Trip Pictures from Mexico - Water Baptisms

Miguel baptizes one of the children
















This is at the start with Pastor Juan, Miguel and me in the deep end and the people ready to be baptized on each side.
















Here we are baptizing one of the men
















Here you can see there were a lot of people watching all around the pool
















Group shot of all the people that were baptized. I think it was 44 people in all.

Trip Pictures from Mexico - Childrens Ministry

Miguel and family. They host the weekly childrens ministry at their home every week. That is Pastor Juan holding the hotdog :)
















Isiah and Miguels daughter enjoy a mango freeze, kinda like a popsicle.




















Pastor Juan enjoys a mango freeze while a couple of people watch Mexico play in the world cup. Notice the TV in the tree.
















Natalie and Daniel help children make bracelets and necklaces.
















Isaiah jumps right in and makes a bracelet
















Who is that boy behind the painted face
















We paint children's classrooms and we paint kids too :)

Trip Pictures from Mexico - Painting Classrooms

One of the rooms before starting




















Sue starts the red
















That is bright yellow! Canary Yellow to be exact




















Natalie starting the red on the other end of the red wall.

















Finished room
















Finished room

















Finished room
















Kids on Sunday in one of the painted rooms

















Kids in one of the painted classrooms

Trip Pictures from Morro Bay

Dad, this sun is bright, I am glad we have sunglasses on, arent you?
















Look Mom, I put on some sunscreen
















Sunset on Morro Rock




















Mom, I really like this vitamin D

















Amy with Lily in the surf and a large flock of pelicans in the background

More Trip pics from Santa Cruz and San Simeon

Three little monkeys wearing their monkey shirts
















I really enjoy this relaxing, especially when I can get wet!
















Amy and Daniel in front of San Simeon (Hearst Castle)
















The front of the castle
















Now this is my kind of pool, too bad there isnt any water, a dip would be nice right now.

Trip Pictures from San Francisco

Walking down Lombard St
















My this boat ride is windy!
















We all made it on board the cable car
















I love my brother, and I love my sister
















Zeke, smile for the camera
















How much longer do we have to wait for some fish and chips?
















Amy wrestles the machine and WINS!!!
















We are enjoying this cable car ride
















Famous museum of amusement machines at the Fisherman's Wharf
















Finally, we have fish and chips at Fisherman's Wharf

Trip Pictures from Santa Cruz

I really enjoy this relaxing with family and sunshine. I was needing a little vitamin D :)
















Roasting a marshmellow at the group campfire
















I like this hammock
















Here is my bed in the trailer, that is my food pump hanging.

















Daniel hangs ten for the first time at Santa Cruz

Trip Pictures from Paradise

One cool kid!




















Can I make this hole in 1?

















Does anyone care if I move this ball a bit closer?
















Hey Mom, look I can ride a bike! Isaiah can now ride a bike without any help.

















Oh, I really enjoy this relaxing, no doctors, no nurses, just family, fun and sunshine.

Hey Everyone!!

Hey All,
For the past couple of days GSDN all went across the border and painted some kids class rooms. As they painted the classrooms someone thought about the salvation bracelets. The rooms are Black(represents our sins), Red(represents the blood of Jesus that saves us), White(represents cleansing of our sins), Blue(represents water baptism), Green(represents growing in Christ) and Yellow(represents the streets of gold in Heaven). So these rooms are putting forth the message of Salvation. The rooms look GREAT!!! AIELL stayed at the campground and had some a really busy day and exciting moments. This evening Lily pulled Luke's G-Tube out. Amy had to put it back and it was the first time she had done it and it was really scary for her but she did a great job. Please pray for us as our whole family goes into Mexico tomorrow. We will be helping with the childrens ministry in the morning and Gordy will be helping baptize fourty people in the evening. It will be a very long day. Pray that God would use us and that Luke would have a wonderful day.
Love in Jesu Christo,
GSDANIELL

We are in San Diego

We enjoyed the past 5 days in Morro Bay and are now in San Diego. It is late and I am tired, will blog more tomorrow. One prayer request. As I mentioned in my last entry from Santa Cruz, we will be going to Mexico Thu - Sun this week and ask that you cover our family with prayer. I have found that whenever you venture out and do something for God's Kingdom, the enemy of our souls attempts to foil your efforts. We know that no weapon formed against us shall prosper.

Love you all, GSDANIELL

We are in Santa Cruz

Sorry for not posting sooner, the internet here is a bit slow and we have been a bit busy. We arrived in Santa Cruz on Sunday evening and have a wonderful campsite. I tried to upload a few pictures and had problems, I will try again when we get to San Diego in a week.

The weather here in Santa Cruz has been great, low 70s and Sunshine, lots of Sunshine. This was just what we have been dreaming of as a family. Daniel took a surfing lesson the other day and had an absolute blast. I think he is hooked. The girls have spent a lot of time swimming in the pool and just relaxing. The boys have made many friends at the playground and are having a great time riding their bikes. Luke has been doing pretty good, although he has needed oxygen at night, we continue to pray his breathing will improve. Luke did run a little bit of a temp on Monday night but he is doing fine now.

We went to San Francisco yesterday and had a great time. We rode a cable car, a boat out on the bay and ate fish and chips at the wharf. And if you have been to SF before and we did see the Bush Man. Unfortunately, we came up behind him and did not get a chance to scare the kids. We did enjoy watching him surprise a few people.

So far the trip has been a blessing to our family and I appreciate all of you that have been praying for us. From here we will be heading down the coast and staying at a state park for a few nights before moving on to San Diego. Next week 6/14 - 6/17 we will be traveling across the boarder to Mexico to do a some ministry with our friends Pastor Juan and Chella. On Thursday and Friday we will be painting the childeren's Sunday school classrooms and visiting the rehab center. On Saturday we will be helping with the Saturday Childerens outreach and then a baptism in the afternoon. I have been asked to help baptize and consider it a great honor to be a part of such a holy moment in a new believers life. On Sunday we will be attending church at the Pastor Juan and Chella's church.

It is 10pm, everyone is in bed except Sue and Natalie sitting at the campfire roasting marshmellows and me sitting at the table typing on Daniel's laptop by lantern light. It is weird to think about being able to blog via wireless internet at a campground. Well, it is a KOA we are staying at, not like the state park we will be at on Saturday (no internet).

Until we blog again, take care, GSDANIELL

We are in California

I thought I would give you a quick update to let you know we are in CA. We camped two nights at a campground in WA and endured the rain and cold weather, we are looking forward to some sun. Tonight we are staying at a Hotel, in Yreka, CA, we had planned to stay in our trailer at a friends home tonight in Redding, but decided to stop earlier. We got a later start than we wanted and although our van has a V10 engine it was still slow going up some of the mountains we went over today. Needless to say we were all ready to stop around 6:45, the kids were hungry and tired, especially Lily and we knew it was time to stop.

Luke has been enjoying our time together. He has for the most part been doing real good, though tonight is on some oxygen. He started coughing and sneezing about an hour before we stopped, which was another reason we decided it was time to call it a day. Please be praying that he will do great tomorrow, that his lungs will stay healthy and that this will be the last night he will need extra oxygen.

Tomorrow we are going to try to get an earlier start than today. We are planning to go to Santa Cruz, CA, where we will be staying for the next 5 nights. It will be nice to stay put for awhile. We are hoping to spend one day in San Francisco sightseeing and one day at Marine World. Gordy and I gave Daniel a surfing lesson for his 21st Birthday, his birthday is not until July, but we knew that he has wanted to go surfing for a long time and thought it would be a great opportunity for him to go. According to the web site, of the place he will be taking lessons it's one of the best places to learn in the world. Be praying that he will be safe and have a blast.

We will try to get some pictures posted soon of the fun time we had yesterday putt putt golfing with my parents, between the rain downpours. It was so great having my parents come out to see us on our first day of our trip. Our goal is to try to keep updating the blog every few days, not only to share how things are going, but also as a way of journaling this vacation for our own benefit.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Busy days to report about, as we prepare for our trip.

I have been busy getting all the details done before our trip, so we've had many appts. scheduled lately. I took Luke in for a Dentist visit and was pleased to hear that his teeth look great. I've wondered at times if they had any damage done because of reflux problem he had for awhile, but the Dentist said that we are doing a great job at keeping them healthy. I also took him for a Dr.'s visit to get a RX for oxygen, as we go on trip we will take his oxygen, hoping that we won't need it but having it never the less. We are ordering extra of everything we might possibly need for him and trying to think of anything that might come our way while we are gone. It certainly is a bit more challenging planning this vacation with Luke's special needs.

Here's a little story from today. I took Luke and Lily to the YMCA to watch Isaiah and Nataile sing in the YMCA Homeschool Choir, it was Member Appreciation day at the Y. Luke seemed to enjoy the concert in his new stroller. His stroller has a steering wheel on the front which drew many children to play with it, he seemed to like having the children there playing. While we were there he feel a asleep for a little while and a few little kids called him a baby, at which time Ezekiel told them that he is not a baby, he is three years old and that he drowned, which opened up a whole slew of questions. I'll be honest it was hard sitting there listening to Zeke standing up for his brother and watching people stare at Luke, but I was also pleased with Zeke for being such a wonderful big brother, watching out for his little brother Lukie. One more turn on this roller coaster ride that brings out so many extreme emotions all the time.

Last time I blogged I asked you all to pray for Luke to stay healthy, that his lungs will stay clear, that his oxygen levels will continue to stay up, that his legs will begin to bend, that he will begin to show even more smiles and that we will hear him laugh again soon. I am excited to tell you that God is answering your prayers, we are seeing more smiles all the time and he has even begun to smile while we are playing with him, which is a first, no laughing yet but I know that will happen soon. I've also seen a bit more bend to the knees and he has stayed healthy and is breathing fine. I am asking you to continue to ask the Father for Luke's complete healing, that we will see him run, play, talk, laugh and have a day where he will not need to be suctioned at all. I truly believe it will happen one day, I just get anxious at times waiting.

My biggest prayer request is that you will keep our whole family in your prayers as we take this trip. I realize that many of you think it is probably very extravagant to take such a long vacation, but I want to let you know we've been planning and saving and sacrificing other things so that we can take this trip. We are praying that this will be a time of healing for our family, a time of relaxation and most importantly that we will have life long memories of God's blessing us as we go. We also want to be a blessing to others so that they can see Christ's love through our lives and know that God is good all the time.

We are leaving June 1st and will be gone through July 8th. We will try to post pictures and share our journey with you along the way. I realize this blog is supposed to be about Luke, but I think during our vacation I will be sharing more stories about the whole family.

One last note, I have a few prayer requests to share with you all. Gabby is a little girl with a very rare brain tumor and she needs a miracle from God, you can read more about her at http://www.gabbysmiracle.blogspot.com/. Melissa is a precious momma to 7 children, the same as me, and she found out in December she has a brain tumor that turned out to be cancerous, to read more go to: http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=melissasnow I was excited to see on Brett Jr.'s site an update telling of his progress, he still needs a miracle from God to be whole once again, his link is to the side. There are many more that I could share but at this time these are the most desperate for a miracle right now.

May God richly bless you today, I hope next time I blog it will be on our trip. Once again thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying so faithful in your prayers!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

P.S. One last prayer request is for Joanna, who also has cancer, I'm not sure how she is doing at right now. Amy, could you let us know how to pray for her at this time?

BIG little steps.

I realize that the title of this blog is an oxymoron, but there is no other way to describe Luke’s progress to you. You see some people look at Luke and all they can see is a child that can’t walk, talk or do other normal things kids his age are doing, but we look at Luke and we see all the things that he was unable to do just a year and a half ago and therefore are encouraged that he continues to make progress be it ever so slow at times, it is still progress and we are thrilled to see it happen on a daily basis.

Luke’s Physical Therapist suggested making an appointment for him to see the Neurologist to get his opinion on some options for helping his muscle tone get better. I know that I’ve mentioned numerous times that Luke needs prayer to help get a bend back in his knees, they are still for the most part rigid and strait all the time. To say I was a bit anxious about going to a Neurologist would be putting it mildly, the last time we went to a Neurologist I left there in tears and depressed for days, because of the hopelessness the Dr. gave us about Luke’s condition.

This was a new Neurologist and I was encouraged to see his reaction to how Luke is doing. I told him Luke’s history and how we have seen continuous progress, be it ever so slow at times. It was so exciting for me to see Luke respond each time the Dr. would check Luke for a reaction as he touched his feet, legs, hands, fingers and arms, he would not only move each limb he would also react in his facial expressions. I was especially excited when his PT came in and Luke immediately looked up at her and responded to her voice, the Dr. said boy he really knows you doesn’t he. I felt like standing up and shouting Hallelujah, because a Dr. has finally acknowledged that Luke is not only responsive, he is also tracking, seeing and showing emotions to someone he likes.

It felt so good to leave an appointment feeling encouraged instead of discouraged. As for the Botox and other options for Luke’s legs, he felt that it wouldn’t really help Luke right now because of the muscles that are being affected. He did mention that eventually Luke would probably need surgery to help stretch his muscles to get some movement back into them. I’m praying that God will continue to work His mighty miraculous touch in Luke’s life and that we will not need any more surgeries.

Luke continues to smile on a daily basis we almost caught one on camera today, as soon as we do we will blog it for you all to see. I told him when he smiled at me this morning that was the best Mother’s Day gift I could get, just seeing all my children smiling and happy make me happy. I was spoiled today by being served breakfast in bed and being served through out the day, along with a gift certificate to go get a pedicure and manicure done.

One last note in this already too long blog, is we decided last week that we needed to once again change our trip plans. We are now going to take a trip down the California coast and spend some time in San Diego, LA and finish up one the Oregon coast. We are hoping to spend 4 days down in Mexico working with a Pastor friend, of ours. His church is in the progress of building a new church and we would like to go down there and be put to work for a few days, helping where ever is needed.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Please be praying for Luke that he will stay healthy, that his lungs will stay clear, that his oxygen levels will continue to stay up, that his legs will begin to bend, that he will begin to show even more smiles and that we will hear him laugh again soon. May God richly bless you today!

Love in Christ,
Luke’s Mommy Sue

Just reporting on my wonderful Birthday weekend

I thought I would let you all know about my wonderful Birthday weekend. That's right I have a birthday today and I told my awesome family all I wanted was a work day. On Saturday we got more done in one day than I could of done in weeks. Daniel cleaned the garage and worked on the downstairs closet with Amy, Amy worked on cleaning the end of the hall cabinet and the coat closet upstairs and Natalie went through all of Isaiah's, Ezekiel's, Luke's and Lily's clothes which was a huge project, since we pass clothes down from one boy to the next we keep them together in big bins. Gordy helped by watching Luke and Lily, made my birthday cake and cleaned the kitchen, while I cleaned our bathroom from top to bottom and helped all the kids sort through the closets saying what to keep and get rid of. Isaiah and Ezekiel kept busy working in there room and playing, just what they do best.

My Dad and Mom had us over for a delicious dinner, so we didn't need to cook that day. Then this morning I was blessed with breakfast in bed, cooked by Daniel, making his famous and delicious crepes. Gordy and the girls put together picture albums for me using 700 of our 1000's of pictures taken during the last 3 years, so it was an emotional morning as I looked through all the pictures of our family. The ones of Luke before his accident especially brought tears to my eyes. The kids also put together a special musical CD of them singing and playing the piano, Daniel sang one of his original songs that he wrote a few months ago. I kept saying it was the best Birthday I could of ever wanted and it's not even over yet.

Just to let you know I took Luke into the Dr. on Friday, he has been coughing up some horrible looking gunk and has been spiking a fever for the last few nights. The amazing thing about his sickness this time is his oxygen levels have not been dipping as they normally have in the past. When they checked his oxygen levels in the Dr.'s office it was at 97 which is wonderful for him being sick. He continues to move his legs and has started putting his fingers on his face and even in his mouth the other day. We continue to see little changes in his behavior, that most people would not think anything of, but to us they are a big deal.

I am very thankful for each of you that continue to pray for Luke's complete recovery and also keep our family in your prayers. Just the other night Daniel and I were in the kitchen talking, I had just come out of Luke's room and he had a fever of 103 and was struggling a bit with his oxygen levels, Daniel said to me "Mom, do you ever think life will be easy again?" I had to stop and think was life ever easy and I came to the realization it was a whole lot easier before the accident, but God has been faithful and He has brought us through this trial with many things to be thankful for and you all are part of what we are thankful for.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke has his smile back!!

Luke has been doing amazing things since coming home from the Hospital. He smiled today for the first time, this is a huge answer to prayer for me. There have been times in the past that I thought I saw a small smile, but today I truly know that is what he is doing. I took him to the Hyperbaric chamber today and Jim the technician was just amazed at his progress. He said he was expecting to see him still recovering from his time in the Hospital, but Luke looked great and he was amazed at seeing his arms moving and his hands opened up. He also saw his legs moving, which is a new thing for Luke. Then when the dive was over and he opened the door Luke began to smile and when I picked him up he continued to smile and both Jim and Doug saw the smile, this is the biggest answer to prayer for me as I have desperately missed Luke's smile. Mary, who was our wonderful nurse was able to come over to see Luke and she was also amazed at Luke's progress.

He is also making new noises. The other day when our wonderful friend, Tia Yoli was here helping as she does so often in the morning and Luke was saying Oh, she began to sing a song with Oh in it and he continued to say Oh, he did at least 5 times. Since then I've noticed a lot more noises and emotions with them. As I mentioned above about his legs moving, I know I told you in the past about him moving his legs, but he stopped after a time. Well now he is doing it all the time. We put him a baby swing to feed him and now when he is in there he moves his legs to move the swing. I asked his PT today if she thought it was purposeful movement and she said yes, she doesn't think it is a muscle spasm, which I agreed with her.

We weaned him off the oxygen on last Wednesday and lately his oxymeter has usually only been alarming when his heart rate goes down to low. With the exception of Saturday night when he did have a bit of a fever and his oxygen levels went down for a while. Gordy and I went to a Homeschool Conference on Friday and Saturday and his Aunty Cindy was watching him on Saturday night during a special dinner that Daniel, Amy and Natalie were able to attend. Needless to say I thought we would have to come home early because of Luke not doing so good but we prayed and after about 1/2 hour his fever went away and his oxygen levels came up. God is so faithful to answer our prayers once again. We had a wonderful time at the convention, it was amazing to me to meet so many people that have been praying faithfully for Luke, most of these people I had never met before, they either reconized my name or my face from the pictures we've posted. We had a great time visiting with Jenni and Chris, faithful bloggers.

I have learned a lot this past year and a half about God's faithfulness. As I once again gave Luke to God that night in the PICU, I began praying differently for him. I would remind God that Luke is His child and I wanted Him to have complete and total control of Luke's outcome. I truly relinquished my rights to Luke and turned them completely over to God. I began to trust God in a whole new way with His child, looking at Luke totally differently. I have a new peace in this new way of trusting God. I'm sure many of you have had to learn this lesson and for those of you that have not come to the place where you completely trust God for everything, I would highly recommend this new way of living, I'm not saying this will be easy, in fact it could be the hardest decision you will ever make, but I am saying it will be worth it.

Last year we talked about taking a trip across America, Gordy has a 4 week sabbatical coming since he has worked at REI for 15 years. So we are going to add 2 weeks vacation, one week on each side of the sabbatical and take a 6 week vacation. We are cutting a lot of what we originally planned, so that we can take it easy and not be stressed out by a crazy schedule, also the prices of gas are out of this world, therefore we are not going quite so far. Please be praying that Luke will stay healthy and that this trip will be a true possibility for our family. Lord willing we will be leaving May 31st and coming home on July 8th.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Here's Lukey!

Here's Luke reading one of his birthday cards.

Here's Luke with his Birthday Cake!

"Our Horrible and Wonderfully Miraculous Week"

What a week! I'd have to say it was one of the most difficult weeks of my life. God was so mighty in showing His miraculous power to our family once again, but not before great hardship and stress in our lives. Going back to the PICU was definitely the hardest thing I've had to do since Luke's accident. I can't even begin to describe the memories and pain it brought back to my life and then once again I was crying out to God to spare Luke's life, the only words I can use to describe it was that it was extremely intense and excruciatingly hard. Enough said!

Let me tell you all the miracles that God performed this week. I was very surprised to have to go to the PICU in the first place, I knew Luke was very sick but didn't realize how bad he was until we got there. When that Dr. told me he needed to go on the ventilator, I was in shock, I mean literally shock, I was shaking and crying out to God all at the same time. It was so difficult having Dr.'s that haven't seen Luke since we left the PICU 20 months ago deal with him as if he was the same child as he was then. They did not know that he now has emotions and is so much stronger than he was when we left that place. They begin right away asking why he didn't have a trache anymore, I kept telling them that he has done fine without one for almost a year now, that didn't seem to matter because they thought he should have one for the rest of life as with "kids like him, with brain damage," seem to have to keep them forever.

Luke kept trying to breathe above the machine and I kept thinking and asked once or twice if that meant he was ready to come off the machine. You can imagine my shock when the Dr. on Thursday night told me that he didn't think that he would be ready to come off the ventilator for at least 2 days to a week. The next day I went home for a few hours only to be surprised by a call from Gordy saying that they were going to start giving Luke less drugs to see how he would react, well needless to say he began to wake up and cough, showing his discomfort to having a tube down his throat. The nurse, who I know God put on duty that day for Luke, asked the Dr. to take a look at Luke and it was decided he was ready to go off the Ventilator. The nurse then decided to to be successful Luke would need an empty stomach, which she did empty with a syringe, one of the good things about having a g-tube, I guess. After waiting 40 minutes it was decided to to go ahead with taking it out, Luke did great his heart rate came down and he seemed to be breathing fine without the vent. We did have one time during the night when he had a bit of an episode of his oxygen numbers dipping they tried a few things and decided to do an x-ray and after giving him a breathing treatment his numbers began to go up again, I know they were thinking he might have to go back on the vent, since I happened to see them pushing one down the hall towards him room. That night I did not sleep a wink, I stayed awake vigilantly praying and keeping my eyes on his numbers and God was faithful to answer my prayers, he did not need to go back on the Ventilator.

The next morning Luke was still doing great and I knew that he was no longer in an intensive mode, I was hoping and praying that the Dr. would see it that way and sure enough when she came to check on Luke he was doing great and he sounded great. It was interesting that I heard Luke make more noise that day than any other day since his accident, he seemed to be be in pain each time he swallowed so we kept giving him some Tylenol and Ibruprofen and that seemed to help. He was out on the floor by 5:00 that night. I considered that to be a miracle since we had been told that we could expect him to on the vent at least 2 more days. God is so mighty.

As you know we came home on Easter Sunday. It was an emotional day for me as I was extremely tired and drained from the constant stress of the week. Luke had a great day and once again did great today until around 6:00 tonight. I decided to have Isaiah's Birthday party today since we missed having it last week and toward the end of the party Luke's oxygen numbers seemed to be plummeting. Well after some stressful hours and some more time on my face crying out to God, his numbers are once again looking good. I told Gordy a little bit ago I guess God wants to keep us on our knees a little longer.

Thank you for your prayers, I know without a shadow of a doubt that we would not of made it through this week without the faithful prayers of fellow believers. I continue to ask you to pray that he will come off the oxygen tomorrow and never have a need for it again, I know this is possible, because I serve a mighty God.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Happy Easter! And Luke's coming Home!

I just received a phone call from Sue and they are ready to let Luke go home. I will be going to pick them up shortly. Praise God!

If you missed the previouse post "Urgent prayer request for Annabelle", I encourage you to read it.

He is Risen. He is Risen indeed.

Urgent prayer request for Annabelle

I went to the hospital tonight to visit and as I got off the elevator, there in the PICU waiting area was a friend from several years ago. He was there with his daughter. His granddaughter Annabelle was born just a few days ago and now is in the PICU fighting for her life. She is having difficulty breathing and is now on a ventilator. She has some kind of infection and the doctors are not sure what exactly is the problem.

My heart breaks to see a family going through such a difficult situation. Please pray that God will give the doctors wisdom in diagnosising Annabelle's sickness. Pray that God will give the family grace for this difficult storm of life. Pray that Annabelle will recover and grow up to be a mighty woman of God.

Quickly, Luke is doing great and if he continues to improve, he should go home tomorrow. Please pray that we will have an awesome Easter home coming for Luke and Sue, we miss them both very much.

I pray that you have a great Easter as you take time to remember our Savior's resurrection.

The tomb is empty and He is risen!

On the floor and doing well

Luke moved to the floor yesterday around 5pm. I want to say Thank You and let you know that both Sue and I can tell that so many of you are praying. We truly can sense all the prayers and realize the grace that God is giving us.

I want to Thank our church family, many of them have provided us with meals this week, which has been a tremendous blessing to our family.

We are learning day by day what it means to trust Him. Many times this past week I have heard God whisper to me "Do you trust me?" You see in my heart I trust Him, at least I think I do. He wants to remind me that he is there all the time, the good and the bad.

I hope that you all had a very "Good Friday" and remember, Sundays coming.

Moving to the floor soon?

Luke is doing well and they are ready to move him out of the PICU to the floor. The floor is full and they are waiting for a room to become avabile.

Please pray that a room will open up soon, today would be great.

Luke is breathing on his own once again!

Luke has been extubated, which means he's of the ventilator and breathing on his own. PTL!! We're not sure what will happen next. Just keep praying that he continues to show them his strong cough and keeps his oxygen levels up.

Thank you for your prayers they are making a difference.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke is going to be extubated at 3:45pm

Sue just called to tell me they have decided to extubate (remove the breathing tube) him at 3:45pm. Please pray that he will respond favorably to the procedure and that he wont need to be reintubated.

Luke is doing a little better, but still needs a lot of oxygen

Just a little good news to share. Luke's lungs have been sounding great for the last 12 hours and his numbers have been good and he hasn't had any more fevers.

The BIGGEST prayer request we have right now is that his need for oxygen will go down. They are beginning to wean him off the sedation, which is a huge answer to prayer and he did cough which shows that he still has a strong cough. Like I said I have been praying constantly that God will breathe His breath of life into his lungs.

Last night as I sat in the chair dosing off and on I once again gave Luke to God, we've done this many times in the past, but I felt this time I really surrended him to the Lord. I've been saying to God all day long He is your child and I know that you are a good Father, I trust you as you do a healing work in his body.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Urgent prayer need!!!

The Doctors are talking about putting Luke's trach back in. Please pray that Luke will recover from this without the need to retrach him. Both Sue and my heart sinks every time we think about the possibility of having the trach back. Caring for Luke is not easy, but it is far more difficult when he has a trach. Please pray for our emotions and strength during this difficult time. Before Jesus was crucified he told Peter that satan wanted to sift him as wheat. Right now, I feel as though I am being sifted. Not that I am Peter, but that the enemy of my soul is fully engaged with an attack apon me an my family. It is hard to not feel like fainting. However God is my refuge, my very present help in time of need. I take courage in the Lord.

A pretty good afternoon

Luke had some challenges off and on this morning keeping his oxygen level high enough. This afternoon has been a good one and he seems to have stabilized for now. The antibiotics seem to be working, as the stuff they are suctioning from his lungs does not look as bad.

Continue to pray that Luke will gain strength and breath consistently with good oxygen levels. God has been gracious to Sue and I and we can definitely feel your prayers.

Thank you all so much for all the prayer support.

Love Gordy and Sue

PS - A friend of our family named Phil injured himself on the job and being self employed is unable to work right now. Please pray for his speedy recovery and his ability to go back to work soon.

Please pray that Luke's oxygen level will rise and stay where it belongs

Luke had a pretty good night, except for an episode where his oxygen levels dropped and did not come up for awhile, he also had a slight fever, but nothing to the extreme of before. When I came home this morning he was doing great, but Gordy just called to say he is desating again, which means he's just not getting enough oxygen.

I was so sure that we were getting over this hump, only to be crying out to God to once again breathe his breath of Life into Luke. Please pray that his oxygen levels will level out and that his need for oxygen will go away, we've seen God's miraculous hand time and again and we know He is able to once again touch our precious little boy. Thank you for your continued prayers, they are the only thing that is getting us through this tough time.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke as a bacterial flu

Luke a the H-flu, which is a bacterial flu that can be treated with antibiotics. The biggest challenge today has been keeping his oxygen level constant. This morning he kept desaturating (oxygen dropping too low) and they could not figure out what to do. A couple of godly men we know stopped by to pray for Luke and within 15 minutes he stabalized for quite a while. They continue to suction out yellowish/greenish junk from his lungs. Please pray that the antibiotics will kick into gear and begin to do their job.

Latest on Luke and prayer requests

Luke is still in the PICU on a ventilator to help him breath. He has a fever and when he wakes up, he is breathing against the machine causing CO2 levels to rise too high. When they sedate him to keep him asleep his oxygen levels drop too low. There is concern that the tube is in the wrong place and would need to perform a procedure to reintabate him. They did a culture on the fluid they found in his lung and it grew some bacteria that could cause a significant respiratory infection. Please continue to pray for Luke that he will recover quickly and be able to get off the ventilator soon. Pray that he will not develop a full blown respiratory infection. Pray that they will be able to find that place where he can rest and not continue to desat.

Sue is doing okay, although I know being in the PICU is very stressful for her. I will be going to the hospital in a while to relieve her for a bit. Please pray for Sue to continue to have strength and that God will give her the grace and peace for this time. Also, pray that her back will not have any problems from sleeping in the hospital chair.

Luke needs a touch from God

Luke was move to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) a few hours ago around 11:30 pm. He had a fever of 103 degrees. He vomited and as a result, aspirated some of the food. They intabated (sp?) him and put him on a ventilator to help clean out his lungs. There is concern that the food and stomach acids that made their way into his lungs may cause pneumonia or some other kind of respiratory infection. The Dr said she expects he will be on the ventilator for 3 - 5 days. He is heavily sedated to allow him to rest and to keep him from feeling the tube that goes down his throat.

I cannot even begin to describe the range of emotions that both we are feeling at this time. Being back in the PICU, walking down familiar hallways, listening to the alarms of the various machines, all the time wondering what this is all about. Sitting at a computer blogging, asking for prayer.

On the way to the hospital I turned on the radio and immediately a song by Casting Crowns called "Praise You In This Storm" (Lyrics below) began to play. I thought to myself that God want to remind me to prais Him in the storm. This song challenges us to praise God even when the storm is raging, even when we dont feel like it, even when your son isnt doing great. Therefore, Lord I praise You! Before everyone that reads this blog, I praise You, for You alone are worthy of my praise. Father, I cry out to You and ask that You would hear this father's cry for his son to be healed. Lord, please heal Luke. I ask that he will regain his ability to breath on his own quickly. Lord I ask that You will keep him from getting pneumonia or any other infection. I ask that you will cause the fever to subside. I pray that they will not need to do any more surgeries or procedures.

Please Pray that Luke will recover quickly. Pray that God will provide a miraculous healing for Luke. Please pray for our family that God will give us strength and grace to endure.

I appreciate each and everyone of you that read this blog and pray,

Lukes Dad

PS, here are the words to the song I mentioned, if you have not heard this song, I strongly suggest spending the $1 on itune to download it.


"Praise You In This Storm" by Casting Crowns

I was sure by now
God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
And stepped in and saved the day
Once again, I say Amen, and it is still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear you whisper through the rain
I'm with you
As your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I'll Praise you in this storm
And I will lift my hands
You are who you are
No matter where I am
And every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will Praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can't find you
I lift my eyes into the hills
Where does my help come from
My help comes from the Lord
The maker of heaven and earth

PRAY!

Luke has taken a turn for the worse. He has been transfered to the PICU. Currently he is in surgery to intabate and place a picque line. It's 1:30 in the morning and my dad is on his way to the hospital. We will give you more details when we know more. Please Pray!
Love in Christ,
Amy

Luke is in the hospital :(

I am sorry to report that Luke is in the hospital. We took Luke to the ER this evening because he was on 4 liter of oxygen. They decided it would be best to keep him until he doesnt require as much oxygen. Sue is at the hospital with Luke spending the night. Please pray that her back will be okay sleeping in the portable bed in Luke's room. Please pray that Luke will get well quickly and come home in a day or so. We appreciate each and everyone of your prayers. We serve a big God who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can hope for.

Love in Christ, Gordy

I humbly come to you with more prayer requests for Luke, Natalie, Daniel and Lily

I know that I mentioned in my last entry that we've had a flu bug hit our home. Amy, Isaiah, Ezekiel are now completely recovered, but Natalie, Daniel and Lily are still hanging onto it. I finally took Lily into the Dr. the other day because she is just not getting better, if anything she's doing a little worse. The Dr. said she has a horrible double ear infection, so now that she is on an antibiotic I hope she will start sleeping through the night again, so that I can get some sleep.

Luke started getting sick last night when I took his temperature it was close to 104 and he was on quite a bit of oxygen all night long. He woke up this morning and seemed to be doing better, no temp and his oxygen levels were doing great. Well it didn't stay that way through out the day, in the late afternoon he began to throw up and then his oxygen levels began to dip, I also took his temp and it was 101.5, I gave him some tylenol and oxygen, but I don't think he kept the tylenol down because of his throwing up. Needless to say I ended up giving him some Children's Ibruprofen and his fever has not come back, but he is still on 2 liters of oxygen right now. I have been fighting this feeling of fear that the last time he got sick like this he ended up in the Hospital. Please be praying that this will not happen and that his recovery time will beat all of his siblings recovery time.

Isaiah is turning 7 tomorrow, so I'm hoping and praying that everyone will be healthy, it would be so nice to have a stress free and fun day. I also want to let you know that Abbie is home again and doing much better. We do need to continue to pray for Joanna who is struggling with cancer and new little friend Gabby who also has cancer, she has a blog site to keep us up to date on her progress it is http://www.gabbysmiracle.blogspot.com/. I also want to thank you for praying for my friend Barb's brother, Steve, the Dr.'s are considering him to be a miracle. His recovery from the accident has been extremely fast, they thought he would need to be taken care of for a long time because of the brain damage, but he is doing great. We serve a BIG GOD, who cares for each and everyone of us. Please feel free to continue to share your prayer requests in the comments or e-mail them to me at howslukedoing@yahoo.com, I pray often for all of them.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

I've finally found a few minutes to update the Blog

Many people have been telling me, "you haven't updated the blog in a long time!" It's been kind of crazy around here lately and I've just not had the energy to sit down and type. Myself, Amy, Natalie and Lily went to Eastern Washington for my little sister, Lori's 40th birthday on March 17-19, we had a wonderful time, while Gordy and Daniel stayed home to watch Luke, Isaiah and Ezekiel. On the way there and home we had to pray that our old Subaru would get us there and home, it was blowing out big plumes of blue smoke every once in awhile. Needless to say we had a huge oil leak problem, God is faithful and we got home okay, it wasn't until Monday that we realized our car was dead. That same Monday I had to take Luke to PT and while I was putting him into his car seat I twisted my back and what I thought was no big deal turned into a BIG deal.

I ended up having some very horrible back pains and problems for the next two weeks. I spent many of days on the couch reading to the boys, watching videos and reading to myself. Natalie made the comment one day that she couldn't remember the last time that she had seen me sitting reading a book during the day, I couldn't remember either. I was finally getting better when my upper back decided to start spasaming, if you've ever had a charlie horse, just imagine that happening in your back and taking all the breath out of you. This last Thursday and Friday morning I was literally laying flat on my back because I could not move without extreme pain and not being able to breath, it finally started to go away after a lot prayer and Ibruprofen. Then on Saturday I woke up feeling great, it is amazing how much better I feel and today I don't even have a sore muscle in my back. God is so good!

Enough about me! Now onto Luke, he has been doing great and Praise the Lord even though Lily, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Amy and Natalie have come down with some kind of flu bug, Luke has not caught it. I'm praying that he doesn't. These last few weeks have not gone without some very stressful times because at times Luke seemed to be having seizures and sleeping all the time. Since then we've had a lot of prayer going forth and it seems that they have disappeared and he is a lot more alert and awake now. Luke has also been doing great at PT, his Physical Therapist has been putting him in a stander and he has been doing great at keeping his head up, he seems to really enjoy standing. After a lot of debating and praying we've finally decided to make a neurologist appt. his PT has been recommending for a while that we get some botox shots for his legs, so we are going to the appt. on May 13th. I'm praying that the Dr. will know from looking at his past records that he has made some great progress, but I'm not very hopeful that he will give us any words of encouragement, as we haven't had much luck in getting good reports in the past.

Last time I blogged I asked for prayer for Gordy, at that time the Dr. thought he had pneumonia, but we found out after his 3rd appt in a week that his Dr. thinks he had Bronchitis and now has asthma. He seems to be doing a little better, but still has many times through out the day when he gets to coughing so hard he can hardly catch his breath. Needless to say he still needs prayer, he has an appt. with an Allergist on April 21st, hopefully they will find out what he is allergic to and what is causing his horrible coughing spells.

One last prayer request, many of you have been praying for Abbie for a while now and even perhaps reading her website, which is one of the links on the side of our blog. Abbie went into the Hospital last week with pneumonia and difficulty with breathing, I'm not sure if she is still there but she needs a touch from our Healing Father God.

Thank you for your faithfulness in continuing to pray for Luke's complete healing, we haven't given up hope that his brain will be completely restored. We continue to lift up those that need prayer, please be sure to share your requests in the comment area.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

P.S. I haven't forgotten about the pictures, Gordy is going to show me how to put them into the blog so that I can start to do this without having to wait to get help all the time. Thank you for your patience.