I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, Luke got his trach out and is doing great!

I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart? Where? Down in my heart. I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, down in my heart to stay and I’m so happy, yes, so very happy, I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart and I’m so happy, so very happy, Luke got his trach out yesterday. That was the song that I sang on the way home from the Hospital yesterday. To say that I am happy is putting it mildly, I would like to announce to the world God's goodness to our family is great!

God is so good all the time! Let me begin by going back to the day of the bronchoscopy procedure. As the nurse was going over the directions for the procedure, nothing was said about getting his trach out, which is called decanulation. So Gordy asked her about why it was not written on the paper, she said not to sign the paper and have us wait for the Dr. to explain what was going to happen that morning. When he came in to go over what would be happening, we brought up the fact that decanulation was not mentioned on the paper and asked why. He said that he didn’t want to put it down because he was not sure if Luke was ready to get his trach out, so we asked how will we know if he is ready. He said if there was not any scarring tissue or granulation in his bronchial and if he could handle swallowing and breathing without the trach he would try to take it out, but he sounded doubtful. I just could not become discouraged, because I truly believed in my heart that Luke was going to get his trach out that day, I had such peace in my heart, though satan tried to steal it continually.

I was asked if I would like to stay in the room during the procedure and I said sure, so I was able to pray right behind Luke the entire time and watch as the scope was happening. I did not see any scarring or anything but beautiful pink tissue as he would go down different parts of the bronchia’s. They took out the trach and he was having a difficult time breathing for just a few minutes and the Dr. that was giving him his IV and monitoring his vital signs made the comment that he thought that if it was left out he would be seeing Luke that night in the Intensive Care Unit, I began to pray all the harder and went over to Luke since he was awake and talked with him, he began to settle down with his breathing when he knew I was there and his stats began to look good and the Dr. changed his mind. They both said that they guessed he could try to keep the trach out and that they were guardedly optimistic. I told them that I would take the optimistic part of that and that I was praying that we would be leaving there the next morning with out a trach. As the Dr. who made the comment about seeing him that night left he said to Gordy, we may be seeing you tonight, Gordy replied to him why are you planning to stop by his room for a visit? He just gave Gordy a funny smile and left.

It was wonderful having the peace of God, that only He can give that morning and know that because I felt the Lord had told me that Luke was going to get his trach out it was going to happen. No matter what the Dr.’s said, or what the circumstances looked like. I was so excited to also be told by the pulmonologist that Luke’s muscle tone is doing so much better and he is looking so good. That was like putting another happy song in my already joyful heart.

Thank you for your prayers. The hospital stay was great. We had many people stop by with tears in their eye’s rejoicing with us that Luke is doing so wonderful. My sister Cindy was with us through out the day helping with Lily and Luke and then in the evening my wonderful friend Yoli, came to help with night duty again. She had been there every night while Luke was in the hospital the original time. We had a great night praying, watching Luke, while doing our Bible study and testifying to our night nurse. My sister Jill was also able to stop by for a quick visit in the evening. I knew that I would not be able to sleep much because they said the only way we would be dismissed to go the next morning is if Luke’s oxygen levels stayed above 90 all night. So I only got about two hours of sleep. Luke did great, once again showing that God was with him each step of the way.

I have one last wonderful thing to tell all of you. During the procedure Gordy stayed in the waiting area and while he was praying for Luke, he once again gave him to the Lord. As he was praying the Lord showed him a wonderful dream; as he symbolically put Luke in the arms of Jesus, Jesus just reached down and gave him a kiss and it looked like he breathed a breath of life into Luke, then he set Luke down on the ground and Luke ran back to Gordy. Gordy felt like the Lord then said to him I am the Lord that is healing Luke. Gordy and I were in tears as he shared this with me after the procedure, knowing that we continue to see a miracle in process.

Luke is doing great, our biggest prayer requests right now are that God will keep him healthy and that he will not get any infection in the trach hole. Also that he will continue to have a strong cough to get out any remaining secretions in his chest so that it won’t go into bronchitis or pnemonia. May God richly bless you today and just know that He loves you more than you can even imagine.

Love in Christ,
Luke’s Mommy Sue

Luke sitting with Dad after arriving home.

Luke with Natalie at home

Lily trying out Luke's hospital bed.

Luke sleeping peacefully last night.

Luke and Amy sitting in his room. Look at me, no trach, WooHoo!!

Mom holding Luke in his hospital room

Luke with Dad just after getting his trach removed

On the table just before the procedure is due to start

Mom waiting with Luke before the procedure

Isaiah reading a book to Luke the night before

I am ready to leave this place without my trach.

Mom and Luke sitting on the couch after arriving back home

Luke and Lily sitting on the swing a few days earlier.

Update on Luke

Luke has had a fever all afternoon. The doctor said that this was possible due to the procedure. Luke has been able to maintain his oxygen saturation at a level that is acceptable. His doctor just stopped by and said it looks good and Luke should be able to go home tomorrow. Please continue to pray for Luke to cough and swallow the secretions allowing him to clear the secretions. I will blog some pictures this evening when I get home.

IT'S OUT!!!!!!

Luke has finally got his trach out!!!!!!! The doctors are guardedly optimitic about his keeping the trach out. Luke will spend the night in the hospital for observation. Please pray that he will adjust to having his trach out and breath well. If all goes well he will go home tommorrow leaving the trach behind.

Counting down the hours until Luke's trach is gone

We are counting down the hours to Luke’s trach removal. I knew that it would be here someday and I’m so excited it’s tomorrow. We will leave our home at 6:30 a.m. and the procedure will start at 8:00 a.m. Please keep Luke in your prayers as they have to start an IV at 7:00 a.m. for the sedation that they will need to give him. The whole thing should be done by 9:00 a.m. at the latest and then if all goes well we will be transferred to the Hospital for our overnight stay and be home Wednesday morning by 10 a.m. I’m trying hard not to be nervous or anxious, but I’ll be honest it’s hard. I’ve been thinking about the old song “God is Moving, By His Spirit”, it goes something like this, God is moving by His Spirit, moving over all the earth, signs and wonders when God moveth, move oh Lord in me. I truly do feel his peace and words can’t even begin to tell how excited I am.

We will take pictures tomorrow and let you all know how everything is going. I will be staying the night with Luke and Lily and Gordy will come home to be with the other kids, so he will be able to blog tomorrow night. Thank you once again for your continued prayers and support, we have felt them so strongly and continue to need them.

Love in Christ,
Luke’s Mommy Sue

One week and counting until Luke's trach comes out

It’s hard to believe it’s only one more week until Luke is scheduled to get his trach out. This is so big for Luke and our family that we feel we need some extra prayers from the ones of you that know how to do some spiritual warfare. I know that God continues to heal Luke, but I’ll be honest I sometimes struggle with my mind that doubts that it will come anytime soon. It’s hard to explain how I feel at times, I continue to feel the Lord asking me if I trust Him and I have to examine my heart each day as I tell Him that I do trust Him and His perfect plan for my life and Luke’s life.

We will be going through some big changes after Luke gets his trach out. We will lose our wonderful nurses so I will have to be so much more disciplined to get all I need to do each day in my schedule. Though his care will be much easier without his trach we will still need to get his neuro program, massage, feeding’s which take a lot of time, along with all the other children’s schedules that I juggle on a daily basis done. I find such comfort in my favorite scripture at times like these, Corinthians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Today as I was reading a little devotional book that I read daily, I was reminded once again that Jesus is actually in Heaven interceding for me daily, as it says this in Hebrews 7. I began to thank the Lord for his prayers and found comfort to know that not only do I have many wonderful people praying for me and Luke daily, I also have my precious Heavenly Father praying for me. I find great peace in knowing that the Lord cares so much for me that He finds time to pray for me when I ask Him to. All you have to do is ask Jesus to pray for you and He will, I hope that you find that exciting.

Luke is doing awesome with his bolis feeding it is not taking as long to feed him as it used too, which I’m so thankful for. Please continue to pray for him to be able to swallow better so that he can begin to enjoy eating and drinking through his mouth again. Getting rid of his G-J tube will be our next huge step, I know that it will happen when God allows it to. Also please be praying that God will keep our family healthy. Both Isaiah and Zeke have been battling runny noses and have not been sleeping to well. Zeke woke up a few minutes ago with what sounded a little like a croupy cough. I pray daily that God will surround our family with a hedge of protection and give us good health and I’m so thankful that He answers my prayers. It is so important that Luke stays healthy this next week as he prepares to get his trach out.

My prayer for you today is that you will find the same peace that I have in serving God as your personal Lord and Savior, He’s just waiting to be asked into your heart today, if you haven’t done so already. John 3:16 says For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. He’s just waiting to give you eternal life, what a precious and priceless gift that is!

Love in Christ,
Luke’s Mommy Sue

Luke is scheduled to get his Trach out on April 26th

Today was a blessed day. I received a call from the pulmonologist office asking how Luke was doing with the capping of his trach. I told him that he is basically wearing it almost all day with the exception of some suctioning from time to time. She decided that since he was doing so well that she would schedule Luke for a bronchial scope on April 26th. If all looks good they will then take out his trach. I can’t even begin to believe that I’m finally saying these words and yet I can because I know without a shadow of a doubt that God is going to completely restore Luke back to the way he was before the accident. After I hung up the phone and called Gordy to share the good news, I broke down and began to give thanks to the Lord. I felt such an awesome presence of God and was filled with His joy and peace. I would ask that you would specifically pray that God will keep Luke healthy, that I will continue to believe that God is able to allow this to happen and not doubt that it will and that everything will go smoothly on April 26th the day it is scheduled to happen.

Just so you know we will go in at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday the 26th, they will have to put in an IV, which I’m not looking forward to and then once he receives a breathing treatment with a numbing product they will put him to sleep to perform the procedure. If all looks good they will take out his trach and if he handles it okay, they will admit him into the Hospital over night to keep an eye on how he handles being without a trach. Needless to say I’m not looking forward to a overnight stay in the Hospital, but I know that with God I can do all things because he gives me the strength to get through them.

Luke is having another good week. He is taking his food so much better in his g-tube and he’s doing so much better with his arms relaxing. We are getting so much more of his nuero program done now that we are more scheduled during his days. He seems to enjoy all his exercises and is getting so much more flexible the more we do them.

Gordy and I were talking the other night about all that we have to be thankful for and we began to realize it we are so extremely blessed. Let me challenge you about something that Gordy and I learned years ago about giving. When God lays it on our heart to bless someone financially we are always excited about doing it and this past week we were blessed to get a good income tax return, so we decided to bless some people we know. Needless to say we were once again blessed with a large check from some dear family members, we jokingly, but very realistically said that we just can’t seem to give our money away because each time we do God always blesses us with more. You should try it yourself you will be amazed at God’s goodness to you as you give.

You are amazing to us as you continue to lift up our Lukie and family to God in your prayers each day. Thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts, for being a part of Luke’s miracle.

Love in Christ,
Luke’s Mommy Sue

Slowly, steadily and surely God continues to work in Luke's life

I wrote this yesterday on the 7th, but I was unable to publish it because the blog was down, Gordy and I are talking about changing this to a web site, we will keep you posted on what we decide.

Today we celebrated Isaiah’s 6th birthday, I continue to be amazed at how fast my children are growing up. It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital rejoicing at the fact that God had once again blessed me with another baby after 10 years without one. It was a great day and Luke just loved having all the people over to our home.

Luke is doing great tonight, his oxygen numbers and heart rate look wonderful. After many nights last week of having to give him oxygen he’s finally holding steady on his own. I was beginning to wonder if Luke was ready for the capping of his trach, because he has had a lot more secretions lately. Which means we have to wipe his nose and mouth off continually or suction his trach out quite often. My mind was put to ease though after talking to my dear friend Tiffany, her daughter who had a very similar accident just got her trach out March 3rd and she said that she went through the exact same thing of increased secretions, which her Dr. told her was normal.

We were able to get rid of 3 more machines this past week. I vividly remember the day that we came home from the Hospital as I looked around Luke’s room with all the machines that we needed for him. I knew in my heart that one day we would be able to get rid of them, not realizing at the time that God would take us down a road of slow recovery rather than an instantaneous healing. Needless to say we only have 5 more machines to go and when we get his trach out we will get rid of two more of them right away.

We decided to start cutting Luke’s muscle relaxant medicine. We’ve been diligently working with him daily on massage and cross patterning exercises and they are doing a great job of keeping his muscle so much more relaxed and helping them to release the tension that holds them so tightly. He is becoming much more alert, in fact when I took him to a HBOT session on Tuesday, Jim the attendant was amazed at how much more alert he was that day. It looked like he was wiping his nose and kept touching his face as a comfort measure while he was in the machine.

I would like to share one last thing with you all. My precious Godly mom was here the other day helping Amy and Natalie with their Grammar and spelling, which is an answer to prayer for me, and while she was at the table she looked over and saw Luke looking around the room as if it was his first time seeing it. She felt within her heart that the Lord was telling her that she was seeing a miracle in action. As she began to ponder this thought she felt as though she heard the Lord say to her that she was blessed to be a part of our family as we are seeing this miraculous touch from God on a daily basis. She felt the Lord tell her that not all people get to see a miracle such as we are seeing unfold before our very eyes. She thought just as people plant flowers, they cannot see what is happening under the ground as God grows it up through the dirt. This is exactly what God is doing with Luke we can not always see what is happening on the inside, we just have to trust that God is working His beautiful plan in Luke’s life. I continue to keep on believing that Luke will one day be completely and totally restored to what he was before his accident, though there are days that I have to cling onto my faith in God because I can’t see with His eyes what He is doing each day in Luke’s body, mind and spirit. It is not easy this road that we are on, but we are confident that He who began a good work will complete it!

Once again thank you for your continued support and prayers. It must be discouraging for you at times to turn to our page and see that Luke is not walking or talking yet. Just be encouraged to know that God continues to hear our prayers and Luke is getting better slowly, steadily and surely. I am so glad that you are a part of our miracle!

Love in Christ,
Luke’s Mommy Sue

Here's Luke on his 2nd Birthday

Lily, do you mind if I take a nap?

Here's Ezekiel reading a book to Luke, Luke loves to be read to.

Isaiah's giving Lukie a lovey on Easter day

We had a great time at the ocean even though it was very windy and cold.

God has blessed Luke with knee caps again!

I hope that you had a blessed Easter weekend. Ours was filled with family and friends, just what we treasure most. We are excited to report to you that Luke has knee caps once again, his legs were so rigid and straight for so long that his knee's actually dimpled, where they should of had a bend and rounded knee cap. As many of you know we've been praying that his legs would begin to bend once again and they have been. We've been faithfully messaging him and doing the new exercises that we were taught and they are working, along with his very expensive leg splints. You never realize just how much medical things cost until you go through the experience of needing them. We are talking over $7,000 for the splints and appts to have them fitted. Once again we are so thankful for the different gifts from people to take the financial stress off us for the cost of Luke's supplies and HBOT treatments. We are so blessed!

Luke is finally getting better after his ear infection and whatever else was bothering him last week. He had a hard week of not sleeping as well because of his oxygen rates dropping, not eating as well as he had been and just not very energetic. We had to cancel quite a few of his PT appts because he just wasn't up to going. I'm so thankful that we have been taught exercises and things to be doing at home with him. We are always asked if we want more activities for Luke or whether he is getting enough stimulation at home. We always just chuckle a bit as we answer yes to these questions and no we don't need anymore services in our home.

We decided to start cutting some of our nursing hours, this was not an easy thing to do, but we are feeling like we need to start since we will lose them after his trach is out. We've decided to go down to 3 nights this week and cut one day, going down to 4 days a week. We told them up front in the hospital and at the nursing agency our goal is to do Luke's full care, after seeing how much help these nurses have been we realized that for a season our nurses have been a huge blessing. Now that Luke sleeps through most nights and his alarms are not going off all the time it is much easier to do his care at night. Please be praying that God will continue to bless him with good sleep and help me with my scheduling during the day to get all this appts and therapies into my schedule. We did finally get back to scheduling our older girls with there school work and this has been helping them and me immensely to get so much more accomplished each day.

Continue to pray that Luke will be able to tolerate the capping process of his trach without much stress or undue coughing. He had been doing awesome, as we reported on not having so much secretions for quite awhile and then this past week when he got sick he had not only major amounts of secretions, but also some blood coming out of his trach. It made me feel so helpless as I watched us take another step back and I'm praying that this week we will make huge strides in this area of Luke's healing process. I'm continually reminding myself to stay thankful for the progress that Luke has made and not to wish that he is farther along in his healing. The scripture from Habakkuk 2:2 & 3 that I've quoted daily for months has and continues to be my greatest comfort as I feel that God has given me this scripture to cling onto tightly.

As Gordy and I were praying today before he left for work, as we do each day, for God's protection and that we will be used of Him. I was praying and you know what I realized? Have you ever heard of the prayer of Jabez? For a while a book by Bruce Wilkinson called the prayer of Jabez was real popular, and I happened to read it, the prayer of Jabez is from the Bible:
I Chronicles 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying. "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.
Anyway I began to pray this prayer for the Lord to enlarge my territories and to bless me indeed and I realized this morning that is just what the Lord has done. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would reach people around the world with a testimony of how God has blessed me indeed by bringing my son back to life and as He continues the miracle of daily healing his brain to work again. God is faithful and He will hear us as we prayer and He will answer our prayers as so many of you have seen in our journey through this healing process. As you know God doesn't love me more than you and if you have a prayer request just ask Him today, He will listen and answer your prayers. God Bless you today!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Thank You for Praying

We took Luke to the Dr and discovered that he had an ear infection and this was the source of the fever. He has been on antibiotics for a couple days and is feeling much better.

Yesterday we received a cap to begin the process of capping his trach. If Luke can tolerate capping for 24 hours that will be a good indication that he should be able to have his trach removed. It is not a guarantee, he still will need to have the bronchoscopy (sp?) go well. So far so good, he seems to tolerate it just fine. We didnt leave it on too long today with Luke still recovering from being sick.

Yesterday I called home on the drive home from work and Sue was feeding Luke a variety of flavors and she began laughing. I asked her what was so funny and she said they had given Luke a taste of lemon and the face he was making was very funny. Then they gave him some chocolate and he really liked that. No big surprise there, his Mom loves chocolate, so it has to be in his genes.

With Easter just around the corner, I hope you and your family experience the joy and peace that comes from knowing the risen savior. He Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed! Happy Easter from the Searles family.

A busy week and a long night

Well, it has been a long night. Luke is running a fever and this causes his heart and breathing to be elevated. Sue stayed up with Luke for quite a while and now it is my turn.

Many of you are probably wondering how the Neurologist appoinment went. Well, it went okay, the Dr wants to do a 24 hour EEG to make sure Luke doesnt have any seizures before taking him off of the anti-seizure medicine. While this is not what we were hoping for, the good news is the last EEG showed no seizures. It did have a lot of activity on it that was not normal, but it didnt show any seizures. Unfortunately, we wont be able to take Luke off the medicine for a few more months, due to how long it takes to schedule the 24 hour EEG and then wait for the follow up Dr visit.

Needless to say, we were a bit disappointed after the Dr visit and so we decided to take a break from it all and go to the ocean for the afternoon. Daniel's friend Josh was visiting and he had never seen any ocean. It was cool to see Josh's face light up with excitement as he saw the Pacific ocean for the first time. We had a great time and even raced go karts.

The rest of the week has been busy with the usual PT, HBOT, work, taking care of a busy house, etc. Life flies by at 100 miles per hour and when I dont believe it, all I have to do is look at little Lilly. She is not quite so little any longer, in fact she turns 3 months today.

I have two different friends that could use your prayer. I wont go into any details, as I havent asked either one if I could share. I know if you just pray for Gordy's friends, God will know what you mean. In fact He knows better then anyone what they need. Who knows, maybe you will get blessed as you pray for Gordy's friends, because you are one of my friends :)

As always, God bless you and your family.

A great and busy week to report about

Where do I begin to tell you all the good news of the week. As you know Luke turned 2 on Thursday and had a great day. I took him to the YMCA to see his brothers swim and just spend some fun time with him. He had a great time listening to the kids in there. He loves to be around people and just listen to all the activity going on around him.

As usual it was a busy week, filled with therapies, Dr. appointments and all the other tasks to do for a big family. Tuesday we had a PT appt. that went great Luke is already to a #3 bend on his leg splints, this has surprised both us and his PT we never dreamed he be progressing as fast as he is although a part of me expected it because I told our PT that people all over the world are praying for Luke to bend his knees.

After our PT appt. we went to our Pulmonologist appt. I knew when we went in that Luke had a cough that he needed to get out, this happens rarely, of course it had to happen while we were there. At first when the Dr. listened to his lungs while covering his trach he seemed congested and labored breathing, the second the Dr. took his finger off the trach he let out a big cough. I suctioned him and the Dr. listened once again and said that he sounded much better and was more comfortable having his trach covered. We left there with great hope that we will be getting his trach out next month if all goes well with the capping process, he said we could start covering his trach, as soon as we get the cap. If the bronchial scope looks good and he does okay when they take out his trach then he will leave the Hospital the next day without his trach. Please be praying that he will be able to wear his cap all the time and that the bronchial scope will be in God's perfect timing.

It's interesting that after our appointment I was feeling kind of mixed, because Gordy asked what would happen if he did not do okay during the bronchial scope and the Dr. said that we would have to wait another 6 months to try again, unless there was very visible changes in Luke's neurological status. I began to doubt that all would go smoothly and began to borrow trouble as I worried about what would happen to our trip, etc. etc. When I got home I picked up a little devotional book I read every day and wouldn't you know it the scripture for the day was from Hebrews 11, which happens to be the faith chapter of the Bible. In verse 35 it says Women received their dead raised to life again., this was one of the many verses given to me the day after Luke's accident to give me hope for a future for Luke. Just as I cried out to the Lord the right after Luke drowned and was said to be dead, I began to cry out to the Lord to raise him from the dead just as he raised Lazareth in the Bible from the dead. I know that the policeman that was watching me thought that I was going crazy, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God could do it for me as he had done for Lazareth, because I know that God's Word says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Therefore what He's done in the past can happen again. It was shortly after that that we got the call from Gordy saying that he had come back to life. So I guess I say this to say I knew in my heart that God was giving me a peace to know that He is continuing His healing process, because I have the faith to believe in Him and know that He will finish what was began on that wonderful day that He brought Luke back to life.

Wednesday, was also a great day as we went to have an adjustment done on Luke's leg splints and the man doing the adjustment said that he was amazed at his progress, he never thought Luke would be where he is by now. God is showing himself to be mighty to all that are involved in Luke's care and healing process. We went from there to the Gastronologist, he said that Luke is doing great and looks great and we don't have to go back for another visit for 6 months.

On Friday afternoon I received a call from Luke's pediatrician, he said that he had got the results from a blood panel that Luke had drawn on Tuesday. He said that all of it looks great and that the only thing it showed that we need to adjust is his seizure medicine. I asked him if he had received the results from his EEG and he said that he would look it up. Needless to say he told me that it shows some irregularities, but he did not see any definite seizure activity, I asked him if we could stop his seizure medicine because we have never seen a seizure since the Hospital and I'm tired of assuming he is going to have seizures and he said that would be fine if our Neurologist agree's on Monday. Our last big appointment is on Monday morning early when we will be meeting with his Neurologist for the first time since the Hospital. I'm giving this appt. to the Lord, because to be honest I could be very nervous about it, I'm crying out to the Lord once again that He will allow Luke to be taken off his seizure medicine since it inhibits good brain activity. We are also going to be getting an evaluation at the Speech therapist on Wednesday morning I'm praying that this will go good and that she will help us figure out some ways to really begin to be able to communicate with Luke. He is already letting us know when he is not feeling well, hurt and at time happy, which is great progress.

Well if you've gotten this far in the blog you truly are a faithful friend, because this blog has gone on forever. Sorry there's just so much to report to you. I've already requested specific prayer requests in the blog, therefore I'm going to close this off and get to bed before midnight. Have a blessed Sunday and I pray that you will feel God in a special way in your life today!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Happy Birthday Luke!!!!

There is great joy in the Searles’ house today as we celebrate Luke’s 2nd birthday. I want to take a moment to Thank God for Luke’s life.

“Thank You Lord for giving us Luke 2 years ago today. Thank You Lord for the blessing that Luke has been to our family. And Thank You Lord for giving Luke back to us as you raised him from the dead. May Luke know You and follow after You with all his heart, soul and being. Lord, blessed be Your Holy Name! Amen.”

Thank You for praying for Luke. I continue to be amazed at how many people are praying for Luke and our family on a regular basis. May God bless you with great joy as you follow Him. Blessings from the Searles’ family.

We're happy to celebrate Luke's 2nd Birthday this week!

This week has once again been a week of real highs and lows for me. We hit the 6 month anniversary mark since the accident and it was kind of rough for me as I once again thought about how much I miss my little precious Lukie that used to run around and keep us all so busy. I'm so thankful for the Lord sparing his life and at times I feel bad wishing He would do more for us quicker. I have sooo much to be thankful because I know that God is moving in Luke's life and in others as they have shared with us how they grown closer to God in praying for Luke.

We have some good news to report. We met with a Christian neuro developmentalist on Saturday and we're greatly encouraged by her evaluation of Luke. She said that given what Luke has been through he is doing great. She told us that his brain is working better than we think. She saw him respond to a request almost immediately after asking him to look me in the eyes she said that it was very fast, that quite often in brain injuries there is a delay in following directions and that she didn't see this in him. She set us up with an intense program to help Luke with quite a few area's in his development. She said that it would be good to find someone that likes to organize things put together a schedule of people that would like to help us with the different things that we need to do each day to help Luke get better. Over the past months I've had people ask me what they could do to help, well happily I can finally say that we will take any help you can commit to. The only thing that we ask is that you try to make a firm commitment to the time you want to help so that we can all use our time wisely. There are things that we can be doing with Luke that will sometimes take up to 5 people at a time to help with. It felt so good to hear her say that she thought that Gordy and I have done everything right in helping Luke get better. We give all the praise to God for His wisdom in directing our steps in helping Him with Luke's healing.

Luke has had a great week. He got to go to one of his favorite places, Miss Yoli's home on Friday. It was the first time that he has gone to someone's home without me since the accident. He had a great time as did Yoli and her kids. We also took him to the park on Sunday after church. He seemed so alert to all the noises and things going on around him and had such a pleasant face.

This next week will be another busy week of appointments. On Tuesday he has his pulmonologist appointment, we are praying that his lungs will be clear and that his Dr. will say we can schedule his bronchial scope to see if his lungs are okay to have his trach removed. He also has a PT appt that day. Then on Wednesday he has an appt. to get his leg braces adjusted a little. He has been doing great with them he is already at the second notch at keeping a little bend in his knee, you see, you all pray and God answers, isn't He so awesome! After that appt. we have an appt. with the gastronologist, I'm hoping that we can even begin to put more of his food into his G-tube which is his stomach, he has been doing so well at taking his food this past week. No appointments on Thursday since it is his Birthday. Then one more appt. on Friday with the PT. On Saturday we are planning his Birthday party. I get so emotional thinking about how thankful I am to God that we are celebrating his 2nd Birthday. God is so good!

We were once again blessed this week by receiving a package from Australia, thank you to the Gannaway family, they have been praying for Luke along with all of you since they first heard about him. The most wonderful thing in the box was a special pillow case they made with scriptures that we've shared on the blog with you all that have meant so much to us. I cried with joy as I looked at the pillow case, we are so blessed, to have all of you join us in praying for Luke. As the Bible says, The prayers of a righteous man or woman availeth much, we are definitely seeing the answers to your prayers so please don't stop going before our Heavenly Father with your petitions for Luke. Thank you for continuing to pray, may God richly bless you today!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Lot's of Birthday's and good stuff to report

Thank you for your responses to our question in regard to our trip across America. As you continue to think of more places, feel free to continue to add them to our list.

Our family once again had a very busy week. Saturday we celebrated Natalie's 16th Birthday, it's so hard to believe she's 16, it seems that she was just a baby yesterday. On Sunday after church we celebrated my Dad's 75th Birthday, the Lord has blessed him with great health and amazing vitality. Then on Monday night we celebrated Gordy's Birthday, needless to say we had a lot of company over the weekend. Luke so enjoys having company here, he just sits with us in the living room and enjoys all the talking and laughing going on. Luke's Birthday is on March 10th, I am so thankful that God chose to bring Luke back to life so that he could have many years of Birthday's to come.

Luke has had a good week until today. He had 3 HBOT sessions, Gordy took him on Monday since he had the day off, then I took him on Tuesday and Gordy and I went again on Thursday night. On Wednesday he got his new leg splints, we are hoping that the splints will help to get a bend back into his knees. It was interesting that when they were put on for the final fitting, he actually groaned letting us know that he was not liking them put on. While it is so hard as a mom to have things done to your child that you know they don't like, in the end we praying that it will truly help him and make him feel better. It was also great seeing him display emotion again, though it was sad to hear him groan. He went to PT after getting the splints and once again did a great job there. He was reaching for the toy in front of him as he was asked to and he also did a awesome job of keeping his head up while being bounced on a ball.

Today was a hard day for Luke. Last night when we got home from the HBOT session we noticed that Luke's oxygen level was low and as the night continued on we had to keep oxygen going on him and his heart rate was soaring very high to very low. We knew he was not feeling well and then we found out he had a temperature, so once again we had to make a Dr.'s appt. He has a ear infection and he is already doing much better. His heart rate is once again down and we have not had to put him on oxygen at all so far tonight. God is touching him once again. I continue to believe and know in my heart that God is healing Luke, though at times I so wish that it could be completed today. I know that God is taking us down this road to a slow recovery and look forward each day to the new things that he is doing not only in Luke's life, but also in my own life as I have to go daily to Him to get my strength.

Thank you once again for your continued prayers. Things to keep in mind as you pray for Luke, we have his next pulmonologist appt. on March 8th, be praying that God keeps his lungs clear and that he continues to do great on his passy muir valve so that we can move on with the plans to get his trach out. Please continue to pray that God will touch Luke's legs and allow them to bend once again, his arms and hands are doing great and moving so much more during the day and at night they are now limp, this was not so before, so I know that God is moving in His body. Also pray that God will help me with my schedule as you can imagine some days are overwhelming with his appts, keeping up with the other children, staying on top of the daily chores that we have and getting enough sleep. I want to do all that I can for Luke to get better and it is hard finding a balance sometimes with all that we can be doing for him. You are all so wonderful and we continue to be amazed at your kindness and support to us. May God richly bless you today!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Must see...trip across America

As many of you know we are planning a trip across the US for end of August through September. Our plans are to purchase a trailer later this year that we will tow behind our van. We are interested in hearing from you what you consider to be a must see in your part of the country. As an example, if you ever come to Washington State, you have to go take a hike at Mt. Rainier and visit Mt. St Helens. If you have time, take a ride to the top of Seattle Space Needle or a boat ride on Puget Sound. Please include your name with your suggestion, that way if we want to follow up, we can.

New Years Newsletter

For the past several years, we have sent out a newsletter at Christmas. This year with waiting for Lily and getting ready for Christmas, we decided to do a New Years newsletter instead. I have posted the pictures and paragraphs that composed our newsletter. Sorry that this wasnt posted closer to New Years, however here it is and I hope you enjoy it.

Happy New Year!!!

Dear Family & Friends,
We wanted to wait for Lily's arrival, therefore we are sending a New Years letter instead of a Christmas letter this year.

Gordy...

I have been at REI 15 years on January 11th, 2005. I will receive a 4 week paid sabbatical in addition to my normal 4 weeks of vacation. We think we will take a trip at the end of summer and hope to do some traveling. We are not sure where we are going to go, although we do hope to visit with some of you as we travel. I have been a manager at REI for the past 7 years and I recently decided to go back to a technical role, let's face it, I am a techie at heart. This change in roles will allow me to be able to better maintain a balance between work and home. In the picture, I am looking out of a HyperBaric chamber that I recently went into with our youngest son Luke. HyperBaric Oxygenation Therapy (HBOT for short) is a form of treatment that we hope will help Luke recover from his near drowning. As a result of Luke's accident I created this blog to keep family and friends informed of Luke's status. It has been a blessing to be able to share with so many and to feel the love and encouragement in return. We have made many new friendships as well as renewing old ones and we thank God for each one of them.

Sue...

I went to Romania, in March with a Women's team to help put on a Women's conference to bless the women there. I was able to go visit a very small church out in the country. I am pictured with a farmer's wife in front of their tractor that they asked me to pray a blessing over. I keep busy at home with the kids, homeschooling and keeping things running smoothly around the home. We had a wonderful time going to Mexico to pick up the kids, going to Disneyland, and visiting our friends the Hurtado's. This year has been a year of extreme ups and downs. I'm so thankful that God chose to spare Luke's life, there have been times of growing as I'm learning daily to trust in the Lord with all of my heart and not to lean on my own understanding. I would choose to have Luke healed completely today, but God has chosen to take us down a slow road of recovery, I know that he has used the blog to minister to many people and to bring them closer to God. I've had to learn more about Trachs, meds, and caring for a severely handicapped child then I ever wanted to know. I'm praying that this year will be a year of healing for Luke and our family and that He will continue to give us the strength to get through each and every day. I would like to thank all of you that have kept us in your prayers, they keep us going!

Daniel...

The majority of last year was spent working at Manke Lumber. I basically was grunt labor for eight months; it was altogether a good experience. I quit my job at the end of July so that I could go to Mexico in August and afterward attend Generation Training Center at Destiny Christian Center in Centralia, Washington. In Mexico we helped a local church in Rosarito put on a major outreach. It was rewarding to see the fruit of our labor. Two weeks after my return I started GTC. GTC is a leadership training school where we are trained to lead others in every capacity of life. It is a mix of accredited bible classes, personal discipleship, and ministry to others. Please be praying for my fellow classmates and me as we will be going to Scotland in May for two weeks. We will be ministering freely to kids in the schools of Glasgow as well as having public meetings in a rented hall. I am looking forward to this next year and am excited to see what it brings. As you can see in the picture I was blessed with a new room, thank you to all who made it possible. God Bless!

Amy...

2004 was an awesome year for me, I turned 17 and I am in 11th grade. I was able to go to Romania with my mom, Aunt Jill, Aunt Cindy, Uncle Tom and women from all over the world. We had an outreach to the women there and I was able to help with the little baby (pictured with me) while his parents went to some of the workshops and services we offered. I fell in love with the Romanian people and would love to go back to minister again sometime in the future. I continue to stay busy taking Piano lessons, singing in the YMCA Choir and teaching a swimming class at the YMCA. I also helped out at the church teaching the 4 & 5 year old class on Wednesday nights and once again wrote and directed our Christmas Play. I went to Mexico with our church in August and was gone for almost a month by the time we got home from visiting our friends the Hurtado's. I've learned a lot about taking care of Luke, at the Hospital I learned how to do his Trach care and also how to administer his medications, and I'm now able to help when my mom and dad are away

Natalie...

I turned 15 this year and I'm in 10th grade. I've had a busy year helping my Mom and Dad during the trip my Mom and Amy took to Romania. I continue to take Piano lessons, sing in the YMCA Homeschool Choir and I've been learning how to play a mean game of racquetball. I got braces put on my teeth in July. In August I went on my first missions trip to Mexico with the Daniel, Amy and our Church Youth Group it was a time of stretching as we had to ride on a hot bus for 3 days, sleep on the ground, using an outhouse for the bathroom, but it was wonderful ministering to the people there and working for the Lord. I had a wonderful time going to visit our close friends the Hurtado's after leaving Mexico. I was a junior bridesmaid in my cousin Naomi's wedding and had a blast getting to dress up in my beautiful dress. I got my drivers permit this year after passing the written test, though I haven't had much time behind the wheel yet.

Isaiah...

He is now 5 ½ years old and began Kindergarten this year with his Auntie Cindy, she loves to teach kids how to read and therefore offered to help with his schooling this year, which has been a blessing to Sue. He also started in the YMCA homeschool PE program and is becoming quite the little swimmer. He began singing in the YMCA junior homeschool choir and is enjoying that. He had a wonderful time this summer on our vacation and when asked what made it special he shared with a friend that we got to go to Cracker Barrel which is one our favorite family Restaurants. He loves playing the drums and was very surprised to receive a drum set for Christmas. As you can imagine it's not very quiet at the Searles home

Isaiah & Ezekiel...

They are best friends playing all kinds of games throughout the day. They are also brothers and like any pair of brothers they have their moments of struggle. They are pretty much inseparable, wherever you find one you find the other. Here they are pictured in there bear costumes which they wore in their Cousin's wedding, they were the "Ring Bears".

Ezekiel...

He turned 4 in November and is a busy bee. He keeps us entertained with his funny sayings and stories. Besides Daniel at this age he is one of the busiest boys we know. He also goes to preschool with Aunt Cindy that we call "Cindygarten". He began a gymnastics class at the YMCA and it is so much fun to watch him attempt to do somersaults and other fun things. He had a wonderful time at Disneyland this year and he loves listening to his Disney CD that he got from Tia Becky in CA. He adores his little sister Lily and keeps an eye on her and lets us know if she is crying or needs our help and is constantly asking to hold her and kiss her.

Luke...

As most of you know our youngest son Luke nearly drowned on Aug 30th of this year in our backyard swimming pool. It is a true miracle of God that Luke is alive today. A man two doors down the street was visiting from CA and came to Luke's aid and provided CPR, we call him Angel Jim. There were many people involved in saving Luke's life, family, Angel Jim, Paramedics, ER staff, PICU staff and so many of you that cried out to the Lord on Luke's behalf. There is not enough space here to tell the whole story you can visit our blog for the latest on Luke's condition. We continue to pray for his complete healing. Here is the address of the blog, notice no www in the address.

Lily Joy...

Here is the newest member of the Searles household. It was with great Joy that we welcomed her on 12/20/2004 at 8:14pm, so much so that her middle name is Joy. She weighed 7lb 4oz and measures 20 inches, she is by far our smallest baby and we are having so much fun holding her and loving on her. She is for the most part a very alert and content baby. God is so good to bless us with another healthy baby. The girls are so glad to have another sister and are already having fun dressing her up and putting bows in her hair. We had her dedicated to the Lord last Sunday and pray that the Lord will use her as she grows up.

We pray that you will discover the Joy of the Lord Jesus this coming year.

It is God who arms me with strength

I just want to say thank you for all your encouraging words to me, on my last entry. I feel so blessed to have so many people care and pray for our family. What a difference between this last Saturday and the one before. We were once again blessed by a family from the blog with a gift card to Target, so we decided to let the kids all pick out something from the store to buy. We all went as a family, the first time we've gone on a outing like that since the accident. Luke did pretty well, he fell asleep in his stroller when we first got to the store and when he woke up he got a little stressed out, but once I held him and explained to him where we were he calmed down and was fine. It was so good to go some place other than a Dr.'s appt. or church as a family. We then decided to take him with us to the Spaghetti Factory after church for dinner and he did great there.

He continues to lift his head off my shoulder when I hold him now. It is so exciting for me to see him turn and lift his head, he used to keep it in the same place until we put him down. His neck muscles are getting stronger all the time, that will help him so much with his swallowing and just makes it easier for us to carry him and sit with him. He also continues to do better with his eating lately, God is so good.

Teena from the blog asked just what a Passy Muir valve is and what it does. It is a small round valve that we put on the end of his trach that only allows him to breath in not out. Therefore, he has to breath out his nose or mouth and is once again able to make noises. The first time we heard him make a noise was so awesome, just another step toward his complete healing. He is doing so well with it that we keep it on most of the day and night now and we are not having to suction him hardly at all, which is a big answer to prayer. He is coughing out his mouth and sneezing out his nose, where as before it all came out the trach. He is so cute to watch as he makes noises, his eyes get so big and they look like they are saying that he is amazed that he is making a noise and he looks so proud of himself. It is amazing to see his oxygen numbers go up when he has it on and his heart rate go down, which tells us that he is actually relaxing more when he wears it. One step closer to getting out the trach, continue to pray that when we go back on the 8th of March his chest will sound great and we will get him scheduled for his bronchial scope, which will tell us if he is ready to get rid of his trach. God has been teaching me so much lately, I've come to realize that while I thought of the trach as my biggest trial in life, it has actually been a blessing in disguise because while he has it we have nursing care. I also thought when we were in the Hospital that we could come home and continue on with life as it was before the accident, not realizing how much time Luke's care would take, therefore thinking that we would not really need nurses. Boy was I wrong, God knew I would need the Godly nurses, that love Luke and pray for him daily. It has helped me to be able to stay a part of my other children's life, in that I'm able to take them to the YMCA, Library, spend time helping them with school work, etc. God knows best, I just have to keep being reminded of this, I'm so glad that He is patient with me.

It's interesting that I also wondered if God knew what He was doing when he allowed me to get pregnant with Lily when I did, knowing that Luke would have his accident. I thought that I wouldn't be able to handle another little one with all that was going on. But once again I was wrong, Lily has been so wonderful for Luke, I often lie her down by him in his crib and they listen to his Winnie the Pooh mobile together or music on his CD player and a few times Lily just falls asleep by his side. They seem to be comforted just being side by side. I've taken few pictures of them together and hope to blog on for you to see soon. We are also trying to figure out how to get our Happy New Year Newsletter on the blog for you to see, I know its kind of late, but we would like to share it with you if we are able to find a way to put it on, along with the pictures.

The scripture that I have been meditating on this week is in Psalm 18:32, It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. It is so comforting to know that we do not have to have our own strength to make it through the day but our wonderful heavenly Father is up there saying let me give you my strength and if we are willing to accept it, He willingly gives it to us. People often say to me, Sue I don't know how you do it all, and all I can say is it is only because of God's strength that I'm able to make it through another day. You to can say the same thing all you have to do is ask, if you haven't tried it before, try it I gurantee you will like it.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Happy Valentine's Day!

To all our faithful blog friends,

Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue,
We sure do love you,
And appreciate your prayers too!

Love, Luke, Gordy, Sue,

Daniel, Amy, Natalie,

Isaiah, Ezekiel & Lily too

Just pouring out my heart before you all!

This has been quite the week! I'll be very honest with all of you, my dear friends out there in blog world, this has been a week of real highs and lows. Going to the hospital after being up all night long with Luke on Friday night was the hardest time I've had in a long time. I did not want to go back to that hospital until I could take Luke in there walking and saying "thank you" to all the great nurses and Dr.'s there, for there part in his healing. It's hard for me to except at times that Luke is what they call a "special needs" child, I just don't see him that way, I guess I think of him the way he used to be and know in my heart that God will make him that way once again, but in the mean time, I think many people think I live in a dream world of thinking that he will walk and talk once again. It's so hard for me to hear the Dr's and nurses say that they expect him to get sick and end up in the hospital at times. I was so relieved when his X-rays came back looking great and the tests they ran came back looking good as they would rule out one thing after another. I was hoping to make it through his time with a trach, without an infection, but I guess that just wasn't possible. I was so thankful that one of our faithful nurses was able to come work on Saturday night so that I could have a full night of sleep, because I desperately needed it.

Monday was also a hard day for me. I took Isaiah in to the Dr to have his ear checked out and found out that it was not doing any better, though today I think it finally is doing better. During that Dr. visit we had to have Lily's PKU blood test redone because the last one they did didn't take for some reason, so it was very stressful listening to her scream while it was being done. It made me wonder if this is what Luke would be doing while they were poking and prodding him on Saturday to get an IV into him. It kills me when I hear a nurse or Dr say how well he is doing during this time just because he can't make any noise, if they would only look at his face they would know that he is crying inside. That day was spent on the phone with Dr.'s and nurses as we scheduled his G-J tube change and his medicine changes. Then running to the pharmacy to pick up the medicine.

Tuesday started out early after only a few hours of sleep. Luke was once again poked for an IV, I was furious when two different nurses tried to start one in his hand and ankle at the same time. Once again one of the nurses commented on how well he was doing, inside I was screaming just look at his face, as tears just ran down my face. He did do well and slept most of the day off and on after the procedure was done. As we went to the Pulmonologist office that day I was trying so hard not to get my hopes up that the Dr. would say that we were close to getting ready to get his trach out. I left there with some hope in my heart that perhaps it would be within a month or so. He is doing so well with his passy muir valve and his oxygen levels seem to rise when it is on. It is so good to hear him making noises once again, it seems that when he does he surprises himself and gets such a sweet look in his eyes.

Wednesday I decided that he needed a day of rest so I took advantage of his message therapy appt. with my good friend, Brooke, to say that I needed it is an understatement. Luke did great eating 7 bites of applesauce and cereal at his first meal, 5 bites at his second feeding and 7 bites at his third this is the most we've gotten in to him ever.

Thursday, morning I was so excited when I picked him up out of his bed in the morning, he actually picked up his head off my shoulder for the first time since the accident. We took him into his EEG appt with high hopes that we would find out that he doesn't have any seizures, only to be disappointed because it looks as though perhaps he is having some. I just couldn't stop the tears flowing all the way home, it just seems to be taking so long to have God heal him, though I know that He is doing the healing in His timing, I just wish that it would happen today! Just to let you know that I hate to cry in front of people, I guess it's just the part of me that says Sue you have so much to be thankful for what are you crying for. I ask myself why am I telling you all this, and I guess it's because I want you to know that though at times I appear to be so strong actually I'm weak without the Lord's help to make it through each and every day, I would sit in a corner and cry all the time.

I find it interesting that on the way to the hospital on Saturday morning, on the way to hospital on Sunday afternoon and then on the way to Isaiah's Dr.'s appt. on Monday and once again on the way home from Luke's EEG on Thursday the song Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord was played or talked about on the radio. For those of you that have been following the blog all along, you might remember that Gordy mentioned that song last October as ministering to his heart. I'll be truthful, I didn't want to hear it at those times this week, because I didn't feel like singing Blessed be the name when the road is full of suffering, because this is exactly what my heart was doing was suffering. I know that God is taking us down this road to teach us how to trust in Him with all of our heart and not to lean on our own understanding, in all of our ways acknowledge Him and He will make our path straight. Prov. 3:5 &6 It is so hard, but I'm eternally thankful that God has spared Luke's life and He is bringing him back to fullness in his timing. Below are the words of the song once again. I hope you enjoy it.

Blessed Be Your Name
(Verse 1)Blessed be Your Name, in the land that is plentiful, Where the streams of abundance flow, blessed be Your Name.Blessed be Your Name, when I'm found in the desert place When I walk through the wilderness, blessed be Your Name. Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise, When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say,
(Chorus)Blessed be the Name of the Lord, blessed be Your NameBlessed be the Name of the Lord, blessed be Your glorious Name
(Verse 2)Blessed be Your Name, when the sun's shining down on me When the world's all as it should be, blessed be Your Name Blessed be Your Name, on the road marked with sufferingThough there's pain in the offering, blessed be Your Name Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say
(Bridge)You give and take away, You give and take away, My heart will choose to say, Lord, Blessed be your name
Matt Redman & Beth Redman© 2002 Thank you Music

May God give you a blessed day and I hope that we can all say "we are thankful for his goodness to us today."

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

A busy day and good news

The day started very early as we had to be at the hospital at 7:15am for the surgery to replace Luke’s G/J tube. After a bit of waiting, we went to the room where they were going to do the procedure. They were able to get the IV started on the second attempt. The procedure did not last very long and was successful in replacing the tube.

Sue took Luke home and I went to work for a few hours. We had feed Luke 3 times a day 80 ml per feeding until this past weekend when we stopped because he was sick. Today we started bolis feeding him again and he took three feedings of 60ml. Each day we will increase them by 5ml until we reach 80ml per feeding. Our goal is to get 4 feedings of 80ml each plus we feed him via his pump the balance of 1.1 litre..

Later in the day we had an appointment with Luke’s Pulmonologist. The doctor agreed to let us get Luke a Passy Muir valve. Yeah! This is the beginning of working toward removing the trach. A Passy Muir valve is a one way valve allowing him to breath in through the trach and out through the mouth. With a Passy Muir, Luke can make noise and maybe even talk. The doctor said that Lukes lungs did not sound completely clear. We told him about Luke being sick and the surgery this morning. The doctor wants us to return in a month and if Luke’s lungs sound clear then he will schedule a test to check Luke’s breathing. If Luke passes that test, then his trach can be removed. Please pray that Luke’s lungs will clear up and that he doesn’t get sick again.

On Thursday, Luke will be having an EEG. If all goes well and Luke does not have any seizures, then we hope to get him off of his antiseizure medicine, which would be awesome. Pray that he will sleep during the test and wont have any seizures. Pray that we will be able to get rid of the medicine.

I went back to the very beginning of the blog and read some of the early posts. I am amazed at how deeply it still touches my soul. I was amazed to see that in less then a day and a half, there were people in Ireland and Iraq praying for Luke. God is so amazing!

A busy few days and a few more to come

On Saturday night Luke slept really well and his fever seemed to be getting under control. We returned to the hospital on Sunday afternoon for a followup. They were so busy and Luke was doing better, so they just removed his IV and gave us a prescription for an Antibiotic. We were in and out in 20 minutes. WOW!

Last night was a rough night, as Luke did not sleep very well and his fever seemed to return. Now today, his fever is again under control. His doctor called and said he has the beginnings of a trach infection.

Tuesday morning we are taking Luke to the hospital very early to have his G/J tube replaced, as it has been leaking. This is totally unrelated to the sickness. Please pray that his fever will remain in check and they will be able to start an IV without any problems. Later in the day, we have an appointment with his pulmonologist. We are hoping that we will get the go ahead for Luke to begin using a Passy Muir. A Passy Muir valve is a one way valve that allows him to breath in through his trach and out through his vocal cords and out his mouth. Because the air passes through the vocal cords he can make noises and potentially talk. The Passy Muir is one of the first steps toward removing of the trach.

Katie mentioned reading about climbers on Mt Everest using portable Hyper Baric chambers to deal with altitude sickness. The chambers are in essence the same thing that Luke goes into for HBOT. The main difference is because they are portable, so they are made of light weight materials, think of it being made of a inflatable plastic bag, kind of like the jumpy toys you see at fun parks for kids to jump on. The chamber Luke enters can withstand a much higher pressure, up to 3.0 ATA (Atmospheres). Luke dives to 1.5 ATA and the portable chambers can only go to 1.2 to 1.3 ATA. Due to the experimental nature of HBOT, there is differing opinion as to the most effective depth. Generally, 1.5 ATA is standard protocol. Could Luke benefit from a portable chamber, answer, most likely. I am sure many of you watched the Super Bowl and Terrell Owens who plays for Philadelphia broke his leg about 6 weeks ago. Owens purchased a portable HyperBaric chamber to put in his house to help him with the healing process. I wonder if TO would like to donate his slightly used chamber to a little boy in Washington :)

Last Thursday night and then again on Sunday night I typed out a blog only to have blogger swallow it before I could save or post it. I really think that someone doesn’t want me to blog. Well, here goes one more time. Last week I was talking with a friend at work and they told me they had a dream about Luke. In their dream Luke was walking around and playing with the other kids at a park. He was talking, smiling and having fun. I asked them how old he was in their dream and they thought he looked about 4. There have been many people that have told us about dreams they have had of Luke. I find them encouraging, because it gives me hope that God will heal Luke and that we will see these dreams become real before our very eyes. I think about what it will be like to witness him walking again and talking and smiling that beautiful smile. Those will be awesome days of rejoicing and praising God for what he has done. So in advance, Thank You Lord for saving Lukes life and healing his little body. May he know you and serve you with his whole heart, mind and soul, forever. In Jesus name. Amen.
I find that the dreams help me to keep my eyes on who will heal Luke, you see it is not doctors, or therapies, or medicines that will heal Luke, but it is God Himself that will heal Luke. He may use doctors, medicines or therapies as instruments in Luke’s healing, but it is God that does the healing. I wait for that day with great anticipation to see what and how God will do it. One key to all of this is prayer, and there are so many of you that are involved, I am truly amazed. Recently we received an email from a couple that we have never met they have been following the blog from the beginning. Each day they rise very early at 2:30am to get ready for work and part of their routine is to pray for Luke and the Searles family without fail. I must admit when I read that email, tears filled my eyes to realize how much God loves me, that he has people praying for us. The really awesome thing is He loves each of us the same, nobody is more special then the next. God loves You! In the email they talked about how while Sue and I are Luke’s biological parents, they have adopted him into their family and in their hearts. God has entrusted Luke into our care and I count it a great privilege, just like I do for each of my seven children.

