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
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
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
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