The Big News of the Day is Luke is doing better, Hallelujah!!

Here we are on July 4th, in the Redwood Forest. We drove most of that day, me sitting in the back seat with Luke, he was sick and on oxygen. It was a very hard day.

Luke is finally doing better, hallelujah! Yesterday he actually spent most of the day awake and was off oxygen at times through out the day, today he hasn't needed any extra oxygen so far. Two days ago I contacted his Dr. and asked him if we could try a different antibiotic and also some steroids, so I'm not sure if that is what is making the difference or if he has just finally turned a corner for the good. I'm sure that the prayers that so many have been praying have made a huge difference too!


Here is Luke in the back seat of our van, as you can see he's hooked up to his feeding tube, that was to feed him of course but also so that we wouldn't throw up. He also has oxygen going in his nasal canulla. It was warm that day so I took off his pants to keep him cool, you can't see it but he was seat belted around his waist. That day and the next were very, very hard long days.

To be honest with you these past two weeks have been exhausting, getting only a few hours of deep sleep a night is just not enough. Both Amy and Natalie have been at camp all week and my sister Cindy went down to help her son move, so Gordy has had to work from home most days this week just so I can get a few hours of sleep each morning, thank goodness he has that option. Thankfully my parents volunteered to take the kids to NW Trek one day and my wonderful friend Yoli took the kids to some parks this week, it helped make the week go smoother with them having something to do, while I had to be at home all the time with Luke.

Here's Luke at the beach in San Diego, he did so good there!

Last night was bad again, I only got about 2 hours of sleep since I had to get up early today to go to a Dr.'s appointment for my knee. My Dr. thinks I just sprained it when I feel during my fall on the mountain, it doesn't hurt while I'm walking or standing but when I sit down or lie down it starts to hurt horribly. Thankfully she said I don't have to stop walking, but I do have to stop jogging for now. I'm happy that I don't have to give up my daily walks I feel they are what keep me sane at times, it's a great time to put on some worship music and spend some time enjoying the beautiful scenery and some much needed time in prayer.

Here are the kids and I in the Shasta Caverns. I know it is a dark picture, but it was very dark in there. I was bummed that day to learn that Luke could not go with us since they had close to 1,000 stairs for us to climb during our tour. Gordy stayed at the trailer with him.

I'm still hoping to come up with the money to go to the MOBILE (Mom's of Brain Injured children Loving Evermore) conference in Atlanta in September. I know that if it's God's will for me to be there the money or miles will come in, I'm anxiously waiting to see God's provision.

I took Isaiah and Ezekiel to Legoland, we had a blast there riding on all the rides and playing with some of the millions of lego's they have there. I wanted to take Luke with us, but I learned my lesson after trying to take him to Disneyland, I knew that he would not enjoy the day.

I'm excited to announce that to you that we are planning another retreat for Mom's that have children that have suffered near drowning accidents. It's going to be at the same home again, this time October 20-24. We already have 16 mom's coming and we are at full capacity, most of the mom's from last year are coming back and we have quite a few new mom's that will join us this year. It's so exciting to see it all coming together. Once again I along with some of the other mom's will be raising money for the weekend so that we don't have to charge the mom's anything for coming, they will just need to pay for their airline tickets. I will be blogging more details very soon, but if you already know you would like to support this retreat again this year please contact me, my e-mail address is off to the side of the blog.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Here are the kids posing with Santa and Denise the camp activity co ordinator at the last campground we stayed at on our trip in Newport, OR. They were celebrating Christmas in July, so they had all kinds of fun games and activities planned that week.