We are back home

It has been an extremly long day. Last night around 6:00 Luke began to run a fever. The fever ranged from 101 -104. In addition to the fever, his heart rate was elevated. Sue was up all night with Luke and sometimes Lilly. At 5:00am we called a consulting nurse and they recommended that we take him to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 6:15 am until 3:45pm this afternoon. At the hospital, they ran blood tests, urine tests, test on the secretions from his trach, xrays and other tests all in an effort to determine the cause of the fever. From the tests, the Dr believes that Luke is developing an infection, but is not able to pin point the source. They gave Luke an antibiotic via IV to fight the infection. We have to return to the hospital tomorrow at 3:00pm to have Luke examined again and make sure he is improving. Needless to say, Sue is wiped out, she is lying down now for a nap. We contacted one of our nurses and she will be coming this evening to help with the night shift.

Please pray that Sue will be refreshed, that Lily will sleep, and that Luke will be healed, in more ways then one.

I so appreciate each and everyone of you and the prayers that you offer up to God on our behalf. May God bless you.

Please Pray!

Luke has been running a high fever all night along with a high heart rate and respiration. We are taking him to the hospital now. Please pray they find the cause. I will blog more later.

Good news to share about our past week

Last weekend was an awesome time for Daniel, Amy & Natalie. They went on a winter retreat with Destiny Christian Center in Centralia, WA, where Daniel is in their Generational Training Center. I'm going to have Amy share some words about what God did in her life this weekend:
"Well first I have to say God is so good. This weekend was awesome and God did a lot in my life. I went this weekend really tired and discouraged, but on the first night God gave a girl a word for me. The word was that this weekend was going to be a time of refreshing and renewing. Also that night God healed some pain and hurt I had pertaining to Luke's accident. On Saturday night our speaker talked about waiting on the Lord. This was so good because I have really been wondering lately what I'm going to do with my life. That night I felt like God said, "Amy I have a plan for your life but you just need to be patient and WAIT on Me." God gave me a wonderful peace about my future. The Lord is so AWESOME and God's word given through that girl came true, I was refreshed and renewed. I feel like I have a new joy and mission. God is so good." Thank you for all your prayers concerning the weekend for the kids, God answered them!

Luke is having an awesome week so far, he is taking his food so much better and able to handle so much more. He is sleeping better, in fact he once again broke his record for the time he has slept continuously, he didn't wake up all night until 8:15 on Monday morning and our nurse said that he was swallowing all night long. He also moved on Tuesday night, which was a first since the accident, when I went in to check on him this morning he actually had his head turned and was touching the side of the crib, it used to be where you layed him is where you would find him in the morning.

He will be going in for his 20th dive tomorrow night. We were once again blessed with money for more dives, through the "Zander Fund." This is an organization that donates money for children that have special needs. It was started in 2003 when a precious little 2 year old boy named, Alexander Kendall died of a drowning accident. What a wonderful and unselfish deed for this family in their time of grief to turn around and bless others with their generosity. We are once again amazed at how God has brought so many wonderful families into our lives to pray and support us through this long and exciting journey we are on toward Luke's full recovery.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

The "Mystery of Luke"

Wow, what a week, it's not quite over but getting close. I did try to blog two nights ago, thinking that if I blog more often they won't be so long, but after writing it out I lost it and it was to late to start over again.

I finally realized something last weekend, I am always talking to those around me about the "mystery of Luke," what you ask is the "mystery of Luke?" It is trying to understand why he sleeps some nights so wonderfully, then the next night is up for two to three hours, why some days he seems to tolerate swallowing a few bites of applesauce and the next day we can barely get him to swallow one bite, why one day he coughs and has to be suctioned constantly and the next he barely has anything there to suction, why some days he seems to take a nap and the next won't sleep a single second, I think you get the idea. I realize this is God's way of getting me to keep my eyes off what Luke is doing or not doing and keep my eyes on the Lord, He is continually reminding me that He is the one that will heal Luke and it doesn't matter what we see or hear from Luke or his Dr.'s, He is in control. I was saying to a friend of mine one day how difficult this is for me, but I know that this is what the Lord truly desires. I have probably shared these verses with you previously, when Luke was still in the PICU someone gave them to us, but I want to share them with you again, I read these verses out loud to Luke and to myself since they are over his bed numerous times a day, Habakkuk 2:2 & 3 And the Lord said to me "Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others. But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day! I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is healing Luke, He is working on it each day and though I wish it was done, I realize that God's timing is perfect and when He is finished we will point to God and God alone as the one who healed Luke. I was reminded today as I received a e-mail from a faithful servant of the Lord who has daily prayed for Luke, she does not know us, but she has prayed everyday for our family and Luke as so many of you have done. Anyway, she said that she is a nurse and she knows that God is the one healing Luke, she has worked with little ones with the same brain damage as Luke and they have never even moved a muscle or came out of their vegetative state. To God be the glory, great things He has done!

Luke has had some good days this week and some hard days. Monday was the busiest day by far, the Dietician said, she was pleased that he had gained a pound, since he had lost one the last time we were there. She wants us to start feeding him more each day through his G-tube which goes straight into his stomach, instead of his J-tube that goes into his lower intestine. Needless, to say this is time consuming and he just is not taking in as much as we would like to see, but once again I have to rest in knowing that the day will come when he will eat normally once again, but in the mean time please pray that he will be able to tolerate more and also that he will truly get a good swallow again, not just letting it go down his throat, but pushing it down with his tongue. At his appointment to get fitted for his new leg splints he was casted, they will be making him a splint that will have a hinge in the knee area so that we will be able to get him to keep his legs bent once again, it will be a slow process, but at least we are doing something toward this goal. On Wednesday when we went to the PT, she was so excited once again at his progress, he is holding his head up so much better and keeping his arms relaxed every once in awhile, which is so great since they used to be almost impossible to straighten out.

Well I said that I would try to keep these blogs shorter, so much for that goal! I hope that you are all having a wonderful week and that you realize we appreciate your support and prayers more than you can ever begin to imagine. One quick side note, I know that I mentioned that we were going to take in Isaiah our 5 year old to the Dr. for his ear, will we found out that he had a perforated ear drum, he is on antibiotics, we are praying that it will be healed when we go back in two weeks. He has had problems off and on with his ears and hearing for a while now and I had planned to get him in for a hearing test on Tuesday, which I had to cancel for now, please be praying that God will heal his ear drum and that he would start to hear better. Also keep Lily in your prayers she seems to be kind of colicky in the evening, this is new for us we've never had a colicky baby before. May God bless you today with an awesome day.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

A much needed update on Luke

Good morning, I'm writing this to you very early on Sunday morning. I'm sorry I haven't gotten to blog earlier this week. It's been a very busy week to say the least. Our oldest girls Amy and Natalie are visiting over east of the mountains at their cousins house celebrating her Birthday this weekend. Let me tell all, for the whole world to hear, I miss them even when they are gone for a couple hours let alone a whole weekend. They help more than any of you can imagine! They are going with Daniel next weekend on a Winter Retreat with the church that Daniel is part of for Generation Training Center, I'm praying it will be a time of great refreshment for them as they get away for a much needed break from home and that it will be a time of spiritual renewal as well.

I know many of you are wondering how all the appts went this week. Well let me begin my saying we had to reschedule two of them, our pulmonologist Dr. Ricker volunteered to go with a medical team to Sri Lanka to help with Tsunami victims. I'll be honest with you, when I first heard that I had to change the appointment, I was very disappointed, because I want Luke's trach out so bad, but then I had to say to myself what a selfish person you are Sue, here are these people suffering so greatly and you are begrudging them the help they desperately need. Needless to say, since my attitude adjustment, I've been praying for the team that they are able to not only give the medical help that is needed so greatly but that they can also be a bright light for Jesus which to me is far more important. I also changed our Dietician appointment so that I can better utilize our very full schedule.

We did have the swallow gram done on Tuesday. It went okay, not the best it could of gone, but by far not the worst either. After waiting an hour for the Dr. to arrive Luke was not as comfortable as I would of liked him to be for the test. He did swallow a little bit on his first two bites of food, it showed that it went the right place, which was great news, but it also showed that he still does not have a good swallow, which we already knew. It was determined that we can continue to feed him the applesauce with rice cereal that we've been feeding him, but no thinner consistency at this time.

Our Friday appointment for his new leg splints went okay, except for the fact that their computer was having a problem getting a new picture of Luke's legs. I'm very happy to report that though Luke is definitely having a problem bending his legs and keeping his hips aligned, it was said that it was good we got him in when we did so that they can address these issues now before too much joint and muscle damage is done, due to lack of use. Our wonderful Physical Therapist, Allison is working with them to make splints that will help address these issues. Once again I'm thankful that though God has not chosen to bring about complete healing yet we have so many wonderful people coming beside us to help with the healing process. We have all been giving many massages this week and it is paying off, Luke's legs are not quite as hyper extended as they had been for so long.

Next week will once again be a very busy week, oh well this is my lot in life for this season. I will give you example of our schedule so that you can be praying that we are able to get it all done. On Monday we have homeschooling of course, then in the afternoon at 1:00 P.T., at 2:00 our rescheduled appt. with the Dietician and then at 3:00 our rescheduled appt. with Hangers for his splints, pray the camera is working this time. Then on home for dinner and our never ending laundry has to be done this day. And I need to take Isaiah to the Dr to have his ears checked, as there is colored fluid coming out. On Tuesday schooling, then Amy, Natalie, Isaiah and Ezekiel, will go to the YMCA, while Luke, Lily, our nurse Mary and I go to the hyperbaric place for a treatment, and then back to the Y to pick up the kids and go straight to the hearing center for a hearing test for Isaiah. He had tubes put in last year and his hearing is still not doing very well so we are going to get that checked out this week. Wednesday, our nurse does not come until 11:30 so that we can go to church at night, so a busy morning for me getting Luke ready for the day by myself while the girls go to math and then off to piano lessons. When they get back we take Luke in for his 3:00 P.T. appointment, the girls will do weekly chores including our never ending pile of laundry while we are gone, then its back home to get dinner done and everyone ready for church at 7:00. Thursday my day is going to start early with an appointment for me to get my eyes checked, I lost my glasses last week and I sure am missing them, then school of course, take the kids to the YMCA again, no appointments for Luke today, so that I can get caught up on my grocery shopping and other running that I need to get done, pick up the kids at the Y and go to our weekly visit at the Library, then home again. The ladies at the church are putting on a Shower for Lily this evening so the girls and I are off to the church, while Gordy is thinking about getting someone to watch the boys so that he can still take Luke out for our weekly HBOT treatment in the evening, well see if this happens. On Friday no appointments for Luke, just school, house cleaning, laundry again, girls packing for the weekend, then I will run them down to Centralia in the afternoon to leave for the retreat. Our weekend will be without the girls and Daniel, hopefully we can maybe take it easy on Saturday! There's a little glimpse of life in the Searles home.

We had some good news this week, I called our neurologist to try to get Luke in sooner then his March 15th appointment, because we want to get him off the seizure medicine he's been on since the Hospital. He only had one seizure in the Hospital a week after the accident, anyway we could not get an appointment, since they have a full schedule until June, but they did say they would schedule an EEG for us to test him so that we don't have to wait until his next appointment to get that done. He had two EEG's in the Hospital and both showed no seizure activity, so we are praying that this one won't show any either, then we can get him off this medicine, which inhibits brain activity and also causes drowsiness.

We sure have enjoyed getting some of your Christmas newsletters and pictures, if you would like to send one, once again you can e-mail us at howslukedoing@yahoo.com to request our address. Thank you for your continued prayer, Luke is getting better, slowly but surely. We pray that you have a blessed week! I'll share my favorite verse with you, Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, I have to remind myself daily not to try to run my life without Christ's help, it goes so much more smoothly with Him in the center of it.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Guess who slept ALL night, last night?

If you guessed Luke you win! WOW, what a surprise to get up this morning and find out that Luke did not wake up until 7:30 a.m. this morning, this is the longest he has slept since the days that he was in the Intensive Care Unit at the Hospital. You who have been praying for Luke and the rest of us to get sleep just know that God is listening and He is answering your prayers, so please don't give up!

We also want to let you know that we are getting Luke's legs to bend a little bit. We started taking him to my good friend, Brooke who does an excellent job at message therapy and she started to teach us how to work on getting his legs to loosen up. Sue, Amy and Luke's nurses have been working with his legs and it is paying off, Praise the Lord.

My prayer this week, is for me to keep my eyes on the Lord. The Bible verse that keeps coming to my mind is: 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. Philippians 4:6. I could be getting very anxious about his Swallow gram test next Tuesday 1/18/05. It is so important for him to pass this, so that we can start getting him help to eat more through his mouth and getting him to swallow more often. As I mentioned in our last Blog he is eating now through his mouth but only about 6 or 7 bites at a sitting. Which is great news but how we look forward to the day when he will eat more. We also have a appt. with his pulmonologist on Thursday 1/20/05 and we are praying that he will allow us to take our first step at getting out his trach, this is a slow process, but we are ready to begin. Someone on the blog asked why he has a trach, the answer is because he was unable to keep his passage way cleared with his saliva and he was not able to give a good cough so that he could clear it out. He has always been able to breath without it, which has been a real answer to prayer.

We continue to take him in for more HBOT treatments, it was exciting last week to see him try to sit up during the treatment on Wednesday. I wasn't there but Gordy, Natalie and his nurse Mary came home all excited about it. These next two weeks we are hoping to get in at least 3 more treatments, because of all the other appts. he has during this time. We were once again blessed on New Years Eve, someone dropped off a check for $2000.00 to our church, we continue to be amazed at God's goodness to us during this long slow journey to complete recovery. It was given anonymously so if you are reading this THANK YOU!

Hi, After futher thought and realizing that we dont have control over who sees this, I decided to remove our address from this post. If you want our home address, please send an e-mail to howslukedoing@yahoo.com and we will be glad to provide you with our address. We would love to hear from you and if you sent out a Christmas Newsletter we'd love to get one, it is so much fun meeting the people that are so faithful in praying for our family. Just know that we are humbled by you continued prayers and support, God is answering them, so please don't quit!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Happy New Year!

We just wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year. We pray that the Lord will bless you all in 2005. We have some great news to share with all of you, Luke began to eat through his mouth last Thursday night. We got a call to schedule another swallow gram on January 18th, so I was thinking that I needed to get him ready and tried to give him some pudding and he swallowed it. I thought that I would than try some applesauce and since then he has been eating daily through the mouth. It is very time consuming to get him to take about 2 tablespoons of baby cereal and applesauce, but it takes about just as long to get him to tolerate a bolis feeding through his G-tube before he begins to spit it out. I was crying and we were all congratulating Luke and he truly seemed so proud of himself.

I also wanted to let you know that Luke is able to express himself more and more each day. It used to be the only way we knew that Luke was upset was to watch his left eye and if it turned red he was hurting or upset about something. Know all we have to do is watch his face, he has definitely let us know if he is upset or happy about something, it so good to see his emotions being expressed once again.

We are getting back into a busy schedule. We are trying to get Luke in for Physical Therapy at least once or twice a week, also a message therapy once a week beginning this Friday. We also are taking him at least twice this week for a HBOT treatment and hope to be able to continue to get him in at least once or twice a week. We have a swallow gram schedule on January 18th and a pulmonologist appt and dietician appt on January 20th. Needless to say we are going to be very busy, but are hoping that these things will continue to keep him progressing. We are hoping at his pulmonologist appt. that we can get him to start Luke on a Passy muir valve for his Trach, which will allow him to breathe into his trach but out through his mouth or nose. Which will allow him to begin to make noises again. The few times he has made a little noise he has looked so pleased with himself.

Please keep Gordy and I in your prayers we haven't been able to get much sleep lately our regular night nurse has been sick and before that she worked a few nights at the Hospital, so we've only had a night nurse for 3 nights since Lily was born. At times we are just extremely exhausted with Luke waking up at night and also with a newborn wanting to eat and not always sleeping at night, needless to say our nights have been very hard at times.

Our prayer for you all this year is that you will learn to Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your path. Proverbs 3:5 & 6

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue