Luke has pneumonia again, but Praise God he is not in the Hospital

I took Luke into the Dr. yesterday and found out that he has pneumonia in his right lung. The Dr. prescribed a strong shot of antibiotic into his leg muscles, then sent us home with a dose of antibiotic every 4 hours for 10 days. We have to go back today at 10 a.m. for another shot and to be sure that he is making progress toward getting better. Which I know that he is already doing a little better.

I'm thanking the Lord that Luke is doing so well this time with his pneumonia, as this is the first time that he has come down with it and not gone to the Hospital. I told his Dr. that he is doing so much better on his oxygen levels, though he has had to go on the mask a few times, it is nothing compared to his past needs. He is also moaning when he is uncomfortable, which is a new thing for him to do, it is difficult to hear him in agony, but good to know that part of his brain is waking up. I have been very faithful in doing chest PT every 3 hours and making sure that I get him up right so that he is getting the junk cleared out of his lungs.

Please be praying that Luke continues to make positive improvements. Gordy and I are torn about him taking off these precious vacation hours, while we are unable to do anything as a family, he is thinking about going back to work so that he doesn't lose all his hours. I continue to pray against a strong spirit of discouragement and depression as this is not how I was looking forward to spending this week. It's weeks like this that I'm tempted to lose all hope, but I know that I must press on toward keeping my faith strong, this is only a small set back in Luke's journey, please keep us in your prayers.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

We are home with two sick kids, we need more prayer

Just an update to let you know that we had to cut our vacation short. We decided to come home today, the decision was heartrendering to say the least. Luke and Lily are both sick, running fevers and Luke is just not able to keep his oxygen levels up without lots of oxygen. Though he is doing a bit better tonight, he is on a mask with the oxygenator going at 5 liters. We just tried to put the nasal cannula back in his nose and to cut back on his oxygen, we were able to finally get him down to 1 liter, which is a first today, but he was very uncomfortable, so we decided to put the mask back on him. I'm sure his nose is sore from the oxygen going constantly for 2 days.

Please be praying that God will heal both Lily and Luke tonight, so that perhaps we can go again, as Gordy still has the rest of the week off. It's times like today I wonder if our lives will ever be "normal" again.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

As you all know we are in Newport, OR camping. We have been having an absolutely wonderful time, the weather has been great and we were all healthy until 2 days ago when Zeke came down with a croupy cough. I began to pray and try not to panic, knowing that the last two times Zeke has had croup, Luke has gotten very very sick. Well last night it hit him, he is very sick. Not only him but last night Natalie threw up, though she is doing better today and Lily was running a low grade fever last night, once again she is doing okay today.

Luke began to get real congested last evening and I had a feeling that he was getting sick, sure enough when I hooked him up to his oximeter his oxygen numbers were not doing too well and his heart rate was high. We've seen this enough times to know that he was probably running a fever and sure enough he did have a fever. Needless to say I was up until 4 a.m. when Gordy took over until 8 a.m. and then I took over again. He is still not doing well and he needs prayer. We are praying that we will not have to cut our vacation short.

Bottom line is we need PRAYER and lots of it. Please pray that Luke will get better quickly as we've seen this happen so often and also that the rest of the family will stay healthy. Thank you for your prayers, I know that you are faithful in holding up Luke and our family in your prayers. We will let you know how things are going.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

I ask myself sometimes, "Why oh, why, can you not be satisfied?"

Luke has been doing so well lately and tonight I began to ask myself, why I can't be satisfied with how great he is doing. It was amazing yesterday when the oxygen man came, as he does every other week, to only exchange 2 small tanks of oxygen. We used to have to exchange up to 12 some weeks. Luke's oxygen levels have been absolutely phenomenal lately, I checked him earlier today because he sounded a bit "junky" or you might say congested, but his oxygen level was at 100%. I remember when I used to cry out to the Lord to heal his lungs, I remember saying "Lord if you would just heal his lungs and make him breathe easier life would be so much better". It is better not having to worry about his oxygen levels at night or listening to his alarms going off all night long, but I guess I want more.

I so desire for Luke to start communicating with his voice again, just to hear him say Mommy, would be heavenly. I would love to see his legs bending, his muscle tone has gotten worse lately. I was hoping that putting him in the Hyperbaric chamber more often would help it, but after 5 dives in the last week and a half there doesn't seem to be much change. Bottom line is I would love to see Luke back to the way he was before this whole journey began. I know it is coming but I get so impatient for it to be today.

The Lord has been really dealing with me to be content where I'm at right now. Our Pastor, which also happens to be my brother in law, spoke an awesome word last Sunday about being in God's perfect will even at times there doesn't seem to be any progress made in your life and finding peace at being there. I have decided that I need to take it a step farther, not just being at peace where I'm at, but finding the joy of Lord in this place I find myself to be in. I know this is possible, because God's word is true and does not lie, therefore when it says I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me this includes of course finding his joy in times of frustration at what appears to be His slow timing.

Would you please join me in praying for the following prayer requests:

• Continue to pray with me that Luke's legs will limber up and begin to bend. That all his muscle tone will begin to loosen up and that he will relax in our arms again.
• For Luke to begin to use his voice in communicating, specifically that he will say mommy and daddy, along with all his siblings names again.
• That he will pass his swallow test on July 20th, so that we can begin to feed him with confidence in knowing that he will not aspirate. Also for me that I will not feel anxious about having to go the Hospital for this procedure.
• That he will stay healthy during our camping trip.

As I just mentioned above, we leave tomorrow for the Oregon coast for 2 1/2 weeks, to say I'm excited about going would be putting it mildly. My life gets so busy with Luke's appointments and so many other important things I need to do each day, I need a few weeks to just take it easy. My parents have blessed us with sharing their membership at Leisure Time Resorts, which are some beautiful campgrounds in Washington and Oregon, they are free for us to stay at, a huge blessing to say the least. Our favorite resort is just south of Newport, OR right across the Highway from the Pacific Ocean. I look forward to sitting by the ocean, even if the weather is not always great, playing games with the family, reading and listening to books and watching sunsets. I know that Daniel is looking forward to surfing, Gordy and Amy are excited to go golfing a few times, Natalie is looks forward to reading and relaxing, Isaiah and Ezekiel just want play for hours on the beach, in the indoor pool and at the playground. Luke looks forward to not having any appointments, swimming in the pool and flying the kite at the beach and Lily will love having all the family together in one place, as this is her most favorite thing in the world, Josh will be joining us for the week that Daniel is coming and I hope my parents can come for a few days.

I will try to post while we are gone, if we have a computer available. Thank you once again for your continued prayers, I have mentioned this many times, but it bears repeating, without the prayer support that we receive this journey that we've been on for sooo long would be impossible to bear. May God richly bless you today!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

We heard Luke cry again last night for the first time since his accident

Luke cried last night for the first time since before his accident. We had gone to a park to play and swim all day and as we were driving into the driveway, I guess that he had been in his car seat too long, so he cried. Everyone in the car was amazed to hear him cry, as he has not done that in such a long time. He has moaned before but never actually cried. It got me to crying and I've been teary ever since. I was amazed that as soon as I took him out of his car seat he smiled, so it really meant that he was just uncomfortable. Luke had a great time yesterday swimming, I hope that we will be able to get him into a pool often this summer as he really seemed to enjoy himself.

Luke has also been following more commands lately. The other day when he was in the Hyperbaric chamber I asked him to put up his hand up and touch his nose, which he did and then I asked him to put his arm down and he did that also, he didn't just do it once but at least 3 times after that. Doug the man who owns the chambers was amazed to hear that he is following commands.

As I mentioned above his crying has got me to crying, I've been extremely emotional since last night. My friend had asked me awhile back to share a testimony tonight in her women's bible study group, about our journey these past few years. So needless to say I'm looking forward to sharing tonight, but I'm praying that I won't be a emotional wreck. I'm excited that God has been opening up doors for me to share our testimony of His healing power and constant care in our lives since Luke's accident. Please be praying that God will continue to open doors for me to share about His faithfulness and healing power in our lives, I want more people to realize that God is the same yesterday, today and forever and just as He healed and touched lives thousands of years ago when He walked on the earth, He is still in the healing business today.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke is eating peanut butter and loves it!

Guess what? Luke started chewing this week, which is a huge answer to prayer. On Monday I decided to try and give him some bites of food, he really seems to like peanut butter. He is actually chewing and swallowing, which is the first time I've seen him move his mouth when we've given him a bite of food, since his accident. He has continued to chew everyday we've given him food. Yesterday at church Yoli gave him some bites of chocolate cake and he seemed to love it. Also yesterday he went to a birthday party and each time I would ask him to stick his tongue out to taste the sucker I was giving him he would do it. It's so exciting to see these changes in him, though it would seem that when we are feeding him it does cause him to be more congested, I guess his silvia glands are working overtime which he has not been used to, therefore he has been coughing more. Please pray that he will be able to eat by mouth all the time and we will be able to get rid of the g-tube feeding tube in his stomach, that would be the greatest thing in the world.

We had a busy day on Friday, Luke had a speech therapy evaluation in the morning and then in the afternoon an Occupational therapy evaluation. We have put these therapies off because when he began Physical therapy, it seemed that would be the thing that he could benefit from the most. Both therapists seemed to be positive in their belief's that Luke is ready to make some progress in his speech, eating and making sounds. The OT also gave us a little brush to use on Luke's arms and legs, Luke is hypersensitive to touch on his right hand and arm, so much so that if you touch his hand or arm he will get extremely tense. If you tell him you are going to touch his hand he seems to be able to take it a little better. The OT said by using this brush on all his limbs he will become less sensitive in on his right arm and hand. We are blessed in the fact that the OT is skilled in both OT and Speech therapy, so she will be able to help us in both therapies.

Friday was kind of a hard day for me as I listened to these ladies tell me all the things that Luke will be able to do in upcoming days. They are not looking through "God's glasses of faith" as I do each day. I know that God is healing Luke and he is not going to be dependent on using switches and his eyes to communicate to us for the rest of his life. This faith walk is so challenging at times, but I know that is where God wants me to be, in a place of trusting Him and not what others say, or what my eyes see. I think that I've shared this scripture before, but it is so good I will share it again. Blessed are they that do not see, but still believe John 20:29b. I believe that God's word is true and therefore I feel blessed to know to know that God has called me blessed, I don't see Luke's complete healing, but I know without a shadow of a doubt it's coming.

Some other news to report, Natalie graduated on Saturday. About 80 people came to celebrate and congratulate Natalie on her success. Natalie played two beautiful piano pieces and we had a grand time visiting and eating, with lots of loving family members and dear friends sharing in the joy we had on her special day. It's so hard for me to believe that we've had three kids graduate from our Home school. I mentioned to a few people the next big celebration we will have in our family will be a wedding, not that I'm announcing anything, it's just that we have a ten year gap before Isaiah will graduate. I am daily reminded as I look upon my children of God's goodness in our lives, He has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams to give us with such wonderful children.

This next week we are hosting our wonderful friends, the Hurtado's as they visit us from Nebraska, we are looking forward to a week filled with great and busy times. Please be praying with us that Luke will stay healthy as we are going camping over the weekend. The weather in our area has not always been so wonderful at this time of the year, therefore we are praying that we will be blessed with a little bit of warmth and no rain.

May God richly bless you today!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Finally a long awaited update, Mexico was awesome and Luke is doing great once again!

I want to begin by apologizing for not taking time to sit down to blog sooner. Tonight I spoke at a home school meeting and one of the mother's there informed me that she checks the blog almost daily and that I had not updated since May 10th. I've actually sat down a few times to blog, but I get distracted with other things that come up. I am extremely grateful to report that Luke did great while I was in Mexico, thank you for your prayers.

On Monday we took the kids to the Zoo for a fun day, Luke kept falling asleep, which he normally doesn't do, which should of been the first clue that he was getting sick, by night he was running a high temperature. The next morning he was really sick, he couldn't keep anything down, including the medicine I was giving to get his very high fever which kept going up to 104, under control. His heart rate was soaring and it did not come down below 150 until about 6:30 that night, he started out doing o.k. with his oxygen levels but that started to change in the early afternoon and before we knew it he was on a mask with 5 liters going. Amy thought I should take him into the Dr. but I just knew that the Dr. wouldn't find anything wrong with him, I can't explain how I knew that , I just did.

I called some prayer warriors to lift Luke up in prayer and continued my prayers for him. I had to run a few errands in the afternoon, as we were out of diapers and a few other essential items, when I came home Luke was doing worse and I knew that I needed to get on my knees and cry out for a supernatural touch from Jesus, or we would be on our way to the Hospital. Gordy came home from work and anointed him with oil and prayed that God would heal him. God is faithful and heard our cries and at around 6:30 his fever went completely away, his heart rate started coming down very slowly, his oxygen levels began to get better, he was on his way to being healthy again. That night I kept going back to his room to check on him and his heart rate was back to normal along with his oxygen levels doing great, there is no explanation for this except to know that God heard our cries and healed Luke. THANK YOU JESUS!!

I kept thinking during that day how I had just shared a testimony at the church down in Mexico about how I believe in miracles, wondering if this sickness was a test of my faith. That day I was discouraged at times, but kept crying out to God to renew my faith. He is so faithful as that is exactly what He did for me. When I cried out to God, I let Him know that it doesn't matter what my eyes see I will not stop believing in a miracle, it was hard but not impossible to do this. I'm thankful to God that He used the testimony that I shared about Luke's journey on both Friday night and Sunday morning to infuse new hope into the people down there in Mexico. The altars where filled up those wanting a touch from God, it was so exciting to lay hands on the sick, praying that they would be healed. I was humbled to hear testimonies of how God is using Luke's story to touch peoples hearts.

Our team had a wonderful time in Mexico, we felt God's presence the whole time we were gone. We not only painted the outside of the church, but the team also painted two Sunday school rooms inside the church. Our team ministered at a children's outreach on Saturday and did two human video's that ministered to the people there. On Tuesday night we went out to the Rehabilitation Center they have there for men who lives are being transformed by God's saving grace, as they give up drugs and alcohol for a new way of Christ centered living. Some of the men from the rehab helped us paint the church and we were blessed by their servants hearts.

While we were at the rehab center God begin to birth a new dream in my heart for going back to bless the men there. The rehab center is there serving these men without asking for a penny from them, they work on complete faith in knowing that God will feed, clothe and provide for these men. Many of the men that go there are at the end of their rope, they show up with only the clothes on their backs and if they were asked for money would not be able to go. Therefore I would like to fill up our van and a trailer with much needed clothing, dishes and food to bless the men there. I hope to plan a clothing drive sometime in the fall. I was thinking as we were being blessed by a delicious meal that the men cooked on huge open fires, thank you Darcy, how many Americans could donate some of their dishes or mugs to bless these men. Some of the dishes we ate off of were very used and in bad shape. Please be praying with me if this is God's will and not just my big heart, that He will put together this missions trip for His glory.

One last note, I took Luke into the rehabilitation Dr. today to talk about him getting some new orthodic's for his knees. He was pleased that though his x-rays showed that his legs are inverted, which you can tell just by looking at his legs, that he does not show any break down of the muscle or any arthritis, which is a huge answer to prayer. He was talking about the future as he sees it, as knowing that we can only make Luke comfortable for the rest of his life and it will probably mean surgery sometime in his future. I told the Dr. that though I wish to make Luke comfortable right now, I put my hope in God, as I am a Christian and believe that God is going to heal Luke and that I believe that Luke is going to walk again someday. He mentioned that it is not his desire to steal hope away from parents he only wants to let them know what is available, which I thought was a nice thing to say. I look forward to the day that I take Luke walking into visit all his good Dr.'s at the Children Specialty Center. I know this going to happen, as I know that all things are possible with God.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

P.S. I will try to post some of the pictures we took from Mexico soon.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of the Mothers out there had a great day! My day began with my children bringing me breakfast in bed, as they sang "Happy Mother's Day to you", I was blessed immensely, though they went a bit overboard on the syrup and I ended up having to wash my whole bedding, as I spilled syrup on the sheets, blanket and bedspread. Isaiah who is now 8 kept telling me all week that he had a present for me, so I was anxious to see what it was, it ended up being a pot holder he made me, along with a card and all the change out of his piggy bank, I am now .45 cents richer than I was yesterday.

Luke has been doing great! He was sick a week ago and I ended up taking him into the Dr., I knew he had a sinus infection as he sounded like a freight engine breathing so loud at night, making it impossible for me to sleep a few nights. The Dr. put him on an antibiotic and that has done the trick along with lots of prayers, he is sounding great now. I asked the Dr. to order a blood test, I was curious to know if he was still anemic, as he had struggled with that last year. I was disappointed to learn that his iron levels were very low, so we began him on iron again. The biggest praise of the week though is that he has not needed any extra oxygen this week, I can't remember the last time he has gone a whole week without extra oxygen. I walk into his room at night and look at his awesome numbers and want to sing and shout praises the Lord each time I see them. Gordy mentioned to me on Friday morning that he has not heard Luke alarm once all week, to say that we are both feeling much more rested is an understatement.

Luke also had a good report from his eye Dr. The Dr. said that his left eye is now tracking and moving with his right eye. The last time we went in he had gone from not tracking at all to where he was tracking 70% of the time. This time he is not only tracking but looking at the Dr. when he tells him to and following him as he moves. The Dr. was very pleased with his progress and sent us home with some exercises to do with him to help him get even better at moving his eyes and not just his head to see things. He wants him to come back in about 2 months again. I really enjoy going to a Dr. that sees Luke progress, just as we are seeing him make so much amazing progress. Daniel was commenting last night at how well Luke seems to look right at you now when you just walk up to him, you don't always need to say something to get his attention, he just knows you are there and will look at you, quite often giving smiles.

I mentioned at the end of my last entry that Gordy and I were going to a Marriage Retreat, we did go last weekend and it was awesome. I would like to encourage you that if you are married to do this, Gordy and I will be married 24 years in July and we've been blessed with a good marriage. But even good marriages can become better by investing time and effort into them. One of the things that we heard this weekend is that 70% of marriages fail after the death of a child, even though Luke did not die, the stresses that has been put on our marriage have been significant at times. I am so thankful to God that has kept us together and with His help we can really be blessed with a continued good marriage. If you hear of a Weekend to Remember conference coming your way sign up and enjoy the time together, your marriage will be blessed.

I know that I say this almost every time I blog, but life here has been extremely busy. I have been getting together the details to take a team of 10 people down to Mexico to paint a church. We will going back to the church that our family painted the Sunday school rooms at last summer, only this time we are painting the outside of the building. We leave this Wednesday night May 16th and return on May 27th. We will also be ministering in their services and at their children's outreach on Saturday. I am very excited about going down there, but also a bit apprehensive as I will be leaving most of my family at home, the only ones going in our family are Natalie and myself. I would really appreciate your prayers for the team as we drive down there, while we are there ministering and painting the church and for everyone to stay healthy. Also for Gordy and Amy as they hold down the home front, especially that Luke will continue to stay healthy, I know it will be so much easier for me to be down there if Luke stays healthy.

I could continue on with more news but I realize this post has gotten entirely too long, I guess that's what happens when I wait so long to write. May God bless you today with His amazing love and peace. If you have a prayer request please leave a comment and we will pray for you today.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Here are some pictures from Easter, Luke's 4th Birthday and Christmas

We are excited to announce that Luke has not been in the Hospital for a whole year!

I hope and pray that you all had a blessed Easter Sunday. We had a blessed day, as our family was once again all together at church, celebrating Christ's resurrection Day. It was at this time last year that Luke spent his last week in the Hospital. Praise God he has not been back since then. I look back on that week spent in the Hospital and remember what a difficult time it was, the hopelessness of the Dr.'s and time spent in the PICU was excruciatingly hard. But God was so faithful in bringing so much joy to our lives as it was after that stay that Luke began to smile again, we had waited a long time for that first smile and now we see it daily, what a difference a smile can make.

Daniel, Amy and Natalie all arrived home on April 1st. What a huge blessing it is to have them home again, they were ready to come home for the most part, though Daniel thought it would've been wonderful to spend some more time exploring Denmark and The Netherlands. Our schedules have pretty much gotten back to our old routine, with Daniel back to work full time, Amy back working at the church a few days a week and Natalie finishing up her senior year of high school. It's hard to believe that we have 3 children who will have graduated from High School soon.

Luke has been doing pretty good, though he has struggled a few days with a bit of a mystery sickness. He seems to be doing ok during the day, but at night he will run a fever and be on some oxygen. Good Friday was a hard night, I really had to battle with fear as it was that day last year that we ended up in the Hospital. I kept saying that God has not given me a spirit of fear, but He has given unto me a spirit of power, a spirit of love and a sound mind, which was a song that we used to sing in church. Luke had a high fever that night and was really struggling to breath, but I knew it was a battle against evil spiritual forces, the Bible says: in Ephesians 6:10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. There have been times during these past few years that I've known that we are battling for Luke's life and this past week we have had to go to battle a few nights.

On Monday night Gordy, Isaiah, Daniel, Natalie, Josh, Skye and myself went to a Sonics game and when we came home Luke was struggling again with a high heart rate and low oxygen numbers. When he is like that he breathes very hard, I began praying and while I had my hand on his chest God heard my prayers and I could actually feel the healing power of Jesus flow through my hands and Luke's breathing immediately slowed down and his heart rate started coming down to where it was normal within a short amount of time. I can not even begin to explain how wonderful it was to see God at work before my very eyes. I know that God is able to do abundantly above what we can ever imagine. We just need to believe, in faith knowing that He will answer our prayers. Once again tonight it was the same scenario with the high heart rate and fever, I began to pray and God heard my prayers and Luke is now sleeping comfortably, Praise God. Please be praying with us that this will be our last night that we will have to deal with this mystery sickness.

We have lots of exciting things coming up in the future, but this blog has already gotten entirely too long. Next time I will write about the upcoming Missions trip I'm leading in May, about the Homeschool convention we are attending this weekend and Gordy's trip to Eastern Washington to have some much needed fun time golfing. Please pray that all will go well this weekend as we are going to be leaving the little ones behind, we will be home at night time, but will be gone all day Friday and Saturday. I'm extremely grateful that Tessa learned how to care for Luke while the girls were gone, she is babysitting and Auntie Cindy will be coming over to help in the mornings with getting all the kids ready for the day.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke is a big 4 year old boy!

I can hardly believe Luke turned 4 years old on Saturday. We celebrated his birthday in the evening, since we had a wedding to go to that day. I was so thankful that he was healthy for his special day, he had been riding a roller coaster ride of one day being fine and the next day needing a bit of oxygen all last week. I think that we’ve finally turned the corner. He has been doing great since Sunday evening and hasn’t needed a bit of oxygen all week.

Luke seems to be showing us more emotions all the time, he now smiles all the time, without needing to be played with. We will just walk up to him and he will show a beautiful smile. I was playing with him today and he was looking me right in the eyes, it brought a few tears to my eyes, to think how thankful I am for his sweet precious smile to be here each day. He has also becoming more verbal with his needs, each time he fills his pants lately he will moan until we change him. I took him in for a hyperbaric dive today and Jim was amazed at his expressions while he was in the chamber and the second we pulled him out he gave us a huge smile.

He also seems to be putting on some much needed weight, I weighed him yesterday and I think that he has finally hit the 30-pound mark. He is looking a lot healthier with a little fat on his skinny bones. He also seems to be getting stronger, yesterday Auntie Cindy was playing with him and he basically lifted his whole body up for a few seconds, and to say that she was excited is putting it mildly.

Last week was challenging for me at times. There are times on this journey when sadness for Luke’s condition can basically overwhelm me. It seems that around Christmas and his birthday it really hits me hard when I think about what I should be getting a normal 4 year old for his birthday. To say I cried a few tears last week would be putting it mildly. I tried not to let others see my sadness, because I do not want them to feel bad or put a damper on their day. Don’t get me wrong I am extremely thankful for the progress that Luke has made and I thank the Lord all the time that he has not been back to the hospital in almost a year. That said there are times that I wish with all my heart I was chasing Luke around the house, listening to his sweet little laugh and picking up his toys, though I know it will happen again some day, I just wish it was today.

Here’s a little update on Amy and Natalie. We have been blessed, at least we feel that way now before we get our cell phone bill, that we have been able to talk with the girls often. Even though they are a bit homesick they are really enjoying their time ministering in Romania. God is really doing some great things there and many women’s lives are being changed as they are being given a message of hope and God’s love. The girls leave Romania early Friday morning, they will go to Amsterdam to meet their Uncle Ray, Aunt Lis and Daniel in Amsterdam. They will spend one day in Holland, going to the Hiding place and some other wonderful places there, then on to Denmark to spend time at my brother’s home. I know that they will be spoiled, which I’m very excited about!

We have been extremely blessed by having many wonderful people helping us here at home, Tessa a sweet young lady, has graciously volunteered to help us out this week. My sister Lori took Lily home with her to Eastern Washington, Gordy, myself, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Luke will be heading that way on Friday, we will spend the weekend at Lonnie and Lori’s home, coming home on Monday. Please be praying that God will keep Luke healthy and this will be a special time for all of us as we take a little retreat, I always call Lonnie and Lori’s home my private retreat center, it is situated right on the Columbia River, they live right next to a wild life animal reserve, so we are blessed with seeing all kinds of wonderful creatures, while we are there.

Just remember with GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

Love in Christ,

Luke’s Mommy Sue

How can I thank you enough?

When I was a little girl we used to sing a song to God, in church that said, "How can I thank you enough, how can I thank you enough, how can I thank you enough, from the abundance of my heart my soul cries out, how can I thank you enough?" that is exactly how I am feeling tonight. Your prayers have once again worked and Luke is doing great. Yesterday and last night he was still very sick, on lots of oxygen, high temperature and high heart rate. Then at about 11:00 p.m. he was having a real rough time, he seemed to be having chills and his heart rate was going up again, I gave him some tylenol and cried out to God to touch him and within a short time he seemed to finally be doing better. I was able to take him off his oxygen mask and put the nasal cannula back in his nose, he ended up being on about 1 1/2 liters of oxygen, which was a huge improvement for the rest of the night and his heart rate went back to his normal self.

Just to give you an little glimpse into our crazy weekend. Gordy had told me a while back that he was going to have to work on Saturday during the day and all night. He ended up working from 10 a.m. Saturday morning and pretty much continued until Sunday morning at 5:00 a.m. went to bed when he got home at 6:00 a.m. and was up at 8:00 a.m. because their were problems with the implementations they had made the night before. He ended up solving problems all day and was not off the phone until 6:00 p.m. that night. He worked close to 28 straight hours. So he was unable to help with Luke or the other children during that time, I'm once again very thankful that my sister Lori is here to help, and for Daniel and Josh, who helped keep the house picked up, it makes me realize that I really am unable to get through these days alone.

I wanted Gordy to get a good sleep on Sunday night, so I ended up sleeping on the couch with Luke, so that I would be right by his side if he alarmed at all during the night. I did get a bit of sleep, but by morning I was exhausted, so my sister Cindy came over and said go get some sleep, I thought I would lay down for an hour and ended up waking up at 12:15, needless to say I jumped out of bed running, because Luke had a PT appt. at 1:00, I was actually able to make it there by 1:15, I thought we did pretty good, we went from there to the Hyperbaric chamber, I knew after being on oxygen the last few days it would be good for Luke to get a dive. He did great and the turn around that he has made has been nothing less than miraculous, tonight when we hooked him up to the oxymeter his numbers were great and he has only been on a 1/4 a liter for a short time tonight.

Just to give you an update on the girls, they actually called on their cell phone and they are doing great, the conditions in the village that they have been staying in are a bit better than they expected. The home that Amy and Natalie are staying in is actually one of the few homes that has a shower and toilet, to say they are blessed is an understatement. They leave the village tomorrow to go into Bucharest, where conditions will be a lot better. They both were very excited about the reception the team is having and that they have been able to minister to the people there, with the clinic they set up with the team nurse. The girls collected over 200 toothbrushes, from their Dentist and Orthodontist, the goal for the team was to take 400 toothbrushes to pass out, the nurse is teaching a few classes on good hygiene and trying to raise the awareness of preventive medicine.

We continue to appreciate your prayers for our family, for Luke's complete restoration and for Amy and Natalie while they are gone. I end this by saying, "How can I thank you enough??"

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Once again I'm requesting prayer for Luke, he is sick again and needs a touch from God

Once again I come before you asking for prayer for Luke. Saturday morning he woke up with a fever and high heart rate and earlier that morning he was alarming for extra oxygen. He has been doing so excellent that I mentioned to someone yesterday we went from needing 12 tanks of oxygen during his last sickness, two weeks ago to only one tank the past 10 days. His numbers have been unbelievable, in fact his heart rate was alarming for being too low. All that is in the past, tonight he is really struggling, all day long his nose has been running and he has been having some unbelievable hard coughs. I keep praying that he has not caught that nasty flu bug that has been traveling around.

Amy and Natalie flew to Romania on Thursday afternoon, they will be there until the 16th, then they will be picked up in Amsterdam by my brother and his wife to spend two weeks with them in Denmark, they won't get home until April 1st. Please be praying for them to stay healthy and that God will bless their trip many great memories. I'm so happy they are able to go, I just wish I could be with them. Needless to say without them here I've been praying that God would keep Luke and the rest of us healthy, they are such wonderful helpers when Luke gets sick, I can't imagine going through a lengthy sickness without their help. I have been blessed with my sister Lori coming over to stay with us for the next week and others that have volunteered to help.

The scripture the Lord gave me the day before they left is so comforting to me, The Lord gives strength to his people, The Lord blesses his people with peace. Psalm 29:11, I know that I have been ministered to by this scripture in the past and am once again relying on God's strength to get me through this month. I have been singing a little song that I learned from one of the children's tapes we used to listen to all the time. It goes: I can do all things, all things, all things, I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me, Phillipians 4:13. I'm so thankful that God's word brings me such comfort and help in my time of need.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Faith that moves forward ALWAYS triumphs!

I hope that you all had a great Valentine's Day. Luke had a great day, it was his first day off oxygen, for most of the day. After Gordy blogged on Thursday night, we all actually had a pretty good night sleep, which was good since the next two nights would not be so great. It is so hard to leave the home on days that Luke is not doing well, so things like grocery shopping get put on the back burner, needless to say on Saturday I finally had to do some grocery shopping and while I was gone Luke had a turn for the worst. By the time I got home his fever was going up again and his oxygen rate was going down. Needless to say it was another hard and stressful night. I ended up sleeping on the couch with Luke. Gordy went away for the weekend with some of the men of our church to a Men's Retreat at the beach. So I think I only got about 6 hours of sleep total for both Friday and Saturday night.

By Sunday morning I was wiped out, I got up to get Isaiah and Ezekiel ready for church, Amy, Lily and Luke were not feeling too well so I stayed home with them. While I was getting ready for the day, I cried out to God and asked Him to give me wisdom. I was thinking that if Luke did not get better that day we should probably take him to the Hospital, as he had been on lots of oxygen for 5 days. God in His gracious way answered my prayers by allowing Luke to make a turn for the better, within an hour his heart rate was coming down to normal, his oxygen levels were beginning to get better and he was looking a whole lot better. I knew that God had answered my prayer by showing me that Luke would be better soon, therefore we would not have to go to the Hospital. That night I feel asleep on the couch at around 9:00, Gordy woke me up a few times to say go to bed before I finally could get up, I went to bed and had my first night of really good uninterrupted sleep until about 5:30, at which time I had to get up to change Luke since his food had overflowed and he was freezing cold and a mess from it. Once I got him changed he settled down and went back to sleep for another few hours.

I really wanted to get him into the Hyperbaric chamber right away, since he had been on so much oxygen, I knew he would need the boost from the chamber to help sped up his recovery, therefore I took him for a dive on Monday and Tuesday and am hoping to get him in once more this week. I know it really did help him because today when we went into PT he was actually not as tense as he's been this past week. It also helped his heart rate even out and his oxygen levels to get up to close to normal. I can not even begin to tell you how thankful I am that he is recovering, it was an extremely stressful week, there were many times that I wondered if we should be in the Hospital, my greatest reluctance, other then the disruption to the family, in going to the Hospital is there is so many flu's and sicknesses going around right now I did not want to introduce him to any other kinds of bugs.

The scripture that I've been meditating on today is: Psalm 26:1 I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. I want to say this is true but there are many times that I have wavered in my trusting the Lord, to know He is going to bring us through this journey that we never chose to go on. I realize and am thankful that I can trust God even when the road seems to go on for ever and at times never seems to give us a break. Tonight in church I was once again reminded of the importance of speaking aloud the Word of God and claiming his promises for my life, it is a powerful exercise that I need to do on a daily basis. I recently read and wrote down this quote from the devotional, Streams in the Desert, FAITH THAT MOVES FORWARD ALWAYS TRIUMPHS! I have hung it up on the mirror in my bathroom, realizing that as we continue to have complete faith in God, he is faithful to fill us up with His hope and has promised us we will be triumphant in the end. Hallelujah!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke doing better

I just want to let everyone know that Luke is doing better. His fever is almost gone and he is still on a little bit of oxygen. Hopefully everyone in the house will get a good night sleep tonight. Thank you to all of you that are praying, it really does make a big difference.

Luke still needs your prayers, please don't stop!

Just a quick update to let you know that Lily is doing much better, she's back to her talkative, full of energy self again tonight. Luke on the other hand is not doing very good. For a while tonight I thought we were on our way to the Hospital. He was running a very high fever and on lots of oxygen again. He is doing a little better now, it 2:40 a.m. and I just got him back to bed after holding him for a while, he was very stressed out for a bit, shaking with a fever. PLEASE be praying that this will pass quickly. I will take him into the Dr. tomorrow if he is not better, I don't think he has pneumonia, but I'm not sure what he is battling.

Thank you once again for your prayers, they make all the difference in the world!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Lily and Luke need your prayers

I would like to request prayer for Lily tonight. I took her to the Dr. today, because she has had a nasty cough for a few days. The Dr. said that she has a double ear infection, I think this is her first one and she also has a bit of pneumonia in her chest. She has been absolutely miserable tonight, I just finally got her to sleep at around 2:00 a.m. Luke was also having a rough night tonight is on oxygen right now. I noticed he was a bit more congested today and tonight when we hooked up his oximeter his oxygen level was quite low and his heart rate very high, we took his temperature to find out he had a 102.2 fever. I'm praying that whatever he has going on will not be too serious. He is already doing much better, his heart rate is down a lot and his oxygen levels are a bit better, though not where I would like them to be. I also have a bit of a sore throat so I'm praying it doesn't get any worse.

I have one other prayer request for the Maki family, they are very dear friends to us. They had a fire in their home last Thursday morning and the damage was quite extensive. Praise God no one was hurt, but they are going to have be out of their home for at least 4 - 6 months while they do repairs. Please be praying that God will direct them to where they should stay during this time and help them get over the shock of losing their home right now.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

We hope you take a close look at these beautiful Romanian bowls

Amy and Natalie are going on missions trip to Romania in March, they each need to raise $2000 to go, therefore one of the ways they are raising money is by selling some beautiful Romanian bowls. Amy bought these bowls last year while she was in Romania she put them aside for using them as a fund raiser to go back. We have two pictured here just to show you what they look like, though the pictures really don't do them justice. If you go to Amy's blog you will be able to see all the bowls that she is selling. We appreciate your prayers more than anything you could donate, as we know that God will supply all of their needs according to His great riches. They leave on March 1st and will not be home until April 1st, they are also going to visit their Uncle Ray and Aunt Lis in Denmark along with Daniel, who will meet them in Amsterdam after they go to Romania for two weeks. Their Uncle has generously volunteered to pay for all their expenses during their visit to Denmark, what a great blessing from God! I'm going to need a lot of prayer, during the time they will be gone, as I have mentioned before the girls are my right and left arms, they do more for me than you can possibly imagine, though I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Just a quick update on Luke, he is doing better, he did end up having a few rough nights last week, but he was fine during the day. Please pray that we will figure out what is causing him to have these fevers at night, they do not come every night, but often enough lately to be of some concern. We are currently increasing his feedings so that we can get some weight on him, please pray that this will go smoothly and he will begin to gain the much needed weight that he needs to keep healthy.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

PS I have another prayer request: Last night I went up to Seattle Children's Hospital to visit Zack again, who is doing great by the way. While I was there Zack's mom, Ruth introduced me to a family who have little Elijah who is 7 months old in the PICU, he was born with Downs Syndrome and has had two heart surgeries since his birth. He has been in the Hospital since November 20th and is currently not doing very well. Please be praying that God will work a miracle and raise this little one up for the glory of God. It was so hard walking into his room, the emotions that flooded me were very strong, but I also felt God's presence surrounding the little guy as I was able to pray for him.

Double blessings to report on knee bends and vision tests

I know that I just blogged a few days ago, but I had to share some good news with you all. Yesterday at physical therapy, Luke's PT Sara, was working with his legs and had him sitting up and he did great. He actually had a 40 degree bend in his knees, the best she had ever measured before was only 20 degrees, so we had a double blessing in the bending. He was also sitting up and holding his head up so wonderful, I could see that she was impressed, I've been telling her for awhile that he is sitting up so much better these days, in the bath tub he can actually sit up for a few minutes each day without help.

Today I took Luke to his Optometrist, he specializes in child with brain injuries. I left there shouting Hallelujah. Luke did an awesome job on his eye tests, the Dr. was very impressed with his progress. Last February when I took him in he was not even looking at the wheel to test his tracking abilities and today not only did he look at it he was able to measure his progress at a 60 - 70 percent success rate. His vision has also improved 50 percent. Once again a double blessing in his progress. The Dr. also talked a bit about his startle reflex, he is going to look into some information from another Dr. and get back to me on some exercises he thinks would be beneficial for Luke. He told me he would like to see him again in about 3 weeks.

Even though we've hit some new major milestones, my heart is feeling very confused tonight. One on side I'm rejoicing with his accomplishments and on the other side, I'm concerned because he is not feeling well once again tonight. He is running a high fever and he is on lots of oxygen right now. It just kind of hit him all of the sudden tonight. My heart is also sad with some news that we found out tonight, that little guy Joel that I asked you to pray for went home to Heaven today. I realize that he is in a much better place, but my heart is so heavy for his parents and siblings that are left behind to mourn his death. Please be praying for his family as they go through this tough time.

Once again I am humbled by the fact that so many people are still faithfully praying for Luke's complete recovery. I was looking at Teena's blog tonight and she had Luke's picture up with a little story about taking his picture to church this last Sunday to have others in her Sunday School pray for him. I also ran into a friend that I haven't seen for a couple years the other night and she told me that she reads Luke's blog often, it's amazing to me that people are so interested in our family, at times it makes me feel uncomfortable, but at other times it brings such great joy into my heart just knowing that so many of you are still praying for Luke and our family. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART FOR YOUR PRAYERS, THEY ARE MAKING A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN LUKE'S LIFE!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

I've been reminded once again that it is easy for Jesus to heal and forgive sins!

I did end up going to visit my sister and her husband, along with Amy, Isaiah, Ezekiel and my Mom. We had a great time, the only icy portion we hit on the way over was in Western Washington, it was so weird to see snow on both sides of the Mountain. Usually we have to go to Eastern Washington to see the snow, but we actually had snow that lasted for about a week, most of us that have lived in Washington for a long time can't remember the last time the snow has stayed around that long. Uncle Lonnie and Aunt Lori had all kinds of fun things for the boys to do, Uncle Lonnie works for the Washington State Department of Transportation and since he had a slow day on Saturday he offered to take the boys for a ride in the big trucks that he drives, to sand and plow the roads. To say that the boys had a blast would be an understatement. On Saturday evening we went to Pizza and bowling and had a great time! The best part of the trip for me was that I actually had some awesome nights of uninterrupted sleep and came home feeling pretty rested.

Luke and Lily had a wonderful time at Tio Juan's and Tia Yoli's home. Lily got her appetite back after a week of eating close to nothing, she made up over the weekend by eating more then you could imagine. Luke did so well that Yoli called me late Saturday night to see how low Luke's heart rate should be before being concerned, it was at 95 and she thought that was low, I told her that if it gets below 60 then I would be concerned. It's interesting that his heart rate has been lower at nights lately, just showing us that he is so much more relaxed and feeling good lately. He has also hardly had to have any extra oxygen at night which has been awesome.

As you know I could go on and on with too many details of this past week, but I will try to narrow it down to Friday. To say that Friday was a stressful day would be putting it mildly. I began the day by getting up early so that I could get the kids fed and dressed before Luke and I went to what I knew would be a full day of appointments. We began with our first appt. with a physiatrist, which is a rehabilitation Dr. He usually helps people get the equipment they need to get kids on the road to recovery. I had heard great reports about him from a few other people, so I was thinking it would be a good appointment. It went okay I guess, he requested x-rays of Luke's knees to see if there is any structural damage, since his legs are so twisted, they have a scissor look to them. I know that I've mentioned time and again about the problem we've had bending his knees. He is the third Dr. I've seen that has mentioned that Luke's tone is opposite of most kids like him. He told us to come back in 3 months that he would try to get some information on some things that would possibly help him out, he suggested new leg splints, like the ones he had a long time ago, I told him that they were very expensive, they cost us close to $1,000 after insurance paid there part. He said he would check to see if they have any grants to help out, I guess we are going to just have to wait and see at his next appointment in April. I was a bit disappointed in the fact that he didn't want to see us back a bit sooner, but I guess if you look at Luke from his standpoint, what is the hurry he will be like he is the rest of his life. I was a bit discouraged when I left his office.

I went from his office to sit in the x-ray sitting room for 30 minutes got the x-rays done and went straight from there to the Dietitian's office, where I was very disappointed once again. I guess that Luke lost a pound when he was sick last week, he has basically not gained any weight for the last year. Though he looks healthy, he is very skinny. The Dietitian said we need to keep a close eye on him to be sure he gains some weight in the next two weeks. Please be praying that God will help me to know what to feed him, his diet is very healthy, but we are just not able to get enough calories in him to make a difference.

