I had to say good bye twice today

Lily and Karlos found a caterpillar and Luke got to hold it!

Today was a challenging day, it began by Luke's alarms going off, I thought perhaps he was getting sick, but thankfully he is doing just fine tonight. I know that I've haven't updated the blog in a while it's been a very busy time here at the Searles home. My brother and his wife came for a long over due visit from Denmark, we hadn't seen them for almost 5 years. We've had a wonderful time these past few weeks, filled with lots of family times together. They left this evening to go back home, my brother has lived in Denmark for 28 years and really is very Danish now, which is a good thing since he is married to a wonderful Danish Lady. We will definitely miss them and hope they won't wait another 5 years to return again.

Here is the whole family, minus my nephew Jesse and his wife Rebecca, plus my Uncle and Auntie and their grandson Greg and of our course the Rodriguez family which we've adopted into our family, minus Juan who was in Kuwait, but got home on Sunday. Whew I thinks that's all!

Here is the original 7, my parents, Cindy, Ray, Jill, myself and Lori

Here we are with our wonderful spouses!

Here is our ever expanding family, Daniel with his girlfriend Sara & Natalie with her fiance Josh

On the way home from the airport, I had to shop for ingredients to make Luke's food, yep it's that time again, I began his food process tonight cooking the meat for his formula. While my parents and I were at Costco getting the ingredients we received a call saying a very close friend of our family was in the process of dying and if we wanted to see him before he was gone we would have to head over the Hospital. We went in to say good bye, it was very hard to say the least. Ken Carter is an amazing Godly man, he was in a diving accident about 30 years ago that left him a paraplegic, he spent the rest of his life either in a wheelchair or a bed. Ken never got bitter about his life, he chose to love and serve God the only way he could, he would spend hours praying for people and his prayers were powerful. It was so hard saying our good-byes, he could not talk as he is hooked up to a ventilator, but he could still mouth words and the last memory I'll have of Ken is saying, I'll see you in heaven one day, then he began to sing a song, though I'm not sure just exactly what he was singing. He was almost unrecognizable as his body is very swollen, his heart is shutting down, but his face was radiant with the love of Jesus. I know that soon Ken will be rejoicing up in heaven running again, free from his horrible crippled body. Luke and our family has lost two of our biggest prayer warriors in the past few months, first my cousin Karlon and now Ken, both would spend time praying for Luke on a regular basis and I know that their prayers made a huge difference in our lives, which I'm extremely grateful for and am going to miss greatly.

Well I really do need to sign off, tomorrow will be a very busy day, but then what day isn't??

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke loves his Auntie Lori!

Our Sweet Daughter Natalie is Marrying the Man of Her Dreams Joshua Thomure!

Here is the news you've all been waiting for: Natalie Sue Searles our sweet daughter is marrying Joshua Lee Thomure, we are not sure of the day and time yet, they are hoping sometime either at the end of September or early October. Wow, I don't know if I'm ready for this, but I guess I don't have a choice. I'm filled with mixed emotions, I'm so excited for Natalie and Joshua, they've loved each other for a long time and now the time is right for them to move forward. At the same time, it will be a huge adjustment for our family to lose Natalie's amazing unwavering help and support in the home. Change is good, but ever so hard.

Joshua has already been around so much these past 4 years that he is already part of the family, all the children are so excited to get a new brother. Joshua was born in Missouri, he came here in 2004 days before Luke's accident. He was in the same ministerial program that Daniel was in down in Centralia, WA, he has a amazing passion for GOD, he is the youth pastor at our church, he loves Natalie's little brothers and sister and they adore him. In fact Lily asked who she would marry now that Josh is marrying Natalie, I think in her little mind she had already planned to marry him one day, a little young wouldn't you say? He has always been very kind and compassionate with Luke, always gives him hugs and kisses and has been one of Luke's hugest prayer warrior. We are truly blessed to have him join our family officially.

We had a very busy day today, church this morning, followed by a celebration dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, ran to Costco, came home to drop off things and kids, left right away to go to the airport to pick up my brother and his wife, who are visiting from Denmark, went to my sister Jills home for dinner, came home put the kids to bed, got the laundry going, caught up on some computer stuff, finally posting here and then I'm off to bed. Looking forward to a busy, but hopefully fun week with family get togethers and outings. Luke had a good day, though the heat of the day was kind of hard on him, I'm so thankful that he is doing better.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke is doing so much better, except for the complaining which I hopes stops today!

Hey thanks for the prayers, Luke is doing so much better, Praise God. Now I hope he will stop yelling today, I think his muscle tone has kicked into high gear and he has been in a lot of pain. I had started him on a new medication, but the Dr. felt we should stop it until his sickness was done since one of the side effects can be respiratory difficulties. I hope when we begin it again today we won't see any ill side effects.

We are looking forward to a very busy day, a huge secret will be revealed today, I'll let you know later what it is. Also my brother and his wife are coming for a visit today from Denmark, haven't seen them since right before Luke's accident in 2004. I'm exhausted but happy, we got the house completely cleaned inside and out, the bills paid, the check book balanced and our new front door and garage doors ordered. I love productive days! Now we can enjoy the week ahead filled with lots of family activities.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Don't forget to check back later for some very BIG news!

High Fevers, Low Oxygen, sound familiar, ya Luke needs prayers again!

Luke could use some prayers once again. He came down with something last night, ya we pulled another sleepless night. He has been running a very high fever and is on lots of oxygen. I took him to the Dr. this afternoon and he was amazed at how good Luke's lungs sounded, of course while we were in his office he was doing great, it wasn't until we came home again did he have another set back. Anyway all this to say we would really appreciate some prayers coming our way, thank you.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Finally a post!

Where to begin??? So much has happened since my last post. Let me begin by saying that Luke has been doing good. He has been healthy our only concern right now is the fact that his muscle tone has gotten worse lately and yet we have him on more Baclafen then ever before. We begin a new medication tonight called Dantrolene, we hope that combined with the Baclafen will help loosen up his way too tight muscles. Bending him lately has been a challenge, though we know that when I go away he always tends to get tight, he continues to stay that way even though I've been home over a week now. The Dr. told us that it would take a few weeks to see if there will be any positive changes with this new medication. If this one doesn't work we may begin thinking about a Baclafen pump, though I really don't want to go down that road.

The rest of family is doing good. Amy just got back from her 10 day missions trip to the Domincan Republic, she went with a team from our church to minister to the people there. They were kept busy daily with lots of meetings and manual labor. I had a wonderful time on my cruise to "no where", I hope to go on another cruise again someday and this time take will take Gordy with me. It took me a few days to get my land legs back, I felt dizzy for about 3 days, but praise God that is all gone now. The day before Mother's Day I blessed my Mom by taking her on a wonderful day full of exploration to some new beaches that we've never been to before and new area's of our Rain Forest here in WA state. We really do live in a amazingly beautiful place, y'all should come visit us if you ever get a chance.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Mother's Day this year. It was not a good day for me after getting home from my wonderful exploration day with my Mom and friend Yoli, I got very sick. I went to bed that night with horrible chills and fevers, the next day was spent entirely in bed, though I did get up for a few minutes to follow Ezekiel's home made map that lead me to his beautiful home made Mother's Day card. I spent the next day in bed also, I'm feeling better now, though still feel a bit weak and am not at 100% yet. It's weird but I believe I've had more health issues than Luke lately, my thyroid has been acting up. Today I found out that I have Hashimoto's Disease, it basically means I have a thyroid who can't decide if it wants to be hyper or hypo, not much fun that is for sure. It seems to be something that is in my genes, my mom suffered from the same thing until God healed her about 10 years ago, therefore I know that God can heal me also and that is what I'm praying for.

I realize that this post is long enough and I don't even have any pictures in it to share, that will have to come soon. But I need to share a few prayer requests with my fellow prayer partners: Noah is very, very sick and desperately needs a touch from God, Valerie Grace also needs a touch from Jesus right now, check out their prayer links for more information and please keep Luke in your prayers that his precious little body would loosen up soon. Of course it goes without saying that if any of you ever need any prayer or know of someone who does please let us know so that we can pray for you, faith is increased by numbers!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Y'all have overwhelmed by your kindness, THANK YOU!

I would like to begin by saying that I'm overwhelmed by your amazing responses to my last blog post. I don't feel worthy of all your praise, I'm just a Mom trying to live my life according to what I feel God wants me to do. Thank you for all your continued prayers, they are so amazing and powerful.

Luke is doing a bit better. I do believe that he is finally starting to swallow a little bit again, this is a huge answer to prayer. We are not having to suction him nearly anywhere the amount that we were having to do last week. Nights have been so much better, I only had to suction him twice last night and he has only been on a little bit of oxygen at night, this is a huge answer to prayer.

My wonderful husband has blessed me by sending me on a 3 day cruise with some good friends for my birthday. I will fly down to LA on April 28th and catch the cruise on the 30th, which is my birthday. It is a repositioning cruise which means it goes from LA to Vancouver BC with no port stops along the way. My only goals for the this vacation are to relax, sleep, play games, read, eat and have fun, I'm praying for no stress that week. I have been having some health problems lately and most of them are related to the fact that I've been under too much stress, therefore have been told by numerous people that I need to take a break from the stress. Please be praying that Luke is healthy, that is the only way that I know to have a completely stress free week.

Once again thank you for your amazing support and prayers, they mean more than I can ever say!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

It's Saturday Night and once again Luke is not doing great

I don't know what it is about Saturday nights but they have been and continue to be a huge trial for our family. It always seems like if Luke is going to get really sick it happens on Saturday, sometimes I wonder if "someone" just doesn't want us going to church on Sunday morning.

This morning I took Luke into see the ENT Dr. that took his tonsils out for a follow up appointment. The Dr. said that he looks like he is healing great. I did mention to him the fact that since Luke's surgery he has not been swallowing much anymore, in fact it has been horrible, especially at night. I think what happens is his saliva pools in the back of his throat and because he is not swallowing he doesn't breathe that great, causing his oxygen levels to drop. He wants me to call him back in a week and let him know how Luke is doing. Also suggested that maybe we should schedule another sleep study to see how he is doing at night. PLEASE be praying with us that Luke will start to swallow again and that we won't need to keep suctioning him all the time. I don't really want to go through another sleep study if we don't need to.

Sometimes I wonder who is still reading Luke's blog?? I was surprised to see that no one commented on our last post for a few days. I realize that not everyone that reads the blog needs to post a comment, I know I don't all the time, but because I know how much comments mean, I try to comment, even if it's just a few words of encouragement. The insecure part of me thinks that maybe I have offended people or that maybe they just don't care anymore, does that sound ridiculous?? At times I am haunted by a comment made by a friend of mine, whose son had a near drowning accident, almost 8 years ago now, she said, "that after 4 years people have stopped caring or believing that God is going to heal her son." I thought how sad, I continue to pray for Josiah and believe that God is able to still work a miracle after all these years.

It's so easy for us to give up on anything that we pray for a long time, but I want to encourage all of you out there that have been praying for something in your life, maybe salvation of a family member or friend, maybe a healing touch in your own life or someone close to you or maybe for a financial miracle, don't give up. There are so many stories in the Bible where God took years to complete the miracle that He began, His timing is definitely not always our timing. Remember, persistence in prayer pleases God! Sorry to ramble on, but I hope that in some way I have renewed your hope to believe that God is still the God of the impossible, for we (I) need to remember that daily!

May God richly bless you,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

We broke a record today by making 51 days of food for Luke, YAHOO!

I hope y'all had a nice Easter. We had a very good Easter, Luke was healthy, though he slept through the majority of the day. Luke is recovering from his surgery nicely, though he is still needs to be suctioned a whole lot more than he did before the surgery. I hope that once he heals some of the suctioning will lessen, I think that his throat has been too sore to swallow, so he let's all his saliva sit in the back of the throat until it gets to the point that he's not breathing so well. At night we have to suction him pretty regularly just to keep up his oxygen numbers. We take him in early Saturday morning, not a convenient time, but the only one offered for his follow up appointment, I'm pretty sure the Dr. will be pleased with his recovery, at least I hope so.

Here is Natalie with Joshua, Daniel and Isaiah and Just the Sisters!

We broke a record today, we made enough of Luke's food to last 51 days. The most we had ever done before this was 42 days. As mentioned previously it is a huge project and this time Lily and Zeke wanted to help. Zeke peeled carrots for juicing and then juiced them, Lily helped by peeling banana's, shaking soups and juices, drying dishes as they were washed and what ever else she was asked to do. It only took us about 4 hours because I had doubled the meat last time we made food so I didn't have to cook the meat today. As you can see by one of the picture we make a lot of eggs, eggs are very healthy for you, therefore we put in 30 eggs, that's not quite one egg a day.

One last sad note, I found out early Saturday morning that my cousin Carlon, who was married to my cousin Jeff died in her sleep. She was only 48 years old, she died of an yeast infection that had gone into her sinus'. Please be praying for Jeff and her two sons Justin and Jared, also for my Uncle Randy, Auntie Shirley and my other cousins. This loss was so sudden, the only "good" thing about it is that she is in heaven, no longer suffering from the extreme pain that she was in.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Keep Looking Up To God For Our Help, He is Faithful!

Luke had a great night, he only alarmed twice, compared to what he was doing that was excellent! I am thanking the Lord that he came through this surgery so well, I know many Dr.'s thought there could be some major problems. God is so amazing, he truly answers prayers!

