What a Crazy Roller Coaster Week Full of Some Huge Blessings and Challenges

This week has been very challenging to say the least. Since last Friday we've had our share of some huge challenges and lots amazing blessings also, here is our week in review:

Friday June 3rd
Blessing: It was exciting to hear Luke's rehab Dr. talk about how good Luke is looking and was sounding during his first Dr. appointment that day.
Challenge: It was discourging to hear Luke's Pediatrician talk about Luke's CO2 numbers being high once again and that Luke had lost a pound.
Blessing: Yoli and Juan volunteering to take Luke and Lily over night so that I could get a full night sleep.
Challenge: A call around 11 saying that Luke was doing horrible, his heart rate high, not breathing very good and on lots of extra oxygen. I had to go over there with some sudafed as I felt it could be allergy related.
The blessing: After some sudafed and some prayers Luke was doing well enough for Yoli to say yes keep him here and you go home and sleep. I did in fact get a full 9 hours of sleep that night, what a HUGE blessing.
Saturday June 4th
Blessing: Got some stuff done out in our trailer, preparing it for our vacation.
Challenge: While I was at the laundromat washing all our sleeping bags the tire of on our big blue van went flat, Gordy came to change it while I spent my time going back and forth between watching Luke and Lily in the van and making sure our sleeping bags finished drying.
Sunday June 5th
Challenge: Woke up to Luke being very stressed out after having a very rough night, needless to say I didn't get much sleep.
Blessing: After holding Luke for awhile he finally settled down and went to sleep. We both stayed home from church and even though we missed being there I realized that we needed that time to rest after our horrible night.
Challenge: Gordy spent part of the afternoon trying to find a decent price for two tires for our van, he finally found that Costco had the best price, but even then it was going to cost us about $435. He had to go to Costco to order and pay for them so that they would have them there for us this week.
Blessing: I was able to sit down and listen to Lily read some books to Luke and I and then spent some time reading out loud to the kids before they went to bed.
Monday June 6th
Blessing: Natalie and I went for a 7 1/2 mile walk timing ourselves to know how we are going to do this Saturday for the 12k Sound of Narrows walk we are doing. After our walk I was blessed by my friend Jeri who took me out for a belated Birthday lunch.
Challenge: After spending time on the phone with 3 different people we found out that even though we asked our medical supply company 3 weeks ago about getting a portable oxyginator for Luke, we are now to late to have one come in before we leave. They said to call a different company who quoted us the rental price of $100 a week for one, we said no that's just too much money for us so we are sticking to our oxygen tanks and praying that Luke will do great on our trip.
Tuesday June 7th
Challenge: I had to get up early to take our little blue van into the mechanic to get it fixed, because even though he said that the problem we were having would be a simple fix, both Josh and Gordy were unable to fix it. Our cost for that fix was close to $250.
Blessing: Natalie, Amy and Lance started preparing Luke's food formula while I ran down to Olympia to pick up some fresh milk for the formula.
Challenge: When I got home our trailer awning had broke off the trailer and was blown on top of it. I lost it and went crying into our home knowing that we had already spent major money this week on repairs.
Blessing: Josh and Natalie decided to go to the RV store, get the parts to fix it and fix it for us all before Gordy got home from work that day. It cost less than $20 since they did the labor for us.
Wednesday June 8th
Challenge: When I went down to the garage to get some eggs out of our extra fridge I noticed a little river of water going through our garage, upon investigation I found out that our freezer had been left open over night. Needless to say I spent close to an hour cleaning up that mess.
Blessing: I was able to spend the entire day at home without having to go anywhere so that I could get Lily, Isaiah, Ezekiel and myself packed for our trip.
Thursday June 9th
Blessing: Gordy and I woke up to realize that Luke had one of the best nights he's had in a long time.
Challenge: As Gordy was working on the trailer making sure everything was in good working order he realized that our air conditioner wasn't working.
Blessing: After taking time to have a family meeting where we spent some time praying and reading the Bible, Gordy went back out there and realized that he had just blown a fuse in our home, he fixed that and the air conditioner was in working order again.

I quite often think of myself as a pretty positive person, but this week has been a challenge at times to keep up a good attitude. I'm so glad that God has made the provision for us to go on this vacation, but I would be lying if I said getting everything together for this trip has been easy. Tomorrow I have to get Luke packed, the rest of the food together, finishing packing up the trailer, get a few errands ran and the list goes on. Let's just say that when we are finally on the road I'm sure our whole family will be breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue