The Lord has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

Where, oh where do I begin?? These past few weeks have been filled with lots of good laughter and some sad times with tears. I will begin with the good, Ezekiel celebrated his 9th Birthday, yes I did say 9 years old, so hard to believe. We had a birthday celebration on Sunday after church at Godfather's Pizza Parlor, he then had some friends over to play, he had a super fun day! Then on his birthday I took him out for our special Mom and Birthday child lunch, he chose a Mexican Restaurant where they sang Happy Birthday in Spanish, we had so much fun!

Luke has been doing good lately. I am extremely thankful to say that the whole family is doing great right now, all are healthy, PRAISE GOD!! The only thing that is kind of a bummer lately is that Luke has been waking up on many nights crying and the only thing that will help him go back to sleep is me picking him up and holding him for awhile. I'm hoping and praying that this will not continue on, we both need sleep:} Here are some more pictures of Luke from Josh and Natalie's wedding.

The week after Zeke's birthday was filled with plans of getting ready for our church's women retreat at Leavenworth. It was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of laughter, good prayers times, beautiful scenery, a little bit of shopping, some delicious food and a little bit of restful sleep, I didn't get a lot of it, but what I got was uninterrupted, that made it all the sweeter.

As I was checking up on Luke's prayer links when I got home I noticed that Tori had died on Saturday. Though I never met her or her parents it was really sad to say good bye to her. Tori had a drowning accident a year after Luke and I faithfully checked up on her and prayed for her these last 4 years. Then on Monday I lost a friend to cancer, Pastor Pollock who also had a prayer link on the side went to be with Jesus after a courageous battle with cancer. He left behind his sweet wife Susan and their 9 children ranging from 20 - 2 years old. God has been teaching me how to weep with those that weep, I would much rather rejoice with those that rejoice, for that is easy to do. God sometimes calls us to do the hard things in life and we are rewarded by knowing that through our obedience we receive amazing blessings from him. My heart has also been burdened as I found out a dear friend of mine, Jeanette has thyroid cancer, I have been crying out to God to heal her and am believing for a miracle touch from Jesus. This verse in the Bible has brought me great comfort lately:

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into
singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people,
and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
Isaiah 49:13

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke's better Praise God! Now I need to get my act together to get out of here soon.

Luke made a speedy recovery yesterday, Praise God! I'm getting ready to go on our church's women's retreat here soon. Just got to get my act together before I leave, I still have quite a bit to do. You know like finishing the laundry and putting it away, packing myself, picking out all the kids clothes for church on Sunday as Gordy will have enough on his plate just getting them out of the door by himself on time, bathing and feeding Luke, getting the other kids fed and ready to start school and the list goes on . . . Do you think I will be able to get out of here in 2 hours?? I hope so.

I would sure appreciate your prayers for Luke to stay healthy this weekend and that Gordy will be able to get some great sleep each night. Also for our retreat to go wonderfully and for women's lives to be changed this weekend.

Love you all so much and appreciate your prayers,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Trusting in Jesus today to reach down and heal Luke, as he is very sick once again.

I was so tired last night I went to bed early, that is early for me. I was in such a deep sleep that when I woke up the first time to Luke's alarm going off I couldn't remember where I was. I was thinking what is that noise, then I realized it was Luke alarming, I got up and wondered where to find him, weird huh, I guess it just shows how deeply I was sleeping. Needless to say Luke is very sick again. We took him to church last night, which we rarely do and I guess it wasn't the best choice. His heart rate has been soaring way to high all night, which usually means he has a high fever, it was up to 103.5 at one time after giving him some Ibuprofen, stripping him down to his diaper and uncovering him it finally went down to normal. He has been on at least 1 liter of oxygen for the past few hours. Bottom line is he needs prayer.

For the past 5 months my sister Jill, myself and a few other women have been planning a women's retreat at a little Bavarian town called Leavenworth. The theme of the weekend is Trust Walk, learning to trust Jesus through the good and hard times in our lives. Since we decided on this theme we have been tested in truly trusting Jesus, time and time again. Jill's husband John was laid off from his job, Yoli's husband came up on orders to move to San Antonio, TX, Natalie got married, Luke has been battling lots of bouts of pneumonia, we have all been tested in one way or another these past few months. Learning to trust Jesus in the good times is so easy, during the trying times it's a lot harder, but so worth it! I'm trusting and believing that God is going to reach down and heal Luke today, as I have so much to do before tomorrow. Would you join with me in prayer that God will heal Luke today and give me a peace about leaving Gordy home with all the kids this weekend and most importantly that God will teach us all how to completely trust Him no matter what is going on in our lives.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi