Have you ever told yourself, you just can't do "this" anymore?? Don't believe this lie.

Lately I find that I tell myself, "I just can't do "this" anymore," I begin to believe this HUGE little lie, UNTIL I remind myself that I surely can't do anything without God's amazing strength and power I then remember that I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHEN'S ME, Phil. 4:13. Needless to say things have been so busy and stressful lately that a person without God's amazing strength would find it impossible to go on. Our house has been on the market now since the end of April, with little calls here and there to show it until this past week we've had 7 showings. We've lowered the price again and now are asking $25,000 less and still people don't think that they can live with on busy road. Or wish the house was in perfect condition for a home that is priced just under $200,000. Do you know how hard it is to live in a home with 7 people and to keep it in perfect condition at all times?? Gordy and I have finally come to the place where we've decided if it doesn't sell by this Monday, which is the day that our offer on the place we were hoping to buy is expired, we are then going to take it off the market for awhile. While it is off the market we will pray for God's direction in which step we are to take next.

Here's Luke when he was in the Hospital for his 24 hour EEG,

he got a precious visit from the sweetest dog ever.

As mentioned in my last post Daniel is marrying the love of his life Sarah on August 22nd. Therefore we have been very busy with moving him into his new home, Bridal showers for Sarah, getting all our clothes bought, bringing all the details together for his wedding and then separate reception later in September. Along with another big wedding today for two very special people in our church, Amy and Joshua are both in the wedding and we are helping wherever they need help. Can you say busy??

Here's Daniel and Sarah on the day they became engaged.

Amy was the Assistant Directer at two weeks of Church Camp and is going again in two weeks for one more week, of course it is the week before Daniel's wedding, so both her and Natalie will be coming home from camp on Saturday and then almost be going straight to the rehearsal dinner that night. We are also trying to fit into our busy schedule our annual church camping trip next weekend which of course we have been planning to go to since last May, whew, it makes my head spin just thinking about all we need to do to get ready.

Here we are on our 4th of July camping trip to the Oregon Coast

I'm extremely thankful for the fact that Luke has been doing so well. He has not had pneumonia all summer long, this is a HUGE answer to prayer, God knows how much I can truly handle:-] I just took him into the Dr. and we've decided to up his baclafen some more to see if he is able to handle it without becoming too sleepy. We've also been slowly upping his seizure med, which I'm not sure if I'm liking it as he seems to be having more episodes lately then he was before we put him on this med. The Dr. said they want us to get him to his full dose before we decide whether to keep him on this med, I said okay, but if I don't see less episodes I'm taking him off the med, it's not good to have him on something that is making him worse.

Here's Zeke and Luke with their faces painted like soldiers,
by soldiers at the Air Show we went to last month

Well as usual I've talked your ear off, so sorry:-/ I hope and pray that the next time you tell yourself that you "just can't do "this" anymore" you remember to call out to God who is so generous with his amazing help and strength, He is faithful and will get through anything you are going through.

Love y'all,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Here is a picture of the day Natalie and I took a hike up at Mt. Rainier.
That day was a gift from God, the sky was so blue and the Mountain was majestic!

Finally a Long Update full of all kinds of News!

WOW, life has been crazy busy lately, so sorry for no updates, I guess I just haven't made myself sit down and write. So much news, where do I begin???

• I guess with the biggest news of all, Daniel is getting married and soon, August 22nd to be exact. We're so excited to be adding Sarah to our family she is a sweetheart and will definitely be a wonderful addition to our family.
  
• Amy went to Mexico a week ago on a missions trip, she had a wonderful time and is now getting ready to go to camp for part of the rest of the summer.
  
• Natalie and Josh are doing great, they continue to rack up the amount of geo-caches that they've done this year, we are so blessed to have them live so close, close enough for them to drop by every once in awhile for a fun game of Pinochle.
  
• Isaiah just had the opportunity to go out wave riding this past weekend and absolutely loved it.
  
• Ezekiel loves to play in the water, if the temp is over 70 he is asking to turn on the water sprinklers in the back yard. Both Isaiah and Zeke will be joining Amy for a week of kids camp in two weeks, they are very excited about going!
  
• Lily is having so much fun this week at VBS at a local church here in the neighborhood. She along with Isaiah and Zeke began taking Karate lessons at our church, she seems to little to begin but she wanted to do it and she is slowly but surely learning, even though she is so tiny, I know one day she will be able to protect herself from anyone trying to harm her.
• Gordy and I will be celebrating our 27th year anniversary next week, sometimes I wonder how time can fly so quickly. We just got back from a family camping trip to the Oregon coast over the July 4th weekend. We actually had a hot day at the beach, that doesn't happen often in OR or WA for that fact.
  
• Gordy tries hard to make time each week for a few rounds of golf, it's one of his favorite past times lately.
  
• I recently finished up leading a Women's book study at our church, the book is Who Switched Off My Brain, it is an excellent book and I highly recommend it. I also am making time to go on very long walks, I love walking and hiking and tomorrow Natalie and I will head up to Mt. Rainier for a grueling, but very beautiful hike.
• Okay, you are probably saying enough with the rest of the family, we want to know how Luke is doing?? He is doing pretty good right now, he did really well on our camping trip, Praise God and he has been pneumonia free for the past two month's that is great news! We did get the results back from his EEG and found out that he is having seizures, the Dr. wanted us to start him on Keppra, I have reluctantly agreed to do this and finally began giving him Keppra yesterday. We are starting out on a very low dose and bringing it up slowly until we get to the place that the Doc wants Luke in about 4 weeks. I hope and pray that Luke will benefit from being on this med and that he won't suffer from all the horrible side effects that it can bring.
  

Part of the reason it's taken me so long to post an update is because I wanted to get some pictures posted at the same time, but I decided after getting another e-mail today asking how Luke is doing, I would go ahead and give those that want to know an update, followed up in a few days with some pictures, that is if I get a few minutes in my schedule:-}

Thanks for caring and for all your prayers,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

I'm so thankful that prayers are "FREE"

Last night I was thinking that, "I'm sure glad prayers are free, because I sure have been asking for a lot of them lately" and once again today Luke has two very important appointments at 9:00 we would love to hear some good news about his muscle tone issues and at 10:30 it would be wonderful to hear that God has worked a miracle in his lungs. I KNOW NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

I have been battling with some doubt lately and would appreciate some prayers that GOD would give me victory in this area of my life. I know that God is able to do all things through faith, but sometimes I get tired and doubt begins to overtake my faith. Today once again I humbly ask you to lift both Luke and I up in your prayers, for I know you have a strong faith and truly do believe that your prayers will carry us through another long day of medical appointments. I am thankful in advance for your faithfulness to keep us in your prayers, you really do keep us strong!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

PS Thank you for your prayers for Luke's EEG, everything went smoothly during his Hospitalization. I will write more about that later when I get home from his appointments today.

Would really appreciate your prayers today

I'm taking Luke in for a 24 hour video EEG today at the Hospital. I'm praying that he will be okay today, he's been on some oxygen all night long and has been very "junky." Please join with me in praying that we will catch any kind of seizure activity he may be having, that is if he is having any. I would also appreciate some prayers for me as I'm not looking forward to being at the Hospital on camera for the next 24 hours. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I'm starting the day extremely tired. I need to feel the peace of God today and know I need the joy of the Lord to be my strength.

Thank you,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Bad news, more kind of bad news, good news and some kind of good news

Last week we showed our home twice, both times the people liked it but they were deciding between three homes, I guess ours didn't make the cut. We keep praying that someone will come and fall in love with it, we realize it's not perfect, it's definitely got that lived in feeling, but we would like to think that it would be a good family home for someone with a big family. Please keep praying with us that it will sell this week. The home we really want is contingent on our home selling by May 31st, after that we will have to renegotiate with them to give us more time. It's so hard to live in a home that you need to have show ready at any time. At least they have to give a two hour notice to show it, that helps some.

The pictures above are from Luke's Orthopedic Dr. appointment at Children's last week, can you tell we were bored?? That is where the good news and kind of bad news comes into play. The first Dr. that saw Luke said that the only surgery that he would suggest would be one that would permanently bend Luke's knee's by cutting some tendons in his quads and reconstructing his knee pads. I was feeling a bit stressed after hearing that and mentioned that I wouldn't want to do anything permanent at this time, that is when he suggested doing some x-rays. The x-rays brought some good news along with another Dr. the one we were supposed to see, he said that Luke's knee's and hips bones actually still look good, they are both rounded, quite often in kids like Luke the bones get flattened and that is when they have a challenge fixing them. He said that he felt that if we could get Luke's muscle tone issues dealt with either by upping his oral Baclafen or putting in the Baclafen pump, if that didn't work, he felt like we could still get those knee's bending without any surgery. That has been our goal recently and we really need your prayers that God will miraculously reach down and touch Luke's legs or He will help the Baclafen start to do it's job.

The really bad news came on Tuesday morning when we got the results from the x-ray of his lungs that I had taken him into to get on Monday. You see last weekend Gordy had a rough time with Luke, I had gone away for two nights with some friends for some much needed R & R, that means some sleep and while I was gone Luke had a terrible weekend. He was very congested and had a high heart rate and needed to be on oxygen most of the weekend. I decided that since we needed to get a follow up x-ray done before next week, when I take him back to the Pulmonologist that I might as well get it done to see if he had anything brewing in his lungs.

The kind of good news was it didn't look like he has pneumonia, the really bad news is that his lungs have not improved and he still has the atlactis, which means his left lob is still collapsed. I was devastated when I heard this because I know Luke can't continue to be this way and I'm not sure what the Pulmonologist will say next week when I take him in. I'm not trying to borrow trouble but I do know that the horrible "T" word has been mentioned as one of the ways of getting rid of this problem. For those that don't know the "T" word is trache, I don't feel I can go back to that again. PLEASE pray with us that when I take him in on June 3rd he will be miraculously better. I realize that I've asked you to pray for two miracles in this blog posting and I know that I serve a big God who can answer these prayers, so I want to thank you in advance for lifting these prayers up to God for us.

So in a nutshell this is what I'm asking prayer for:
Luke's legs to bend either miraculously, which is what I'm hoping for or with the oral baclafen, not having to get the pump.
Luke's EEG is scheduled on June 1st, he will be spending 24 hours in the Hospital, please be praying that he will have no seizure activity show up.
Luke's collapsed lung to get better and for his appointment with Pulmonologist to go great on June 3rd.
Also for Izzy, she had surgery on her hips on Friday, please pray that she will have a speedy recovery and will get to go home from the Hospital tomorrow.
And last but not least for our house to sell this week.

THANK YOU,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Wow, What a Week!

So much has happened since the last time I wrote. Perhaps I should start with the latest happenings and work my way back in time. Yesterday I got a call from my dad saying that my sister Jill and my mom had been in a car accident. At first we thought it wasn't too bad, but the more we heard about it, it kept getting worse all the time. Jill was driving my Mom's car on the way home from a special birthday outing when all of the sudden a car came straight at them in their lane, to try to avoid the car my sister pulled the car off the road into a deep ditch, the car hit my parent's car on the driver's front side and it ended up flipping over onto it's side. Jill was able to get out of the car with some help from the neighbor across the road and then they had to cut out the front windshield to get my mom out. They both rode in an ambulance to the nearest hospital. Long story short they both ended up being fine, except for some bruising of the lungs for my mom and some soreness for both of them. It is a huge answer to prayer, because as you can see the car you would have to think that they would of both been far worse.
As mentioned in my last post we've had our home on the market now for just about 3 weeks and we had one offer that fell through, we showed it again today but still no more offers. It has been challenging and stressful to keep the home show ready at all times. The home we are wanting to move into is contingent on the sale of our home, we have until June 1st to sale our home before we will need to renegotiate with the sellers for a new contract. I was really beginning to get stressed out about all of this on the way home from taking my dad to get his car cleaned out today, when I had a really good prayer time on the way home. I once again realized that I have no control over when our home sales, only God does, I just have to trust Him to know that He has a plan and He will allow our home to sale when it is his perfect timing.

Here I am with my Daniel Boy on Mother's Day, standing in front of our home

Here I am on a walk with my family on my birthday

I celebrated my birthday two weeks ago and guess what I got a new camera, so my goal in life to is post more pictures more often, so today you will be seeing all kinds of pictures. I had a great birthday, I feel so blessed:-}

Luke getting kisses from Auntie Jill

Luke getting lovies from Zeke

Luke getting a kiss from Daniel

Lily giving Lukie some more kisses

Luke has been doing pretty good lately, he seems to finally be getting over this pneumonia he's been dealing with for so long. I ended up taking him into the Neurologist a week ago, he seems to be having some seizures lately and a had a few scary ones about a month ago. He is scheduled to have a 24 hour EEG done on June 1st. I'm not looking forward to this stay as it will be videotaped the entire time, but I know that we need to do this so we can get some answers to what has been going on lately. Luke seems to be more stiff lately, it really doesn't seem possible that he can be any tighter than he usually is but he has been and I'm not sure why. I will be taking him up to Seattle Children's Hospital next week for an appointment with an Orthopedic Dr. that I've heard is great to see what he thinks we can do for his knee's and hips.Luke's OT has been working on trying to get Luke to communicate better with us and also trying to get him to not be so hyper sensitive. We have decided because it is so expensive to take Luke to two appointments a week we are cutting it down to just one with the OT for awhile so we can concentrate on these very important issues.

Here's Luke in the balls with his OT

Once again I've stayed up way too late, so I bid you farewell my friends,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

A Week Full of EXTREMES

Wow, what a week of Extreme's: Extreme Joy, Extreme sadness, Extreme hope, Extreme hopelessness, Extreme goodness, Extreme heartache, Extreme anticipation, Extreme disappointment, Extreme stress, Extreme blessings. I'm ready to have this extreme week over.

I began the week with much anticipation and anxiety of what Luke's new Dr. would say, wondering if she would have the much needed answers or solutions on ways that we could get Luke's leg's bending again and help for his extreme muscle tone issues and left her office with more questions than I did answers. It was not the Dr.'s fault for the many questions and feeling of extreme desperation and despair when I left the office, it was because in Luke's case there seems to be no answers. The Dr. did explain that because of Luke's extreme damage to his brain during his near drowning accident that kids like him don't really have many answers to ways to help with the struggles they often experience with their extreme muscle tone issues. The solution she gave was continue to increase his baclofen, which is a muscle relaxant until we see him begin to really relax or until he becomes so drugged that we don't like the reactions we are seeing him have to the drug. Often kids like Luke need too much baclofen to make them relax and even though it really does help with the muscle issues, it's not good for the cognitive connections we are trying so hard to get him to make. Our other option is a baclofen pump, which is not always the best choice either, it creates a whole net set of challenges.

I left the office with a deep sadness and depression that day, I still can barely talk about it without tearing up. You see we continue to travel on this journey holding on tightly to hope and at times it seems that the hope we hold onto so tightly becomes almost impossible to hold on to. If you know me at all you must know that I don't like crying, I never have, it has always been embarrassing and non productive to me. I would rather come up with solutions and see the good side of situations rather then the impossible sides, I consider myself to be a pretty positive person most times. But this week I've felt an utter hopelessness that I haven't felt, well ever, crying more this week than I have in years. I still don't know if we should go back to this new Dr. or the Dr. Luke had before. You see the reason I was trying a new Dr. is because I didn't believe that there were no answers to Luke's tone management as his other Dr. was telling me.

On top of the stress of the difficult choices we now need to make for Luke, we have had the extreme stress of having our home on the market along with the stresses of making an offer on our new home. That's where the joy and goodness come into play for the week. The offer we made on the new home was accepted and we are going forward with hopes of living there one day. Now all we need to do is sell our home and that is huge, but not too huge for GOD.

I celebrated my birthday yesterday, it was a good day, but even on the best of days the sadness of hopelessness still lingers in the back of my mind. I'm praying that God will bring me out of the pit of hopelessness soon. I know, beyond doubt that God has a answer for Luke's muscle tone issues, I know that He could reach down His healing Hand right now and bend his knee's, I know that it's easy for Him to make a new brain with new connections, that is what I have to tell myself everyday, I have to believe it without seeing it, because that is what God desires. He desire's my trust and hope when I don't feel like it, when I can't see it and when I feel like nothing will ever change. I've had a week of crying now it's on to find some new answers, even if those answers are God's still voice in my head saying "trust ME, Sue, I've never failed you before and I'm not going to start failing you now."

Don't feel sorry for me, I don't want pity, but I would love your prayers. Prayers for Luke's legs to bend, for Luke's brain to heal, for Luke's muscle tone issues to get better, for direction in finding answers to impossible questions, for our house to sale, for God to lift off this dark cloud that I'm under, for me continue to trust Him even when I don't see any answers concerning Luke's health, for Luke's pneumonia and lung issues to heal and of course for strength to continue on the journey I never asked to go on. THANK YOU.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

We had a offer made on our home yesterday, now we need prayer for wisdom and favor today, please pray:]

We got a offer on our home yesterday, less than one week after we put it up for sale. We prayed that we would sale it quickly, but this is almost too quick, we are not sure where we are going to live. Would you please pray that we have wisdom and favor today as we negotiate the price for our home, the people offered way less than what we were hoping for and they also want the house by May 15th. Also pray that we will know exactly where we are supposed to go, we've been praying about a home for many month's but it was taken off the market a few months ago, now we need wisdom and favor for getting into this house quickly if that is what God wants us to do.

Thank you for your prayers,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

After talking about it for years we've finally put our house up for sale

We did it, we finally did it, we finished getting our home ready to put up for sale. We've talked about doing this for years and we've finally done it. Tomorrow morning the sign will be put up in front of the house and it will be listed out on the internet. My parents bought this home brand new in 1978 and then Gordy and I bought it from them in 1987, we have so many good memories here and some sad ones too. I doubt that we would of ever thought about moving if it hadn't been for Luke's special needs. We've been comfortable here and have always loved our property and tree's. It's been a good home for our family and we will miss it. We have a place that we are looking into buying but nothing is for sure yet, it's hard not knowing exactly where we are going, but we feel we are doing what we are supposed to be doing in selling this home.

After typing that Luke was doing better he began to get sick again on Sunday night. I e-mailed the Dr. to let him know what was going on with Luke, he was running a fever, on oxygen and had a high heart rate. His pediatrician called Luke's Pulmonologist and it was decided to start Luke on another antibiotic to see if this one will finally get rid of the what has been brewing in his lungs for the past 3 months. He is doing better once again, we continue to ride on the Luke Roller Coaster ride, not a fun ride at all:[

I decided to take Luke to see Matt the Rolfer today. I had recently weaned him off his Dantrolene, which is one of the muscle relaxants that he's been on for a long time and I was curious to know what Matt thought of his muscle tone. It was exciting to hear Matt say that Luke's muscle tone was better than it's ever been, Matt actually said that the last time I took Luke to see him, so that means that Luke is doing better and better all the time. It was kind of rough weaning him off this med, it was the second time that we had tried to do this and I was worried last week when Luke seemed to be in more pain than usual, I think it was because he is becoming more and more cognitive of his muscles and body, which is exciting to see, but also painful to listen to him crying. I am happy to say that he is doing so much better, no more crying this week. I'm taking Luke to a new Rehab Dr. at the end of the month and it will be interesting to hear what she has to say about Luke's muscle tone issues and her suggestions on ways to help him.

Will you please pray that our home will sell quickly and that we will know exactly where we are supposed to move? We are walking in faith truly believing that we are being obedient to what God is calling us to do, but it is kind of scary not knowing for sure where He will take us. That is what faith is all about, believing without seeing.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Luke's doing better this week, Praise God!

Here's a picture of my precious children on Easter Sunday. We had a very nice Easter, we began it at church and then we went to my sister Jill's and her husband John's home for Easter dinner, it was a very good day and dinner.