What are your plans for Easter? We will be going to church in the morning and then over to Jill and John's home, which is my sister and her husband after church for Sunday dinner. On Saturday we plan to color eggs and Gordy's sister Pam and Husband Hal are coming over for a visit. It's so good to feel like a "normal" family this year, with the stress of Luke's surgery over and his sickness we can actually take a deep breath of relief. I remember all to well 3 years ago when Luke was on the Ventilator in the PICU during this time of the year, I'm so thankful we haven't back there since then.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

P.S. I realize this is long but I wanted to share with you something that has greatly ministered to my heart lately. I went through one of the darkest depressions in my life last month and it was only with God's help I can say that my focus is back to where it should be, in Christ alone. On April 2nd, I read this in the The Streams in the Desert devotional book, that I love, the bold part is what has ministered to me the most:

They looked. . . and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud. (Exodus 16:10)

You should get into the habit of looking for the silver lining of storm clouds. And once you have found it, continue to focus on it rather than the dark gray of the center. Do not yield to discouragement no matter how severely stressed or surrounded by problems you may be. A discouraged soul is in a helpless state, being neither able to "stand against the devil's schemes" (Eph. 6:1) himself nor able to prevail in prayer for others. Flee every symptom of the deadly foe of discouragement as you would run from a snake. Never be slow to turn your back on it, unless you desire to eat the dust of bitter defeat.

Search for specific promises of God, saying aloud of each one, "This promise is mine." Then if you still experience feelings of doubt and discouragement., pour your heart out to God, asking Him to rebuke the Adversary who is so mercilessly harassing you.

The very instant you wholeheartedly turn away from every symptom of discouragement and lack of trust, the blessed Holy Spirit will reawaken your faith and breathe God's divine strength into your soul. Initially you may be unaware that this is happening, but as you determine to uncompromisingly shun every attack of even the tendency toward doubt and depression, you will quickly see the powers of darkness being turned back.

Oh, if only our eyes could see the mighty armies of strength and power that are always behind our turning away from the hosts of darkness toward God, there would be no attention given to the efforts of our cunning Foe to distress, depress, or discourage us! All the miraculous attributes of the Godhead are marshaled on the side of even the weakest believer who, in the name of Christ and in simple, childlike trust, yields himself to God and turns to Him for help and guidance.

Keep looking up -
The waves that roar around your feet,
Jehovah-Jireh will defeat
When looking up.

Keep looking up-
Though darkness seems to wrap your soul;
The Light of Light will fill your soul
When looking up.

Keep looking up -
When worn, distracted with the fight;
Your Captain gives you conquering might
When you look up.

Luke is Home Again And Doing Better All The Time!

Luke is home, hallelujah! For awhile the Dr. wasn't sure if we should come home, but I assured him that we could handle Luke's needs at home, he left the final decision with me and I chose to go. Luke is still on about a liter of oxygen and needs to be suctioned often, but overall sounds pretty good. The most amazing part of his recovery has been the fact that he has not been in pain. The Dr. told us the new procedure they use now has been known to cause little pain, he was right, his heart rate has stayed perfect this whole time, which is amazing for him, therefore we know that he is not in pain. His heart rate soars when he is in pain!

Please be praying that Luke's oxygen levels will even out and that tonight he will do just fine, we could all use the sleep. Thank you once again for the prayers, y'all are amazing!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke's surgery went great and now he is doing great again!

Luke is once again doing good! His surgery went better than expected and then the excitement began. I knew something was going on because the Dr. said that they should be calling us in about 15 minutes to go see him after the surgery was completed. After sitting there for 30 minutes we realized that something was wrong. They called us to go to the surgery waiting area, when we got there the nurse was on the phone saying, "do you want mom to come?" I immediately knew something was going on and even though she told me I wasn't needed I asked her to take me to Luke. I was so glad I did Luke was freaking out he had 3 nurses and 2 Dr. standing over him trying to figure out what to do, you see his secretions were out of control which was causing his oxygen levels to be out of control and he was yelling. They were getting ready to suction him, which I knew he needed and then I told them that I would suction him the way he is used to at home. I begin to pray and talk with him and he began to settle down, they had his head way to far back therefore he was chocking on his secretions. The Dr.'s asked me if Luke was normally like that I told them that though Luke does not need to be suctioned all the time, he definitely would need some extra suctioning at this time. I got him settled down and stable, the nurses kept thanking me and saying they were so glad that I had taken over, Mom's really do know best!

We got up to his room around 8:00 p.m. After giving the nurse all the information again, we got him settled in and on oxygen. It was definitely a rough night Luke's oxygen needs were pretty high all through the night, I didn't get to sleep until around 3:30 a.m. when the nurse finally turned up his oxygen, he had mask on so we could turn up to I think 6 liters, once we did that he stayed stable. He is doing great now and I'm ready to go home were just waiting for the nurse to decide we can go, since Luke's Dr. said we could go when she felt he was ready.

Praise God, I'm so thankful for His amazing touch in Luke's life, He is so faithful to allow Luke to come through this surgery so wonderful. We are also grateful to hear that Luke's airway is looking good, the Dr. did a scope down there to be sure that there was no scarring from his Trache sight. The Dr. said the only thing that gave him any concern was the fact that he had quite of bit of cloudy secretions in his lungs.

When I ran down to get something to eat this morning, I ran into a old friend, her daughter Stephanie is in surgery right now, she had hip displacements when she was born and now 27 years later she is having surgery once again to fix the problems she's been having. Please keep her in your prayers, I know she will need them especially today and while she is recuperating.

Thank you for all your prayers, I know without a shadow of a doubt that they are the reason why Luke is doing so good.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke's Getting His Tonsils/Adenoids Out Today!

We are getting ready to go to the Hospital, Luke is getting his tonsils/adenoids out today at 5:00 p.m. I have a wonderful peace from God, that all is going to go smoothly. Dr.'s have warned us of all the horrible things that can happen today, but we serve a mighty God, who holds healing in His Hands. We will spend the night there and my prayer is that we will be able to come home in the morning. I know so many are already praying and we are so appreciative of your prayers, we feel them! Please keep them coming. We will let you know how he does later this evening.

God bless you,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Guess Who Got A Haircut Today?

If you guessed Lukie Man you guessed right! I know I cut it a little too short, but giving him a haircut is no easy job, especially since I did it by myself this time, usually I have help.

As you can see by the last picture Luke was saying "enough pictures Mom." Praise God he is doing so much better. Last night I was so blessed by seeing his wonderful oxygen and heart rate numbers, they stayed great all night long. Though today on our way to PT/OT he threw up a bit, so I decided he needed one more day of recuperation before he gets out again.

Tomorrow I hope to get Luke into the Hyperbaric chamber and then off to Poulsbo for our last time with "Matt the Rolfer," I misunderstood him to say that he would no longer being seeing patients there so we didn't even realize he was still there until he called to ask if we would be interested in going one last time. We will be sad to say good bye to Matt, he has blessed us on numerous occasions with his generosity and kindness. When I get home we will be getting ready for Isaiah's 10th Birthday party. A few of his friends will be spending the night, oh joy, I'm sure I won't be getting much sleep that night, but I'm looking forward to his party.

I have mixed emotions about next week, Luke's surgery on Tuesday is something that I know he needs but at the same time don't want to go through. I've been told by a few of his Dr.'s that this surgery can be dangerous, it's not like a "typical" child getting their tonsils/adenoids out. I know that it is in God's Hands and I just need to keep it there.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke has caught the "Plague", the horrible, nasty flu bug that has infected our home!

It looks like Luke has caught what we jokingly, but very seriously call the "plague." It began last week with Lily throwing up on Wednesday all day and night. Then Friday morning I being the mom that I am, thought the boys just wanted to get out of doing school when they were both complaining of having stomach aches, little did I know they were both beginning to come down with the plague, they threw up most of the day and night and continued to do so until Saturday morning when they began to get a little better. Saturday morning as we were getting up I went down to wake up the girls and found out that Amy was not feeling well, she had a horrible stomach ache, oh no, we realized that she to had the plague with it's full vengeance.

That day some of us went down to my parents home to visit with some very good friends from out of town. When I got home I thought my tummy was doing some rumbling and was in complete denial that I was too coming down with the "plague" until I began to violently throw up for the entire night, it didn't stop until 7:15 a.m. Poor Gordy was up with Lily throwing up in her bed, Zeke throwing up in his bed, Amy crying that she was in horrible pain, Luke alarming because of his sleep apnea oxygen needs and listening to his wife lose her cookies over and over and over again. You have to understand that I don't throw up often, I think the last time was when I was pregnant with Isaiah 10 years ago, but this flu doesn't care if you hate throwing up, it makes your body do that until you dry heave, not even a sip of water is kept down. I sucked on ice chips until about 5:00 p.m. Sunday when I finally thought it was safe again to try something, ate a small piece of bread and half apple, with a little Sprite. I felt and looked horrible as I had broken massive blood vessels in my checks from heaving so hard. I felt a little better on Monday, but my back was killing me from the ribs I had knocked out during my episodes, therefore went to the Chiropractor to get an adjustment, that helped immensely.

We kept praying that Luke would not come down with this horrible plague, I kept hoping that he was the one to begin it with his throwing up last week right before Lily began, but no he has it full blown. Gordy and I woke this morning to a little guy throwing up, when we went to him we realized that he was literally surrounded in diarrhea, after giving him two bath's to get him completely cleaned up we put him out on the couch with plenty of protection under him. He has continued to have horrible diarrhea, a high heart rate, throwing up, the works all day long. The only praise is that his oxygen levels have not been horrible he has only had to have about 1/2 liter tonight.

I spent the day along with the girls cleaning today, we have bleached and washed any blankets, sheets, clothes that have we have been in contact with, we've also been using dish washing soap with bleach, washing all the towels often, you get the picture, lots of work. As mentioned in my last post Luke is scheduled to get his tonsils out next Tuesday, please pray with us that this flu will not completely knock him out to where he will not be able to keep that surgery from happening. Would you also pray that Gordy and Natalie will not come down with this horrible flu that has been plaguing our family for the past week. I too will pray that y'all will stay healthy from all the flu bugs that are flying around and that you will not come down with the "plague."

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

G-tube Excitement Today at Luke's Doctor Appointment

Luke once again had a very hard night last night, therefore I decided when I got up today I should take him back into the Dr. today. I guess I was thinking that maybe he needed to get going on another round of steroids, the Dr. agreed with me and therefore I'm hoping this is what he needs to get over this round of sickness. When I was lying Luke down on the exam table I started taking off his shirt and realized his g-tube was missing. After looking around I decided that I should run out to the van to see if it was there and sure enough I guess as I was taking him out of his car seat I pulled it out. I grabbed it and and ran/fast walked back into the exam room, washed it off and put it back in. The Dr. was pretty amazed at how well I handled the situation, if only he knew how fast my heart was beating and the fact that I was trying really hard not to freak out totally. I had to change all of Luke's clothes as he was pretty stinky from all his stomach digestion gunk that got all over him. I hope and pray I don't ever have to that again.

Luke's tonsil/adenoid surgery is set for April 7th at 5:00 p.m. I was happy that it got changed from the 11th, but also sad at the same time as this is Isaiah's 10th birthday. We are going to celebrate Isaiah's birthday the weekend before and I will take him out to lunch for our annual Mom lunch, but I'm bummed I will be spending the night at the Hospital on his birthday. I really hope and pray this surgery will fix his desaturation problems during the night that he has been dealing with for the last 2 months.

Lily woke up throwing up today and has continued to do that for the better part of the day, please pray that she is doing better tomorrow and that whatever she has is not spread to others, thank you. I need to get my clock back to sleeping during the night, it has been so hard to sleep while Luke is struggling, but I've have suffered lately from my lack of sleep. I did get a 2 hour nap today, which for me is very unusual, I don't like wasting time on naps, therefore you have to know that I was desperate for sleep.

Love in Christ,
Luke' s Mommy Suzi

So Many Prayer Needs, Such a HUGE GOD!

Today is my Mother's Birthday, Happy Birthday Mom! I took the kids down to Olympia to go to lunch with her and some of my other family today. Luke did pretty good while we were there but when we got home he began to get a real runny nose and tonight he is back to not doing so good again. I have him on 2 liters on the nasal cannula and the flow by oxygen going to keep his stats up to where they should be. Needless to say he still needs prayers!

I don't think I ever reported back to you what we found out from his EEG. When I took him into the Neurologist he told me that he saw seizure activity that corresponded with Luke's video taken at the same time. He told me that Luke would go into high tone and look to the right each time and that was a seizure. I told him for years now Luke's right hand is extremely sensitive and if you touch it without telling him or even if he touches his hand on something he will go right into the high tone looking to the right pattern. But if you tell him you are going to touch his hand he will not go into that pattern. The Dr. told me that this was the first time he has ever seen anything like what Luke is doing. I could tell he was stumped, in fact he asked me if it was ok to share this with some of the other Dr. in the office to see what they thought, I said that it would be ok. Needless to say he wanted to put Luke on Keppra, which is a seizure med, but I've heard about Keppra and it has bad side effects, so I told the Dr. that Gordy and I would talk about what we wanted to do. We have decided to wait until Luke gets his tonsils out to see if that helps with the seizures, since we think they are partially related to his oxygen deprivation problems.

We have scheduled Luke to get his tonsils out on April 11th, not the date I would of chosen since it is the Saturday before Easter, but it is the first available date the Dr. has. Therefore we will most likely be in the Hospital on Easter again this year. Though we will see if it actually happens, I'm pretty sure he will need to be healthy to do this surgery, they just postponed his Botox injections, which should of happened today because they didn't want to sedate him while he is not healthy. So much going on, so many appointments, so many Doctors, I'm hoping and praying that as soon as he get's his tonsils and adenoids out he will get healthy again and stay that way for a very long time.

So many people need prayer right now, I almost feel bad asking y'all to pray, but I know that we serve a HUGE GOD who can handle all our prayer requests. Here are some urgent prayer requests: Sadie Belle, Baby Mia and Samuel Lockwood, they all need prayer for more information please check out their blog sites, they are listed in Luke's Prayer links.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

All About Luke! Update, Birthday Pictures and a Video!

Luke is still sick! Gordy and I were talking this morning about how horrible last night was. One of us were up at least 4 to 5 times every hour all night long, I said to him that's why I don't go to bed at night, I hate having to keep jumping out of bed. It was his oxygen levels, then his heart rate, then his food pump, then his oxygen levels, then his heart rate, then his oxygen levels, then his food pump, you get the picture. . . Luke is on Augmentin which is a pretty strong antibiotic, I think it has helped some, at least what he is coughing out is no longer yellow.

I was so hoping that we would all get to church this morning, but I didn't wake up until 9:25 after finally getting 2 straight hours of sleep. Luke is on lots of oxygen, the nasal cannula and his flow by. I'm going to go get him into the bath and am hoping that will help perk him up a bit. This journey has become almost impossible to continue on lately, I realize that is not faith talking. We need prayer more than ever, prayer for Luke to get better, prayer for strength and sleep, prayer for our hope to be renewed, prayer to stay strong, prayer to continue to trust God in our circumstances, prayer to be able to thank Jesus for the good days and the bad ones, just lots of prayer.

Here some pictures from Luke's birthday: The family helping him celebrate, Luke has just tried some frosting and seems to think maybe he likes it, Luke is riding on Daniel, who is pretending to be an elephant and finally Luke is whiped out after all the excitement.



Here is a video of Luke on his Birthday, at the Children's Therapy Unit with Eric his OT. He was doing so well that day touching that purple pad, which is a switch that will turn on a electronic toys and this day he was turning on the music.




Did you enjoy the pictures and video, please let us know, we love comments!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

The Sickness, Vicious Cycle Returns with a Vengenance!

Her's sweet Lily loving on her sick brother the other day!

Just quick update to say Luke is sick! I'm sorry for not getting on sooner, but my computer has been tweaking out on me. I went to put some pictures up last night and it wouldn't let me log in. Luke started getting sick on Monday afternoon, by Tuesday night he was full blown sick, I took him into the Doctor yesterday and he said it's not pneumonia thankfully, were not sure what he has. He's running a fever, coughing out yellow gunk, on oxygen, throwing up, you get the picture. We still have not heard from the Doctor wanting to take out his tonsils, but now we will have to wait again until he is healthy, what a vicious cycle!

Please pray,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Happy Birthday to Lukie Boy, he's 6 years old today!

Today is Luke's birthday! It's hard to believe he is 6 years old, time flies so fast. He is spending his day going to appointments, not what most kids would want to do on their birthday. He began the day with his Auntie Cindy coming over to get him ready for the day and to do some exercises with him, then we went to his OT appointment, who was so excited to see Luke doing so well working with his switches.

We were going to be done after that but we had to change his ENT appointment from yesterday to today, because of a schedule mix up with the Dr., so I decided we might as well make it a full day so that we can take off a day later in the week, therefore right now he is the Hyperbaric Chamber. He's doing pretty good, though he keeps yelling at us to let us know that he wants to be done, when he's not watching the Rescue Hero movie he's going right now.

After we are done with his ENT appointment we are going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner, he always enjoys visiting at their home, so I guess it will be a good ending to a very busy Birthday. I will share some pictures and all the results from his Doctor visits next time I blog.

Have a great day,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

EEG results, Neurologist and ENT appointments this week Luke has it all!

Today is a beautiful snowy day, though I hope the snow stops soon, Luke has lots of appointments today and I don't like driving in the snow. We begin the day this morning going to the Neurologist, he will share the results from the EEG Luke had last week. The EEG Tech said she didn't see any seizure activity, but not to get our hopes up they had to study the test because Luke has unusual brain activity. Duh, he suffered a brain injury!

Then this afternoon, if the snow stops I will take him to Port Orchard for a HBOT dive. After that at 4:00 we see his new ENT Dr. at which time he will probably be recommending a tonsillectomy and adenoid removal for Luke. Luke has been doing so awesome this last week, I'm having doubts whether I want to put him through that surgery. We need God's great wisdom in the matter!

We celebrated Luke's 6th Birthday on Sunday afternoon, his actual birthday is on Tuesday the 1oth this week. He really seemed to enjoy the activity and seemed to look at his cake and presents this year. He seems so much more alert this past week and so very smiley and happy or just the opposite, he's found his complaining voice again and let's us know when he is not happy. This year has been a hard birthday for me, I don't know what it is about him turning 6, except for the realization that he is not really getting better as fast as I had hoped for, crying for me has been a daily sometime hourly happening in my life lately. There you go keeping it real again, I'm praying that God will renew my joy and hope this week! Don't get me wrong I'm clinging onto hope with my fingertips, but I want to get to the place again this week when I'm strong enough through Christ's strength to hold onto that hope with my entire being, that might not make sense to many of you, but just know that I'm desperate for your prayers.

One last praise note, Isaiah is finally doing better, his cough is almost completely gone, Lily is doing better and Natalie is almost totally better, except for the nagging headache she's had a for a few weeks, please pray it will go away today for good. Thank you for your prayers!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke Has Appointments, Appointments and More Appointments!

Lukie man has lots and lots of appointments this week and next! On Tuesday he had OT, which he is doing so well lately picking up and putting down his hand on a switch to make a toy or music go. He was working so hard on Tuesday he would actually make loud noises to get his hand to go where he wanted it to, his OT was very pleased with his progress. We left there and went straight to the HBOT center, by the time we got home we were both exhausted.

I've spent lots of time on the phone the past few days. Luke's Pulmonologist has called on numerous occasions letting us know that he is working on getting Luke into the Neurologist and ENT. Luke is scheduled to go into see the Neurologist next Monday morning at 10 a.m., but they wanted him to have an EEG before that day so he is scheduled to go in tomorrow afternoon for his EEG. I plan to take him to the HBOT center before going to the EEG, I'm praying that we will not see any seizure activity. I'm hoping that the seizures that were seen during his sleep study were caused by a lack of oxygen.

I've been talking to Luke's primary Doctor, trying to get Luke into see a new ENT, which is just getting set up at Mary Bridge in Tacoma, he will be the only ENT Pediatric Specialist in the area. There are plenty to go see in Seattle, but I would rather not go up there if I don't have to. Needless to say he is not a preferred provider yet, therefore we would have to pay out of network charges, so I've been trying to get that small detail taken care of, which is a challenge since he doesn't officially have a clinic office yet. Therefore we are seeing him in Luke's Pulmonologist office, next Monday afternoon. Another day spent at Mary Bridge, will the fun ever end???

Will you be praying that Luke's brain will settle down and begin to do some serious healing soon? I know that seizures aren't always a bad thing, they could mean that his brain is trying to make new connections. We need so much wisdom in really knowing what road to take for Luke's best healing possible. Also whether getting Luke's tonsils and adenoids out are what is best for Luke, I don't want to make that decision hastily, I've already been told by two Dr.'s that the surgery could be very dangerous for Luke. I need to be sure not live by fear, but faith, that's easier said than done some days, but I truly am trying and I know God's see's my heart.

One last prayer request is for our family to get and stay healthy. At least one to two people have been sick since January 15th. Amy, Natalie, Isaiah and Lily have all been sick this week. Lily and Isaiah are on antibiotics for ear infections, they both have a terrible cough, though Lily is doing a little better today. If Isaiah is not better tomorrow when he wakes up I'm going to try to get him back into the Doc again, he's been coughing so bad he can't really eat without going into a coughing fit. I can't help but wonder why so many are sick??? I just know that I'm sick and tired of sick and tired children, I mean that I'm ready for healthy children again. I know that many are going through trying times right now, I don't want life to be all about our family, if you need prayer please let us know so that we can lift you all up to God. We've been diligently keeping Sadie Belle, Baby Mia, Hayden, Valerie Grace, Jaynee Lockwood, Dennis, Noah and so many others in our prayers already, but we know that God is HUGE and is able to do more than we could ever imagine.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke is getting better and better everyday!

I've been meaning to sit down for days and update the blog, I really wanted to wait until I was able to post some pictures, but I don't have time once again, but will soon. Luke is finally doing better, he actually stayed awake most of the day today, which was huge progress since all he wanted to do for the last month was sleep. He has also been weaned off the oxygen during the day and most of the night last night, though tonight he is on a little bit. This is a big answer to prayer, it seems like Lukie man is deciding to come back to us again, Praise God.

Luke's sleep study was an extremely hard night for me, first of all I was unable to see how he was doing the entire time I was there, as they monitored his vitals in a different room. The only way I knew he was not doing well was when a nurse came into say he was desating. I was not happy with the fact that they allowed his oxygen numbers to get so very low before they would do anything about it, he got down to the 70's one time and the 80's on numerous occasions throughout the study. I found out that he would be done around 3:30 a.m. so I asked if we could go home at that time and they said we could, so we were home and in our own beds by 5:00 a.m that morning. I did get a few hours of sleep that night, but not many.

On Thursday morning Luke's Pulmonologist called to let me know the results of his study, they were not good, as expected. He told me that Luke has severe sleep apnea, which means that he is definitely recommending that he get his tonsils and adnoids out as soon as possible. He also told me that Luke was having seizures all through out the night. I wasn't really surprised to hear this as I've thought on numerous occasions recently that I'd seen some seizure activity going on. The Dr. told me he would contact a ENT and Neurologist to get opinions on what should be our next steps. I'm still waiting to hear from these Docs on what exactly will be happening.

I was finally able to get Luke back to Matt the Rolfer today, we hadn't seen him in about two months, we are sad to say today will be our last appointment with him as he is no longer coming to Poulsbo anymore. We might go see him every once in a great while, but since he will be a good 2 1/2 hour drive it is not very convient to say the least. Luke also had a HBOT treatment today, he did great while he was diving and was so alert the entire time. Progress is a great thing!

The last few weeks have really taken a toll on me, I am exhausted, tired, fatigued and plain old worn out. I'm hoping after this weekend I can get caught up on some sleep and relaxation. Tomorrow we are planning a Women's Fun Day for our church, I know it will be a lot of fun, if I can just find the energy. On Sunday we are excited to have some of Gordy's family over, it's been awhile since we've seen some of them and are looking forward to getting caught up with all their news. Monday I'm thinking about finally getting my bathroom painted, its been needing to be done since Daniel tiled the bathtub, after that I should be able to slow down a bit, then again, Tuesday is filled with appointments, but Wednesday is absolutely empty and I'm trying so hard not to fill it up!

Thank you once again for all the prayer support, you all have carried us this past few months, we just couldn't of made it without y'all.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

PS If you haven't had a chance to visit the new sites I've added on to Luke's Prayer Links check them out. Noah is a precious little 2 year old that is having a very hard time right now and Mia is a sweet little baby that was born earlier in the month that is needing our prayers today. Check out their sites and let them know you are praying for them, it will mean so much to them to know.

Luke's Sleep Study is tonight, please be praying for answers

I got woke up this morning with a call from the Sleep Study Center saying they had a cancellation for tonight, do you want to take it? I wasn't sure because it is Gordy's Birthday and the thought of having to spend the night at a sleep center did not sound at all appealing. Though he assured me that we should take it because if we didn't we wouldn't be able to get in until March 19th. I told them that Luke is sick and on oxygen, would that be a problem? They said to call his Dr. and ask him what he thought. After calling Luke's pulmonologist it is decided that "yes," Luke should go ahead with the study. Please be praying with us that we will get some much needed answers tonight. Also that I can get in a few winks of sleep tonight, as I'm already extremely sleep deprived today.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Home again, home again, jiggety jig! Luke has pneumonia and is doing a little better, Hallelujah!

We found out tonight that Luke has pneumonia. The Dr. that saw Luke at the Urgent Care says that he thinks that perhaps he may of had it weeks ago after his first x-ray. He is doing pretty good for now, less alarms tonight than in the past few nights. His heart rate is actually down around where it should be for at night also. The Dr. prescribed an antibiotic and an steroid. I hope and pray that this will finally get Luke healthy again. The Dr. Luke saw this evening was very through, finally a Dr. not willing to give up until he knew what the problem was, thank you Lord for answered prayers.

Thank you once again for your prayers, we love y'all,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke is heading to Urgent Care again!

I'm getting ready to take Luke into the Urgent Care. He is running a fever, coughing out some yucky yellow gunk and has a super high heart rate, plus he's still on quite a bit of oxygen. I'm praying that he get's another antibiotic, though I'm thinking that they might send us over to Mary Bridge. I'm open to whatever, I want Luke to get better, I want answers, will you please pray that we can get to the bottom of this sickness once and for all.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

We are praying and praying, and waiting and waiting, to see Luke healed today!

Here is today's reading from my Streams In The Desert devotional book:

February 21
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him. (Psalms 37:7)

Have you prayed and prayed, and waited and waited, and still you see no evidence of an answer? Are you tired of seeing no movement? Are you at the point of giving up? Then perhaps you have not waited in the right way, which removes you from the right place - the place where the Lord can meet you.

"Wait for it patiently" (Rom. 8:25). Patience eliminates worry. The Lord said He would come, and His promise is equal to His presence. Patience eliminates weeping. Why feel sad and discouraged? He knows your needs better than you do, and His purpose in waiting is to receive more glory through it. Patience eliminates self-works. "The work of God is this: to believe" (John 6:29), and once you believe, you may know all is well. Patience eliminates all want. Perhaps your desire to receive what you want is stronger than your desire for the will of God to be fulfilled.

Patience eliminates all weakness. Instead of thinking of waiting as being wasted time, realize that God is preparing His resources and strengthening you as well. Patience eliminates all wobbling. "He touched me and raised me to my feet" (Dan. 8:18). God's foundations are steady, and when we have His patience within, we are steady while we wait. Patience yields worship. Sometimes the best part of praiseful waiting is experiencing "great endurance and patience. . . joyfully" (Col. 1:11). While you wait, "let [all these aspects of] patience have her perfect work" (James 1:4 kjv), and you will be greatly enriched. C.H.P.

Hold steady when the fires burn,
When inner lessons come to learn,
And from this path there seems no turn -
"Let patience have her perfect work."

L.S.P.

What a needed word for me today. Waiting is so hard, being patient is almost impossible, but realizing that this is exactly what God wants me to do makes it possible. Luke is desperately in need of a miraculous touch from Jesus today. Have you gotten tired of me asking and asking and asking for you all to pray? I hope not, I'm sorry if you are, but I can not stop asking because I know God hears our prayers and is going to answer them soon! Please join us in praying for:

• Luke's tonsil to get smaller again, they are blocking his airway causing severe obstruction problems, he stops breathing off and on all night long.
  
• For him to get off the oxygen that he has been on for the past month.
• For the alarms to stop going off all night long.
• For Gordy and I, we are exhausted, sleepless nights, stress, worry, we are holding tight onto Jesus' hand, but the journey has become so hard lately.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke and Washington's weather have a lot in common, they can both change in a matter of minutes!

Gordy made the comment on the way home from the Hospital tonight that Luke and the weather here in Washington have a lot in common, both the weather and Luke can change significantly in a matter of minutes. We went into the ER tonight and the Dr. there didn't think his numbers were as bad as we were told earlier in the evening. Luke looked pretty good and he was actually breathing ok, though he was still on one liter of oxygen. They put a special cannula on him that showed what his carbon dioxide output was and he looked pretty good, though not perfect. The Dr. didn't think that Luke needed to stay at the Hospital and we totally agreed with him, he said that we definitely need to get him into a ENT ASAP to get his tonsils taken care of. I guess there is a new ENT at Mary Bridge so he gave us his number to call, hopefully we will be able to get into see him this up coming week.

Thank you for your prayers, we were put into the same room that Luke had been put into when he was only a week old with RSV. That day we were sent to the Hospital because Luke was not getting better, on our way there we got calls out for prayer and Luke immediately began to improve. The Dr. finally sent us home, wondering why we had thought he was emergency. Praise God for faithful family and friends that know how to call out to God during our times of need.

I'm hoping and praying that our next entry in Luke's blog will be good news!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

We are on the way to take Luke to the Hospital, he had some bad blood test results today

I took Luke into the Dr. today and it was decided to run some blood work on him. I just got a call from one of the Docs saying that Luke's carbon dioxide levels are too high and his white blood count is elevated. He said that we need to take Luke into the Hospital so that they can run another blood gas test on him to see exactly what is going on and also find out why his white blood count is high.

Please be praying that they can take care of this situation quickly and that we won't have to be there for long. Also be praying that he won't catch anything while he is there, it kind of freaks me out to take him to the Hospital, so many germs. Would you also say a pray for Lily she has been not feeling so hot the last few days and I hate leaving her at home when she wants "Mama" to hold her.

Thank you for your prayers we sure do appreciate y'all.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

It's been 37 days and Luke is still not doing better, we find comfort in knowing that God has a Plan!

I would love to sit down tonight and tell you all that Luke is doing great but alas, it is not so. Luke is not doing good tonight, no not one bit, he sounds terrible and has been alarming like crazy. He's been on oxygen for the last few days again, not a lot during the day, but quite a bit a night. He did seem to be doing a bit better a few days ago, but it seems whenever we think he has turned a corner for the good, he's right back to were he was at the beginning of this sickness.

He's not the only child that has been sick, Ezekiel, Lily and Isaiah have all been sick the last few days. I'm happy to say that Ezekiel seems to be completely over the bug that he had, Lily is still complaining about a stomach ache and now Isaiah seems to be coming down with something. Tonight I was thanking the Lord that all this did not hit us during the Holidays, it would of been so hard to go through all this without the help of Amy. I wonder at times if Luke just keeps catching whatever is going around again and again.

Please will you once again put Luke back into your prayers, we are desperate for a healing touch from Jesus. It is so draining to go through this long season that doesn't seem to end, I know God has not abandoned us, in fact last night I came across this scripture and it really ministered to my heart: "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. When you come looking for me, you'll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else. I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." Jeremiah 29:11 -14 (MSG) This scripture is full comfort and help during this very trying time, it's hard to remember at times like this that God sees the bigger picture than what is happening right this minute, but I know that He does and I have to trust Him. To learn to trust Him and know that He will not abandon us is so amazing, it can be quite a challenge at times, but I know that's exactly where He wants us to be.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Happy Valentine's Day

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue
Jesus Loves You
And The Searles Do Too!

Some days are definitely harder than others!

Some days are just hard! I had planned to take the kids to our annual Homeschool Valentine's Day Bowling party today, but Luke is having a hard morning so I'm not able to go. Today I just want a normal 5 year old boy who would be excited about bowling, running around, shouting out his excitement about going or just sitting down filling out Valentine's day cards, you get the picture. Lord help me to be thankful for each and every day I know that your ways are perfect and yet on days like today I struggle with the reason WHY?

Luke did a little better last night, though he was on oxygen all night again. There were a few times that he would dip way down on his oxygen numbers. I finally got to bed around 3:00 a.m. so this morning when I heard him alarming it was just too stinking hard to get back up. I'm thankful my sister Cindy came to help, I was able to get in a few extra minutes of sleep.

Sorry for complaining today, I know that it will get better it always does. The reason we keep writing this blog is to journal our days, the good, the bad and the ugly. I realize that many people keep coming back to see "how Luke is doing," I'm thankful for your faithfulness and especially for your prayers, I can't imagine life without them. I look forward to that day that I can look back on these hard days and thank the Lord for His faithfulness in giving us the strength to make it through another day.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Two steps forward, three steps back, Luke continues to need your prayers

Luke has a fever again tonight. Last night as I mentioned in the post was a hard night, it continued to be that way pretty much all day. I didn't realize how sick he was and took him over to visit at Tia Yoli's house with Lily, I had planned to take the kids to Mt. Rainier to go sledding, but surprise we had snow today, the road up the mountain was closed. Since the kids couldn't go sledding I decided it would be fun to go to the cheap theater and see a few G rated movies, what could be more fun than seeing a double feature for only $2. Luke stayed on about 1/2 liter of oxygen all day, he slept most of the day, which is not normal for him. When I got Luke home I hooked him up and his numbers were not terrible, but they were not great either.

Tonight his oxcimeter has been alarming often, his heart rate is up again. I'm sure it's because of his fever, it got up to almost 103 degrees tonight. I gave him some Ibuprofen, but he threw up a little right after I gave it to him, so I'm not sure how much he actually kept down. His fever has come down a little bit, along with his heart rate. I am hoping that he will start to get better soon, so that I can get a little sleep tonight.

I've been reading the book "The Shack" it's actually taken me a few months to get through it. It's kind of a controversial book because of the way they portray God. I tell you what though it has ministered to my heart, I love the way it shows God as such a loving Father. It takes the verse that says It's not by works of righteousness that we have done, but it's according to His mercy that He saved us, not sure where that's found at this minute, but I know it's in the Bible, I memorized it when I was a child. It brings that verse to a whole new level, we can't earn God's love, we can't work for it, we just have to except it. Our Father God wants to wipe away all our tears and comfort us, He's not sitting up in Heaven pointing a finger at us accusing us of all our wrong doings, He is calling us to come and sit at His feet and just enjoy His embrace. I've known for years, it's not about religion, it's all about relationship! Anyway I think it's a good book and I would recommend y'all to get a copy of it and read it for yourselves, let me know what you think, I hope it will minister to you as it has to me.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

PS I would like to take a minute and brag about my wonderful husband. He had a awesome review today at work, but because of the recession did not receive a raise or bonus, this year. We are thankful he has a job, but have always looked forward to those bonus' they are what keep us ahead in all of Luke's medical bills, which add up to hundreds of dollars each month. I'm so glad we can count on God's math to supply our needs, He's never let us down yet.

Luke's another day closer to 100%, just praying it will happen soon

Luke continues to get better, though I don't think he is at 100% yet. He is still on a bit of oxygen each night. Tonight has been a challenge to say the least, it is 2:45 am and I think that I've finally got him settled for the night, for awhile he was alarming every few minutes. I find that sometimes all I need to do is rearrange him and his numbers will go back up, other times I need to turn up the oxygen for a little while to get him to where he needs to be.

I took Luke into see his Pediatrician last week and he decided that we should take Luke to his Pulmonologist so that we could get his opinion on just what Luke needs right now, whether that's taking out his tonsils or other suggestions. The Pulmonologist did say that Luke's tonsils were larger than the last time we were there and suggested that he does a sleep study to see exactly what is going on at night. Luke was not doing so well the day I took him in, his numbers were in the low 90's I thought he should be on some oxygen, but his Doc, didn't seem too concerned. I left there kind of frustrated thinking that if it was a "normal" child they would be trying to figure out what to do get the oxygen numbers up to where they should be, but since it's just Luke why worry. That's not what was said, that's just how I felt. I personally don't like to see Luke's number anywhere below 95, I'm more comfortable with them in the upper 90's of course.

I got a call from the place where Luke will be doing his sleep study, we've scheduled it for March 19th, which happens to be my sister's birthday. We will need to be there from 7:30 p.m. until about 7 a.m. He can have one person stay with him, so of course it will be me. I'm kind of curious to see what will be the outcome of his study.

In other news, we got our family picture done last Saturday. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I promise to show it to you all soon. Natalie is still on jury duty, she will hopefully finish up her case tomorrow. Amy was sick a few days last week, but is on the mend, I'm praying no one else catches it. I'm absolutely positively exhausted, I've gotten into a pattern of not being able to go to sleep at night, some nights it's Luke's fault, other nights it's mine. I guess all the stress of Luke being so sick has been almost too much at times, I know that I need to turn to Jesus and am doing my best, but I would still sure appreciate your prayers.

Love in Chirst,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke has finally been weaned off his oxygen!

I'm praising God today, Luke is finally doing better. For the first time in 18 days Luke does not need extra oxygen to keep his numbers up. His heart rate is back to normal too. Last night he had a pretty good night, only had to get up twice with him because he was breathing too hard, which made his heart rate go up. I suctioned him and got him comfortable and he was fine for the rest of the night.

I'm looking forward to this week being much better than my last few weeks have been! It will be busy, but at least it will be normal busy. Natalie has been called to serve on Jury duty the next two weeks, I'm hoping that she will not be put on a long drawn out case, she will have to miss teaching her piano students until she is done with her duty. Amy is now working two afternoons a week, along with teaching my YMCA swimming class since I've been on "Luke duty" for the last few weeks, she also took over as the CE Director at our church, yep she's busy. Gordy is hoping to get a full week of work in, since he's missed quite a few days the last few weeks and is wanting to get caught up on his sleep. Isaiah and Ezekiel are getting into a good schedule with homeschooling again, after getting messed up a bit from the craziness of the past few weeks. Lily and the boys are out playing in the sunshine, what a huge blessing today, we've missed the sun here lately. Daniel is doing great, he has a new sweet girlfriend that we all love and his web design business has really been taking off lately. I thought you might enjoy hearing about the rest of the family, since lately all I've said has been devoted to Mr. Lukie man.

We would love to hear from all of you out there in blog land, what you all been up to anyway??

Love ya guys,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Super Bowl Sunday...status update

Well it is Super Bowl Sunday and the big game will be on in just a few hours. I stayed home from church to watch Luke allowing Sue to get a break and be refreshed. I am glad she is able to go and break away from the situation, even if it is for just a couple hours. I thought I would give you an update on how Luke is doing.

Luke seems to have turned the corner. It isn't always easy to determine, just when you think you have it figured out, Luke will throw you a curve. However, He had a bit of a temperature yesterday that seems to be gone this morning. His heart rate is a lower and his oxygen levels are up and seem much better. Yesterday evening we were able to take him off the nasal cannula and use blow by only. This allowed us to give his nose a break as it gets very dry from the oxygen. With the blow by, his oxygen numbers have remained good.

These past few weeks have been a roller coaster ride, both physically and emotionally. I find that my emotions are strongly tied to how I am doing physically, in particular how much sleep I have been getting. When I get overtired and sleep deprived, I am more grumpy, and more easily discouraged by the situation. That is when I really need to press in to God and His strength to carry me through. I think the following verse in is appropriate for the situation

2 Corinthians 12:10"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

In Christ, I am strong. Phillipians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" I have quoted this verse many times these past few weeks and God has been faithful. I believe that much of that strength has come from the prayers of friends and family.

Thank you for praying, we can see the difference.

May Christ show Himself strong in you today.

Luke's Dad