze, kinda like a popsicle.
Pastor Juan enjoys a mango freeze while a couple of people watch Mexico play in the world cup. Notice the TV in the tree.
Natalie and Daniel help children make bracelets and necklaces.
Isaiah jumps right in and makes a bracelet
Who is that boy behind the painted face
We paint children's classrooms and we paint kids too :)
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Trip Pictures from Mexico - Painting Classrooms
One of the rooms before starting
Sue starts the red
That is bright yellow! Canary Yellow to be exact
Natalie starting the red on the other end of the red wall.
Finished room
Finished room
Finished room
Kids on Sunday in one of the painted rooms
Kids in one of the painted classrooms
Trip Pictures from Morro Bay
Dad, this sun is bright, I am glad we have sunglasses on, arent you?
Look Mom, I put on some sunscreen
Sunset on Morro Rock
Mom, I really like this vitamin D
Amy with Lily in the surf and a large flock of pelicans in the background
More Trip pics from Santa Cruz and San Simeon
Three little monkeys wearing their monkey shirts
I really enjoy this relaxing, especially when I can get wet!
Amy and Daniel in front of San Simeon (Hearst Castle)
The front of the castle
Now this is my kind of pool, too bad there isnt any water, a dip would be nice right now.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Trip Pictures from San Francisco
Walking down Lombard St
My this boat ride is windy!
We all made it on board the cable car
I love my brother, and I love my sister
Zeke, smile for the camera
How much longer do we have to wait for some fish and chips?
Amy wrestles the machine and WINS!!!
We are enjoying this cable car ride
Famous museum of amusement machines at the Fisherman's Wharf
Finally, we have fish and chips at Fisherman's Wharf
Trip Pictures from Santa Cruz
I really enjoy this relaxing with family and sunshine. I was needing a little vitamin D :)
Roasting a marshmellow at the group campfire
I like this hammock
Here is my bed in the trailer, that is my food pump hanging.
Daniel hangs ten for the first time at Santa Cruz
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)