Luke's journey in pictures these last 5 years

Here's Luke a month before his accident, he was a very busy healthy little boy

Here he is with his trache, getting ready to leave the hospital after his 29 day stay



Luke's 2nd Birthday and his last picture with a trache



Here's Luke at one of his many PT appointments and his 3rd Birthday



Luke in his stander and on one of his many camping trips, notice all the equipment needed to take Luke camping



Luke during one of his many times of sickness on lots of oxygen, he has no clothes on because of his high fever & on his first hay ride



Luke's 4th Birthday and in the Torchlight Parade in Seattle




Luke as a lion at our Church's Harvest Party and him in Seattle one day



At the Children's Therapy Unit with Santa and with his favorite PT Sara at the Star's talent show



Luke at the Oregon Science Museum playing in the sand and at the Thunderbird show



First day of PE at the YMCA and at the dentist




Here's Luke getting his face painted at the CTU Christmas party and his 6th Birthday



Here is Luke at a beach bonfire in Oregon and on a hike at Mt. Rainier



Here he is arm wrestling with his OT Eric and hanging out on the beach during our church campout


Here is Luke today on our walk across the Narrows Bridge

As you can see by the pictures Luke has lead a very full and good life these past five years. Has it always been easy, no way, has it always been pain free, no way, has it always been full of smiles, no way. Have we always believed that God is able to heal Luke, YES, have we always had to lean on Jesus for our strength, YES, do we still believe that Luke will walk and talk again one day, YES! We are thankful that we didn't take the Dr.'s advice in the PICU right after his accident, when he told us to take Luke home and let him die in our arms, that Dr. knew the hardships and trying times that we would have with Luke's brain injury. God knew better, He knew we would grow closer to Him than we thought possible, God knew that He would never leave us for a single second, God knew that He would have to give us the strength to get through the many hard days, God knew that He would supply all the money we would need pay all Luke's many medical bills, God knew that He would bring faithful prayer warriors to stand by our sides and not give up praying for Luke's healing and our family, God knew that we would need healing in our family and He faithfully healed us in our desperate moments, GOD KNEW and we trusted Him.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. I've said this numerous times in the past but it can't be said enough that without your faithfulness in keeping our family in your prayers this journey we've been on for these past 5 years would have been nearly impossible to get through. May God richly bless each and every one of you.

Love you so much,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

PS We would love to hear from y'all out there, would you be willing to share your favorite memory from these past 5 years? We would love to hear it!

Luke's doing better, though still has a little bit of pneumonia

Thank you for your prayers last weekend. Luke began to get better on Saturday, which made me so happy, but I was bummed that Gordy had stayed home with him, when I would of rather had him with me at the conference. I'm so glad I was able to go, it was good to remind myself of all the reasons that we chose to homeschool our children. I don't go to those conferences to learn how to homeschool I go to get encouraged and energized to continue on. Amy is also doing much better, though she is still in a lot of pain. Today was a hard day for her as she received her first bill from the Ambulance company, without insurance it's going to take along time to pay it off. I wonder why the cost of a short 15 minute ride in the back of a fancy truck costs over $1100.00 something is desperately wrong with our medical situation in our country right now, I won't go into that discussion right now it would take up pages of this blog.

I took Luke into see his Pulmonologist on Monday, it was an hard appointment for me. After the Dr. listened to Luke's lungs for a few minutes he decided that Luke probably still has a bit of pneumonia in his left lung, Luke was put on another antibiotic and given a short dose of steroids to get over it, hopefully and prayerfully once and for all. It was also decided that we should keep him on a prolonged does of Pulmincort to help get the air in his lungs moving better. Tonight for the first time in so long he has not alarmed once for oxygen needs. I asked his Dr. if there are any other options of way to get Luke to stay pneumonia free and he did mention the T word, but that is only a last option. My heart sunk to the bottom of my shoes when I heard that word mentioned again. Can any of you guess what the T word is??

I'm so glad last week is over. It was a very challenging week to say the least, both Amy and Natalie were at camp and silly me thought it would be fun for the kids to go to VBS. They did have fun, but it was a bit stressful for us in the morning getting them out the door by 8:45. Friday was probably the most stressful day of the week, I was asked to share our story at a Starlight Fundraiser Golf tournament up in Carnation, which was over an hour drive away. Once we got there it went pretty good, they raised $5,000 for Starlight, hurrah! On our way home we got a call from Natalie saying that they were taking Amy to the Hospital in an ambulance, she had fallen off a Motor bike and hurt her shoulder and back. We began to pray immediately and thankfully found out she didn't break anything. We decided it would be best if we went to pick her up at camp, so after being in the van for over an hour, we got home and thankfully my sister was able to watch the kids, while Gordy and I took off to Sequim which was about 2 hours away. Needless to say we spent at least 6 hours in the van that day.

Natalie had her bridal shower on Monday night, it turned out wonderful! There were over 30 ladies there, my sister Jill had it at her home and Cindy helped with the games. Natalie was showered with some wonderful gifts. It's so hard to believe she getting married next month. We are all in for some huge changes, I'm thankful that God has assured me that He will not allow me to go through more than I can handle, lately I've felt I'm close to the end of my rope.

This weekend we are going on a all church camping trip, it should be fun. Please pray that Luke will stay healthy and that the weather will be nice. Next week is going to be overwhelmingly busy to say the least. Silly me planned a "missions trip" to our church, two full days of fixing it up. I'm excited to say that we will have over 40 people who are willing to help out, it will be quite a project, I still need to do the shopping for paint and the supplies for the yard work. I have a good friend coming into to town next week, hoping to go out to lunch with her. I've been asked to do another interview on the radio for the Starlight Foundation in Seattle. We have to make Luke's food on Monday. We are going to be doing Natalie's wedding invitations. The son of a friend of mine is having surgery next week. It's Yoli's birthday on Wednesday and the list goes on and on and on . . . .

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Our family could use some prayers today!

Luke and Amy could use some prayers today. Luke is sick, we started him on a new medication for his lungs earlier in the week and they said it could have some side effects, so we're not sure if that is what we are dealing with or if he's just caught the crud again. We had to drive out to pick up Amy at camp yesterday, she was riding a dirt bike and feel off, she hurt her shoulder really bad. Thankfully nothing was broken, it could of been much worse.

We were supposed to go to a homeschool conference this weekend, the first one Gordy was going to attend in many years. But alas, I'm heading up that way by myself again. I would just skip it but I need to look for some curriculum for the boys for next year.

Would really appreciate some prayers for Amy to have no more pain today and for Luke to make a quick recovery. Thank you so much.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi