Praise God, I have passed another test!

As mentioned in my last post Gordy and I just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We decided to get away for a relaxing weekend at the ocean, I'm happy to say that it began that way, but sadly didn't stay that way the entire time. When we left Thursday night everyone was healthy and happy and I was hoping it would stay that way the entire time.

When I called home Saturday morning to see how things went Friday night I found out that Luke was sick, he was up through out the night with lots of congestion and oxygen problems. I was so disappointed to hear that he had a very high heart rate and was on 2 liters of oxygen. Natalie was feeling confident that she had things under control, I gave her a few suggestions and let her know I would be calling often to keep in close contact with how things were going. I immediately told Gordy the bad news and we joined hands and prayed. I wish I could say that God answered our prayers immediately but that was not the case, instead it would be a day full of prayers and waiting on God for His perfect timing to heal Luke. Sound familiar?

As the day progressed Luke just didn't seem to be getting better, but I still did not have peace about going home, I kept feeling like the Lord was saying "do you trust me Sue?" I remember calling at one time and one of my relatives answered the phone sounding extremely concerned saying that Luke was doing horrible and wondered if we should come home. Once again I asked Natalie if she wanted us to come and she said that she had it under control, I prayed and didn't feel like we should go home yet. Long story short I told Natalie to put Luke into his bed around 7:45 and begin his food very slowly with his food pump, because he really hadn't kept anything down all day, I also told her to give him his muscle relaxant medication right away to help get his heart rate down. Praise God I can say that within a short amount of time his heart rate was down to normal and he was on much less oxygen. I went to bed that night with peace in my heart knowing that he had made a turn around.

The next morning I got up and told Gordy I wanted to take one last walk on the beach, but before I left for my walk, I called home to hear that Luke was doing amazingly better, he was on no oxygen and his heart rate was back to normal. I had a great time walking and singing praises to God feeling confident that I had passed the test that God had set before me, was it easy NO WAY, was it worth it DEFINITELY YES!

I had not taken my Desert in Stream devotional with me, but read July 26 the Saturday posting when I got home and how appropriate it was to my day, here it is:

By faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. Galatians 5:5
There are times when everything looks very dark to me-so dark that I have to wait before I have hope. Waiting with hope is very difficult, but true patience is expressed when we must even wait for hope. When we see no hint of success yet refuse to despair, when we see nothing but the darkness of night through our window yet keep the shutters open because stars may appear in the sky, and when we have an empty place in our heart yet will not allow it to be filled with anything less than God's best-that is the greatest kind of patience in the universe. It is the story of Job in the midst of the storm, Abraham on the road to Moriah, Moses in the desert of Midian, and the Son of Man in the Garden of Gethsemane. And there is no patience as strong as that which endures because we see "him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:27). It is the kind of patience that waits for hope.
Dear Lord, You have made waiting beautiful and patience divine. You have taught us that Your will should be accepted, simply because it is Your will. You have revealed to us that a person may see nothing but sorrow in his cup yet still be willing to drink it because of conviction that your eyes see further than his own.
Father, Give me Your divine power-the power of Gethsemane. Give me the strength to wait for hope-to look through the window when there are not stars. Even when my joy is gone give me the strength to stand victoriously in the darkest night and say, "To my heavenly Father, the sun still shines."
I will have reached the point of greatest strength once I have learned to wait for hope. George Matheson
Strive to be one of the few who walk this earth with the ever present realization-every morning, noon and night-that the unknown that people call heaven is directly behind those things that are visible.

I hope and pray that you will allow God to teach you how to trust Him during your darkest days, the rewards of trusting Jesus are amazing!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Thunderbird, Thunderbird and more Thunderbirds!

We are giving thanks to God for an amazing week! We went camping last week at a place called Thunderbird Resort up north of us in Monroe, right next to the beautiful Skykomish River. Did I say it was beautiful? Luke had a great week, he has been so healthy lately and smiling all the time. Here are some pictures from the campground.


On Wednesday we had the opportunity to go up even farther north to Mount Vernon to meet some friends at the park, you can check out her blog at Chris and Jenni. The kids had so much fun playing together and Jenni and I had a great time of just visiting together. That evening we were treated to a free dinner at Red Robin thanks to Starlight Starbright. Here are a few pictures from the park. One great discovery that was made that day is Luke actually likes to swing and does a good job of holding up his head for very short periods of time.


On Friday we had the great opportunity, thanks to Starlight Starbright to go and see the Thunderbird Jets fly and meet some of the pilots. It was amazing to see the tricks they do and at times hear how very loud they can get. I was so impressed with the pilots, many of them came right down to say hi to Luke and shake his hand. After meeting the pilots we went onto a huge cargo plane, you can see the kids up in the cock pit. Lily cried as we got off, she wanted to go for a ride. Can you see her flying that plane someday?


This week is a busy one with Vacation Bible School everyday for the kids. It's been a challenge getting out of the door each morning by 9:00, but so worth it, the kids are having a great time. Gordy and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary on Tuesday, it's hard to believe that we've been married that long. God has truly blessed us with a good marriage and we look forward to the next 25 years together. We will be getting away for a long weekend at the beach. Will you keep our children in your prayers as we leave them behind. Especially for Luke to stay very healthy. They will be spending the first night at Tia Yoli's on Thursday and then back home on Friday, my sister Lori and her husband Lonnie will be here for the weekend, so with their help along with Auntie Cindy, Natalie will be watching the children for the weekend. Thursday night on our way out of town we will be taking Daniel out for his 23rd birthday dinner, where does the time fly? Praise God he is doing great, he has a wonderful place to live and a great job. Amy is coming home on Saturday after spending two weeks at camp as a counselor, I talked to her tonight for awhile and she has been having a wonderful time, God is doing great things in her life and through her testimony of what God has done in her life.

Be blessed our friends,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Here's Luke's new Portrait, didn't Amy take a great picture?

This is the life! Luke is basking in the sun with his shoes and socks off,
next to his mom, Lily, Tia Yoli and Karlos, what could be better?

Looks like fun! The boys saved up their money for month's to be able to
buy this little boat, here they are enjoying it with Bonnie and Spencer.

Lukie loves Lily and Lily loves Luke!
Can you see how much fun Luke is having in this sand room at the
Oregon Science & Industry Museum?

Happy 4th of July

I hope that each one of you had a wonderful 4th of July. Our family had a great day! We went to a park down by my parent's home in Lacey, the kids had fun playing on the toy, except for the few times that we had some rain showers. Luke had a great day also, he had fun being at the park with all the family and even had a chance to play some kid baseball, with some plastic bats and balls. I helped him hit the ball and then ran him around the bases to get a home run, he really seemed to know that people were cheering him and the smile on his face was priceless, I wish we would of had the camera ready to take a picture. We did get some good pictures that I will get up soon. Then we went to my sister Jill and her husband John's home for more BBQ and lots of fireworks, thanks to their wonderful neighbors and our good friends the Hohn family.

I've had a few people ask me how Luke's appointments went? Well kind of what I expected, though difficult never the less. The Orthopedic Dr. took x-rays and after examining Luke basically told me that there is nothing we can do for Luke's knee's until he can get big enough to get a Baclafen pump. Surgery would not be a good thing right now, though possibly would be in the future, though once he would have that surgery his legs would no longer be able to go straight and he would never be able to walk again, which according to the Dr. wouldn't be a problem since there is no hope of him walking anyway. I had to remind myself repeatedly that day that I don't put my hope in Dr.'s but in God. His rehab Dr. wants to try some botox in Luke's wrists and arms to see if we can get his hands to straighten out so that he would have better use of them. I'm praying about this option right now.

God is so good to encourage me with this excerpt from Streams in the Desert:
My words. . . will come true at their proper time. (Luke 1:20)
What the Lord has said. . . will be accomplished (Luke 1:45)

The Lord is sure to accomplish those things
A loving heart has waited long to see;
Those words will be fulfilled to which she clings,
Because her God has promised faithfully;
And, knowing Him, she ne'er can doubt His Word;
He speaks and it is done. The mighty Lord!

The Lord is sure to accomplish those things,
O burdened heart, rest ever in His care;
In quietness beneath His shadowing wings
Await the answer to your longing prayer.
When you have "cast your cares," the heart then sings,
The Lord is sure to accomplish those things.

The Lord is sure to accomplish those things,
O tired heart, believe and wait and pray;
Peacefully, the evening chime still rings,
Though cloud and rain and storm have filled the day.
Faith pierces through the mist of doubt that bars
The coming night sometimes, and finds the stars.

The Lord is sure to accomplish those things,
O trusting heart, the Lord to you has told;
Let Faith and Hope arise, and lift their wings,
To soar toward the sunrise clouds of gold;
The doorways of the rosy dawn swing wide,
Revealing joys the darkness of night did hide.
Bessie Porter

Matthew Henry said, "We can depend on God to fulfill His promise, even when all the roads leading to it are closed. 'For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" [So be it] is spoken by us to the glory of God' [2Cor. 1:20]."

I thank the Lord for his wonderful way of reminding me that He will accomplish those promises that he has told me. I can not lose hope or stop trusting in Him to complete the work he has began, though some days it would be easy to stop believing I know I can't therefore I have to hold on tight to the loving hand of my Precious Heavenly Father and know that He really does know best and is in complete control of all the timing in the universe, which includes the day of Luke's complete healing.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke has some big appointments today

Just wanted to ask you for prayer for Luke and myself today. He has two appointments today, one with an Pediatric Orthopedic Dr. and the other appointment with his rehab Dr. I'm praying that they will be able to offer some solutions on ways that we can get Luke to bend his knee's better and help get his muscles to relax more. Please be praying that I will have an open mind to what the Dr.'s suggest and that God will give me His wisdom in knowing how to respond.

Luke has had a great few weeks! He has been in the chamber at least 13 times over the past two weeks and we have two more dives to go next week before we take a much needed break. The biggest improvement I've seen in him has been the fact that he is smiling a whole lot more, he also seems to be communicating more. I had a talk with his OT yesterday on working on ways to help him communicate his needs more clearly with us, helping him to be an active participant of the family instead of just a bystander all the time. Luke is doing great at hitting a switch, which is a button when he wants to make a toy go, so we are hoping that he will be interested in hitting that button to talk to us.

One bit of sad news, I found out last week that Brett Jr. died. I don't know any of the details except for the fact that it happened on June 4th. If you go to http://web.mac.com/brettjr/iWeb/Pray%20for%20Brett%20Jr/Welcome.html you can see their post about his death. To say it hit me hard would be an understatement, trusting Jesus is so hard sometimes, but I can not doubt that He is in control and knows what's best for all His precious children. Please keep his family in your prayers as I'm sure they are grieving right now. I'm adding another prayer link for Hadley Fox, she is in need of our prayers right now, please be sure to check out her page at http://www.caringbridge.org/ca/hadleyfox/. Last but not least I would like to ask for prayer for a boy named Luke who had a near drowning accident last week, he is doing pretty good right now, if you want to read more about how he is doing you can go to Team Bettendorf, their link is to the side of this page.

Thank you for your prayers,
Luke's Mommy Suzi