Luke has been doing so much better this week, which is wonderful. I thought that Luke needed to see a Pulmonologist with hopes of getting some suggestions for ways to get rid of this pneumonia and atalectis he's been dealing with for the past 3 months. With his regular Pulmonologist out of town we went to see a different Dr. he gave us a prescription for steroids and put Luke on Zithromax three times a week for six weeks. The steroids were just what Luke needed, I really do believe it is why Luke is doing so much better this week. I'm not so sure I want to put Luke on an antibiotic for 6 weeks, I don't want him to get immuned to taking an antibiotic. I guess I wonder if he would need to take one again in the near future if his body will need a super strong antibiotic that we won't be able to give him at home, therefore putting him into the hospital. I'm trying not to worry about this and am praying that God will give us the peace and answer to know exactly what we need to do.

We've had a busy week. Isaiah turned 11 on the Wednesday the 7th, he had a few friends over to spend the night last night, all them very nice boys they had a great time. We got the yard done, it is officially ready for putting the house up for sale, I believe it will be one of the selling points of our house, our backyard is very kid friendly. Only a few more things to do and I think we are going to have our Realtor put it on the market this week. We still aren't sure where we are going, but have a few idea's of places we would like to live if they will work out. I am praying that we will sell our home quickly, the thought of keeping our house clean and having people walk through it all the time is extremely stressful to me.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

PS Which picture do you like best the one on top or bottom? I had a hard time choosing which one to post.

Finally some pictures from our Cruise:]

My cousin Kim sent me a e-mail yesterday asking me when I was going to put up some pictures from our cruise. I had a few extra minutes in my day today so I thought even though I know these pictures are over a month old, I would post them for those that wanted to see them here. This post has nothing to do with Luke, just his old parents:]

Here I am hanging out our balcony on the way out of the San Pedro Harbor.

Gordy on the boat taxi out to Lands End in Cabo San Lucas


Here we are on our over looking the bay of Cabo San Lucas

Here is our ship, notice the difference in the color of the ocean, it's amazing how many shades of blue it really is.

Here I am standing in front of the catcus they call Mother in Law Pillows, doesn't look very comfortable to me!

They had a mini golf course on board, notice how windy it was, my hair is flying!

Can you see Gordy at the end of this HUGE golf club?

Here we are all dressed up for one of the formal nights

The Dinning Room was three stories high with this beautiful chandelier in the middle of it

Here I am trying L'Escargot, not too bad for a slimy slug, the food was absolutely delicious!
This picture does not do justice to the absolutely amazing Ice Show we saw aboard the ship, the ice skaters where mainly from Russia, they were phenomenal!

We had room service twice a day, I could get used to that! They would leave little creatures made out towels around the room, our room steward was so friendly and efficient.

Here is a picture taken from the elevator down the main corridor of the ship. Our ship was 14 stories high, it was so beautiful and elegant.

Here is a picture of the place where we ate Gordy's birthday lunch in Mazatlan

Here I am sitting on a spit out in front of the Restaurant, have I said how beautiful it was there?

Here is Gordy eating his special birthday dinner, it was prime rib and it was delicious!

Here is one of the many beautiful sunsets we saw

Here we are with our waiter, he was from Bulgaria, he was very friendly and funny.

The Jungle in Puetro Vallarta, was beautiful, we saw wild banana, orange, coconut, guava, and date trees and some beautiful flowers, it was quite a hike up and down some pretty steep hills and over some little creeks. It definitely was one the highlights of the trip.

Here I am doing one of my favorite things, sitting by a river, I took off my shoes and soaked my feet in the cool water, it was so refreshing

If you look closely you will see a Zip Line going through the tree's, we could of gone Zip lining but it didn't appeal to us.

Here is the view from the place we ate our lunch that day.

One of the many beautiful churches we saw

Believe it or not this is a baby crib hammock. I guess up in the Jungle they put their babies in these hammocks to keep them off the ground so that no spiders or snakes will harm them.

Here I am sitting out on our balcony the last day of the cruise, Natalie taught me how to crochet doilies right before we left and I finished one while we were gone, it was so relaxing to just sit there and know that there was nothing else for me to be doing that day.

This trip was a gift from God! We came home relaxed and refreshed after some wonderful days and nights of rest and fun. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Suzi