On my way home after being gone for 4 hours, I got a call from home saying that one of Luke's pillows had been dryed in the dryer and had basically burst open filling the dryer with millions of tiny balls of Styrofoam, Natalie had been vacuuming it out for over an hour and had not even come close to getting it all. I told her to try to start the dryer to see if it would collect in the lint area, needless to say about an hour later of cleaning it up I heard Natalie yell in a panicked voice, "MOM, THERE IS A FIRE IN THE DRYER," sure enough I ran down the stairs and we had a fire. I knew that we keep a fire extinguisher in the closet so Natalie ran up to get it, while Amy is yelling should I call the fire department, I told her not yet. I sprayed the extinguisher into the dryer and thankfully it went out easily. Needless to say our home smelled horrible for awhile. We were blessed to find another used dryer on Saturday for only $75, we've been using it today trying to get caught up on our massive laundry, since we've not had a dryer for a few days.

Last Sunday I went to my sister's church and the pastor that day had an excellent sermon. He told us a story from the Bible about the sick man who could not walk and was put down through the roof of a home on a bed, for Jesus to pray for, the room was so crowded they couldn't get him through the door. Well, Jesus said to him your sins are forgiven, he rose up and walked out of there healed. The pastor made this statement, it used to be in Jesus' day people could not understand how Jesus could forgive anyone's sin, It was hard for them to believe that He could do that, but it was easy for Him to be able to heal someone, in there eyes. Today it is just the opposite in many churches today, people believe that it is easy for Jesus to forgive sins, but it is not easy for him to heal people. He died on the cross to do both forgive us for our sins and to heal us of our sicknesses. It's easy to get discouraged, as I have been many times, to continue to believe when we don't see the results that we want right away, but I know that I can't quit believing because, I know that Jesus died for me and He loves us all the same. He is just waiting to forgive sins and heal people, all they need to do is ask. If you've never done this before it is easy to do and you will be amazed at the peace and joy you will feel, you will never be the same again.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

PS Please continue to pray for Melissa and her family as she is near the end, without a miracle. Also for a little guy named Joel he needs a miracle too, his web site is http://www.weloveyoujoel.blogspot.com. I know that I asked for prayer for Zach also, he is a little guy that is battling Leukemia, I've had the opportunity to go up to Seattle to visit with him and his mom Ruth a few times and have really enjoyed getting to know them both, he is actually doing great and is home right now, but will be going back to the Hospital for another 5 months sometime next week, his site is http://www.prayerservant.org/zack/gallery.shtml

Luke and Lily have been bit by the flu bug

I wanted to let you know that both Luke and Lily have been struck with the flu that seems to be going around. Lily got it last Saturday and seemed to be doing better, until she threw up tonight again. Luke got sick on Tuesday morning, he woke up doing great and within 2 hours he was throwing up, had a high fever and seemed to be miserable. He was not able to keep anything down until Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday I held him all night and only got a few minutes of sleep, he seemed to just want to be held as he would almost moan when I would put him down. Today he is doing better, we are starting his food back slowly and he has done pretty good, except for a few times of gagging, because of coughing. He also has very bad diharrea, so we had a few extra loads of laundry today with Lily and Luke's messes. Once again through this sick time his oxygen has been holding steady, which is a huge answer to prayer. Tonight Gordy went into his room to turn down his oxygen, only to find out he is not on any, that is how good his numbers are.

Lord willing, I'm taking Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amy and my Mom to go visit my sister Lori and her husband Lonnie, this weekend. She lives about 5 hours away on the Eastern side of Washington and is usually blessed with lots of snow, so we like to go visit her so the kids can play in the snow. Though we were treated to some days of snow ourselves the past two days. Please be praying that we will be able to go, that Luke and Lily will wake up feeling great in the morning, that the roads will not be too icy and that all the other little details will fall into perfect place. Once again my friends, Yoli and Juan are volunteering to take Luke and Lily for a few days, they enjoy having them and the kids love going to their home. Gordy is unable to take off any time from work right now so he, Daniel and Natalie will be holding down the home front. I am hoping to have some wonderful full nights of sleep, I am needing to get caught up in that area of my life. I call Lonnie and Lori's home my retreat center, as it is usually very relaxing and peaceful there.

That's all for now. I will write again next week to let you know all the little details of what is going on in Luke's life. He has some big appointments coming up. Be blessed today.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Happy New Year, I can't wait to see what God will do in 2007!

I hope and pray that you all had a blessed Christmas and you brought in the new year with great joy in your hearts. We had a great Christmas, it was a busy time for our family, but filled with lots of good memories and great times.

Luke has been doing absolutely great lately. He is becoming so much more limber all the time, today as I was holding him Natalie was playing with his hands and commented on the fact that he is so loose, then when we put him in the car on the way home from Grandpa and Grandma's home, Gordy thought something had happened to his shoulder, he was so loose and flexible. I have been able to get in 8 HBOT dives the last 3 weeks, it has made things a bit more crazy, but the time and money has been well spent as we are seeing great results from them. My dad also commented today on how much more expressive he is getting all the time. He seems to have more pleasant and happy expressions than bad ones, which is such a change from last year at this time.

I mentioned to someone the other day we have hit a huge milestone in Luke's journey, it almost makes me a bit nervous to mention this, but I will, he has gone 8 full months without any visits to the hospital, the longest he has ever gone in the past was 4 months. PRAISE GOD, I know that God is making the difference. He's actually also only been on one antibiotic during that time. There have been a few times that we probably could of taken him in, but God has ALWAYS been faithful in healing Him in record time.

One more absolutely great thing to share is that he has finally stopped throwing up all the time. I can not even begin to let you know what a relief and absolute joy this brings to my heart. It is stressful enough going through this journey with all it's challenges, but the fact that your child throws up almost every time you feed him is almost beyond what one can handle. I'm not really sure exactly why it has stopped, except to say that we've tweaked his diet a bit more and the digestion supplements we've added finally seem to be doing their job, along with of course the wonderful touch of God on his life.

We've finally decided it's time to get Luke a wheelchair, to say this was a huge and hard decision is to put it mildly. We have been able to get away with using a stroller, but Luke has finally out grown his stroller and we've noticed recently that we actually have to pick his feet up to move the front wheel at times, as his legs have gotten too long. I actually carry him most of the time, so we don't really use his stroller much, but the times that we need it is important to have one available. I do believe that he is finally putting on a little weight, which is a great thing, therefore he is getting heavier to carry, which is can be taxing at times. I just thank the Lord that He has made me strong and that He continues to keep my back healthy.

I would like to ask for prayer for, Melissa Snow, her site, Pray for Melissa has been under one of Luke's links for about a year now, she is dying of a brain tumor. She is a precious Mama to 7 children, they along with her sweet husband is in much need for prayer, as she is near the end, without a miraculous touch from God she will be gone soon. One other prayer request is for a little guy name Zack, he is currently suffering from Leukemia. He is in Children's Hospital in Seattle for 6 months of treatments. I am hoping to go up there to meet him and him Mom this week, we have talked on the phone but not met in person. He and his family have been in my prayers a lot lately, he is also from a family of 7 children, just like our family and the Snow family. I hope to add his site to our list soon, it is http://prayerservant.org/zack/blog/index.shtml.

May God richly bless you this year, I pray it will be a year filled with His goodness, that God will do a new and wonderful thing in your life today.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Here is our Family Christmas Picture.

We thank the Lord for Electricity

I'm sure if you watch the news you will already know that Washington was hit with a huge wind storm last Thursday night. It was scary listening to the wind as it was blowing so hard, it sounded like our windows would break. We were blessed in the fact that we didn't have any trees fall in our yard. Many of our neighbors were not so blessed, I will try to show some pictures today to let you see how crazy it was.

We along with one and half million others lost our power on Thursday night. I was sitting holding Luke, as he was having a rough night and all the sudden everything went black. It was challenging to say the least. The machines that we rely on most run all through the night, but they only have a battery capacity of a few hours. Needless to say I had to wake up about every hour to check Luke's oximeter machine to make sure his oxygen levels were okay, since he was having a bad night. We didn't get our power back until Saturday afternoon, which we were very thankful for as my sister still is without power. Gordy went out and bought a propane heater, we do have two fireplaces but they don't put out enough heat to warm our entire home. We talked about going to a hotel, but decided we could rough it out at home. When we woke up on Saturday morning it was down to 29 degrees outside and 50 degrees in our home. I got Gordy up to get the propane heater going and woke up Daniel and Josh, who was spending the night to get a fire going downstairs. I guess a little excitement is kind of fun, but I'm hoping that we don't lose power again for a very long time.

I want to share a wonderful testimony of God's goodness and provision in our lives. I have been wanting to get Luke back into the Hyperbaric chamber for a long time now, but because of time and money it has been challenging. I finally decided since we are taking a Christmas break from most of our normal activities that the next three weeks I can get him in at least 3 times a week. As I was mentioning this to Daniel on Saturday, he worked that day making extra money, I said I wish there was a way I could make some extra cash so that I could get Luke into HBOT again. The great news is the next day after church he came up to give me a tithing envelope with this written on the front "Please give this to Sue Searles for Luke to get a Hyperbaric treatment," and it said "Merry Christmas", I began to cry knowing this was a gift from God. I took this envelope into the HBOT place and handed it to pay them and the next day when we went for another dive, Doug the owner said that he too would like to bless us with a Christmas free dive. GOD IS SO GOOD!

I am hoping to get our Christmas card out this week, we actually had them finished before the beginning of December, but have been too busy to get them into the mail, along with finishing up my shopping, doing some Christmas baking, wrapping presents, keeping the house picked up, taking Luke to HBOT and getting ready for family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I really don't have much to do this week, HA HA. Once again I am extremely grateful for my precious daughters, who without there help I would be going crazy. I am hoping to post our Christmas card next time I blog. Thank you for all your Christmas cards and letters, we love receiving them.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke gets a good report from the Orthopedic Dr.

I want to begin by letting you all know that I did end up going to Chicago with Gordy for a few days. What I thought would be a relaxing time ended up being a wonderful busy time spent with some great cousins and some old best friends. Gordy and I left on Saturday, our plane was delayed for 5 hours because of many little things adding up to lots of big things. I wasn't stressed though because I took the opportunity to spend some uninterrupted time reading. On Sunday we were treated to a delicious dinner at Magianno's Restaurant by my cousins, some of whom I had only met once in my life. We went on a lovely tour through their village of Schaumburg and ended up at their home for a nice long visit. Monday my good friend Denise picked me up and took me to their lovely village of Naperville for the day, it was so great spending a day of visiting and catching up on each other's life, they then had Gordy over that night for dinner. On Tuesday my cousin Ellen took me on a tour of downtown Chicago. I loved Chicago, even with it's biting cold weather, I don't think it got any warmer than 34 the whole time I was there. I then came home Wednesday evening, ready to run with a full schedule ahead of me to finish out the week.

All the children did great at home. Luke seemed to enjoy his time at the Rodriguez's home and his day spent at Aunt Cindy's home. He did struggle a little bit with a low grade fever, but nothing too bad. I noticed the morning after I got home he is really struggling with his muscle tone, I'm not sure if he is tense because he is still getting over his bit of flu or what is going on. I do know that I really need to get him back into the Hyperbaric chamber, it really helps with his muscle tone. I'm praying that I will be able to fit in some dives during our Christmas break and that God will provide the money for them as well, since this is a tight time of the year.

I really struggled with whether I should take him into his Orthopedic appt. on Friday because I knew that his muscle tone was so high we'd probably not get a good report. I'm glad I did take him, I really liked his Dr., he basically was looking at three different area's his back, hips and feet. He said his back is looking good, quite often with kids like Luke they have scoliosis, but Luke's back is perfectly straight. At first when he was checking out his knee's he thought they were dislocated, but after straighting out his legs he said they were fine. He said his hips are doing fine and that his feet look good too. He said that he is sitting up nicely and looks great overall, that he could tell that he has great care, because he could not see any skin break down or problem area's. I left there with a huge sigh of relief, telling Luke that even though the Dr. basically said numerous times that Luke would be this way forever, we know different, that we know God will heal him and then he can give God the glory for his healing, knowing that once again we were told that it would be impossible for Luke to walk without a miracle.

I know it's easy to get distracted from the real reason for the season by becoming too busy and distracted by our crazy busy schedules, but I hope you are able to slow down and enjoy this Christmas season. We would love to hear from you and enjoy putting faces with those that are praying for Luke's healing and for our family. If you would like our address or want to get a Christmas picture from us, just e-mail us at howslukedoing@yahoo.com.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Wow! All I can say is Wow, Luke is doing great!

Wow! All I can say is WOW, Luke is doing great! I can not even begin to tell you how hard yesterday was, Luke was doing absolutely horrible. He was on the most oxygen that we've ever had him on here at home. We are thankful we have a Oxygenator machine, which is a machine that takes normal air and turns it into oxygen. We were able to put a nasal canulla in his nose with the tank and a mask on his face with the oxygenator machine. I kept thinking yesterday we should be going to the Hospital, but it was so cold outside and I knew as long as we could meet his oxygen needs there wouldn't be anything they could do that we couldn't do here at home. He never threw up again after the morning feeding and his fever was under control with the Tylenol and Ibruprofen that we gave him. By the time we put him to bed he was down to 1/2 the oxygen he had been on earlier and his heart rate was down to 112 which is a good rate for Luke.

Today he slept most of the day and was on just a little bit of oxygen. By this evening he was completely off the oxygen. I just went to check on him and he was showing 100% oxygen and 100 heart rate. I can not remember the last time I've seen such awesome numbers. I can not even tell you what relief I feel, I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes at God's goodness to our family. I know without a shadow of a doubt the only reason that Luke is doing so well is because people are praying for Luke. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your faithful prayers.

Last night I sat and listened to a sermon by Pastor Bill Johnson, on the computer from Bethel Church in Redding,CA. It is an excellent message and he ended it with the song, "I Need You More," it's a powerful song it says, I need you more, need you more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more, than ever before I need you Lord, I need you Lord, I need you more, need you more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more than ever before, I need you Lord, I need you Lord, More than the air I breath, more than the song I sing, more than the next heart beat, I need you more than anything, though as time goes by, I'll be by your side, cause I never want to go back to my old life, I need you more, more than yesterday, I need you more, more than words can say, I need you more, than ever before, I need you Lord, I need you Lord. After singing this song I ended up on my face before God, letting Him know that I need Him more than I need anything else in my life, that means I need Him more than I need to see Luke healed, more than I need sleep, more than I need any other thing in my life. Needless to say I went to sleep as I was praying and woke up knowing I needed to get to bed, I woke up this morning with a song and prayer on my heart. I've said it time and time again God's peace means more than anything in my life, without His strength, I would be a basket case. My prayer for you is that you realize that you need God, I know many of you are Christ followers, but for those of you that read this blog that are not, I pray that you will find that wonderful peace that you can have when you reach out to a relationship with my precious Saviour Jesus Christ.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Luke's caught the nasty flu bug, please pray!

We've had a nasty flu bug going around our home, it started last week with Lily and Ezekiel, then on Sunday Isaiah caught it, I kept hoping that it would bypass Luke, but last night it finally caught up to him. He has basically been throwing up since last night around 11:00 p.m., then at 4:00 a.m. he threw up again and had a horrible runny diarrhea diaper, I had to completely change him and clean him up. We tried to feed him again this morning only to have it all come out again. We are now trying to give him some Pedialyte, we are praying that will stay in him. It seems that his oxygen levels are staying about normal for him, so that is a praise. After I wrote this we decided to check his oxygen levels and heart rate and they were terrible. His fever got up to 103.6 and his oxygen was down in the 70's and his heart rate up to the 180's. It is now 6:00 and his fever is finally coming down, he's doing a little better with his heart rate and oxygen, though he is still on a lot of oxygen. If he doesn't get better soon, we will probably have to take him into the Hospital.

Please be praying that he will get better soon, as I mentioned in my last post Gordy and I are planning to go to Chicago this Saturday. I know that I will not be able to go if my children aren't completely better. I'm praying that Luke's sickness will only last for 24 hours like Isaiah and Ezekiel's did. Lily still seems to be fussy, but I'm pretty sure it is just her teeth, she seems to be getting new ones breaking through each day lately.

Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall. Psalms 55:22 I continue to give all my cares to God, knowing that I can trust Him totally and completely to give me peace through this storm. I pray that you too can trust Him with all your cares and needs.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

My Goal, is to be anxious about nothing!

I'm tired! I know that I just posted about what I'm thankful for and I know that I have so much to be thankful for, but there days that I just want to curl up in bed all day and forget that I have so much on my plate, but that is just not possible or practical. Have any of you just been tired to the bone? Perhaps like myself you find that you know you need to go to bed earlier, but you've got yourself into a bad habit of going to bed so very late each night. Quite often when Luke is not doing so well I would rather stay up than get all nice and cozy just to have to jump out of bed to an alarm. Oh well, they say that confession is good for the soul, therefore I guess I'm just letting you all know once again how human and broken I really am.

Luke has been doing pretty good lately, except for the fact that he continues to deal with his congestion problems. It seems like just when he has a great day and I think that we are over what we've been going through he will hit another wall with more of something else. He has been doing amazingly well lately with making some new sounds, he wants to let us know that he is in the room and wants attention, which is an awesome thing. I've been praying that God would open his mouth once again to speaking. When we were in CA one lady prayed that God would loose his tongue and help him overcome his muteness, since that day I've been praying the same prayer.

The scripture that I've been thinking about a lot lately was my Grandma's favorite verse in the Bible, in fact she quoted it just before passing away, it is Philippians 4:6 & 7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I have been having a hard time truly giving my fears of what the Orthopedic Dr. is going to say at Luke's appt. on December 8th, to say that I'm dreading this appt. is a huge understatement. Please be praying that this appointment will go great and this Dr. will be optimistic about Luke's legs and not want to do any surgery.

Here is some other news, Amy's graduation celebration on Saturday was awesome, we were so blessed to have people come and share with us this great milestone in her life. Gordy and I are leaving for Chicago, IL this Saturday. He has a class he needs to take for his work, so I'm using some of our free air miles to join him, since the Hotel and car rental are being paid by his work, it is basically a free trip for me. Please be praying that all goes smooth here at the home front, I have some wonderful people in our lives that have generously offered to help with the children. I've decided to let Luke and Lily spend the night at Tia Yoli's and Tio Juan's home, this is the first time that he has spent the night with someone other than a family member since his accident. I'm sure that it will go smoothly, I'm just praying that they will get some sleep those two nights. The rest of the time Luke will be at home, while the other children will be spread out to other wonderful family and friends. I am so blessed to be able to go, I'm just praying that everyone will stay healthy and everything will go a smooth as possible.

Be blessed today!
Luke's Mommy Sue

Happy Thanksgiving

I know that I am dreadfully behind in my updates to the blog, please forgive me and thank you for your patience. I would like to begin by wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day. I have always enjoyed going around the table on Thanksgiving day listening to everyone share something that they are thankful for, therefore I thought it would be appropriate for me to share with you some of the things that I'm thankful for today.

First of all I'm most thankful to a loving Father, my precious savior Jesus Christ, without Him by my side each day I would not have the strength to continue on this journey that He has chosen our family to walk through each day.

I'm very thankful for my wonderful, loving husband. I'm so blessed to be married to a kind, compassionate man, who loves me dearly and is a great father to our children.

I thank the Lord for blessing me with 7 wonderful children. Each one of them is so dear to my heart, Daniel is such an awesome son and big brother, Amy is so helpful and sweet, Natalie is always ready to lend a helping hand, Isaiah is the most wonderful hugger in the world, Ezekiel is so kind and compassionate to his little sister, Luke is so wonderful to hold and to love on and Lily keeps us all entertained by being such a sweet little girl.

I'm very thankful for wonderful, Godly parents who support me by their prayers most importantly and they are always so quick to lend a helping hand. For my sister Cindy who comes over most weekdays to lend a helping hand with Luke. Also for the rest of my family and Gordy's wonderful family.

For some awesome friends, like Yoli, Barb, Mary, Julie and too many others to mention each of their names, they are always there when I call with a prayer request or need someone to help out with the children. Also for those friends at church that faithfully lift up our family in their prayers.

For our faithful blog followers who keeps us in your prayers and continue to check up on the progress that Luke is making, thank you for your comments they always mean so much to us.

Just to let you know our family went to Redding, CA last weekend. We have a friend that lives down there and was telling us about the awesome church meetings that they are having at Bethel Church. People from all over the world are visiting Bethel and they are being healed. Just last week a man who had lost the vision in his right eye and the hearing in his right ear, because of a battle he fought in years ago in Beruit, was completely healed, his vision was restored during their worship time and after church they prayed for his hearing and it also was restored. We went hoping that this would be God's timing to heal Luke, but God had other plans. We know he will be healed it's just a matter of God's timing. I'll be honest I was a bit disappointed to leave there without our miracle, but I know that it will happen in God's perfect timing. We needed some healing in our family and that is exactly what happened we were all blessed by the prayer times we had and by the services that we attended. During our 10 hour drive home, we had a wonderful time, with lots of laughter and a light hearted spirit that filled our 15 passenger van.

It was interesting for me to find out that Luke did not suffer with a runny nose while we were gone, but the night we got back and I put him to bed he almost immediately got all stuffed up and his nose began to run right away. I'm convinced more than ever that he is probably allergic to something in our home, because I fed him the same food that he eats here at home while we were gone and he did just fine with it. It's kind of comforting to know that it's not his food that is causing his problems, but at the same time it's a bummer to know that now not only is Gordy's allergies horrible here at home, but so are Luke's. It makes me think that we should apply for that Extreme Home Makeover all the sooner. Our biggest constraints is finding the time to fill out the paperwork and do the video needed for the show and of course knowing that our family is probably not as desperate as some of the other families that apply, therefore feeling what's the use.

As I mentioned in my last blog we are celebrating Amy's Graduation this Saturday, so I have had to hit the pavement running after coming home from CA to get all the preparations finalized for her open house. I'm thankful that we are going to Gordy's sister's home for Thanksgiving Dinner, with the girls doing the baking I really don't have a lot to for the day. I'm praying that everyone will be healthy, Lily and Ezekiel had a 24 hour bug last night and tonight Luke was running a fever and had some bad congestion.

If you have a minute, we would love to hear what you are thankful for today, but if you don't have enough time at least let the ones you love the most know that you are thankful for them! You will be amazed at how wonderful you will feel expressing yourself to them and they will be blessed by knowing how much you care.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

We are thanking the Lord, the rain has finally stopped!

The rain has finally stopped, it rained for 4 straight days and made record breaking history here in Washington. I thank the Lord that we don't live in a flood zone, though I did have to take a few detours today and drove through a huge puddle. Luke is finally doing better, he was struggling with a high fever every night for about 4 nights, but during the day it would go away. He is also doing better with his digestion and sounds a bit better when he is breathing. We are amazed that this time during his high temperatures he would not need the high oxygen that he normally needs during his sick times. This is a huge change in Luke and we are praising God for his faithfulness in this area of his life.

Luke continues to make small changes on a daily basis. He is getting so much more alert, he will actually look at a book when we read it to him. I know that Auntie Cindy working with him has been the stimulation that he needs on a daily basis. It seems that at PT he is doing better, his Physical Therapist has commented a few times lately how much better his head control is getting and has made some other positive comments, about his posture and the fact that his arms looking more relaxed. I did finally make a Orthopedic appointment for Luke in December, I'm not really looking forward to that appt. Quite often Dr.'s will either write off kids like Luke or they will want to do all kinds of invasive surgeries and such. I'm not sure if I want either of those things to happen. I continue to give Luke's legs to the Lord, while his hands and arms have gotten so much better, we still have major problems with his legs bending the way they should.

I continue to mess around with his diet. As I've told you in the past we have been making his food for about a year now. It is very time consuming, but I feel worth the fact that it has only good ingredients in it for what Luke needs right now. Often I find myself looking forward to the day that he will be able to once again eat what everyone else is eating. We feed him 3 times a day and then have to complete the rest of his calories at night, which can be very trying at times. We drip it into his feeding tube from a feeding pump and sometimes it will get clogged or he will stretch and move the feeding tube out, which makes for some huge messes. We have to wash his bedding on almost a daily basis. I often say Luke's laundry pile is bigger than 4 other people put together, but I praise the Lord that he has laundry to wash.

We are getting ready to celebrate Amy's Graduation, we have planned a open house for her on November 25th. Amy has been a huge help these past few years with Luke's care, taking over the home duties anytime I have to take Luke to an appointment or he has been in the Hospital. She has gone beyond the call of an awesome daughter, learning how to suction him when he had his trache in, being the only one who we could leave him with during that time with his trache because of the special training needed for his care. Needless to say, she was not able to get all the school work that we require for graduation done in time to graduate last June, then on top of that we left in May for our vacation. I tell my girls and anyone who will listen that I'm so thankful for their servants attitudes and helpful hands, without their help our roller coaster ride with Luke would of been extremely harder these past two years.

Just to update you on the prayer requests from our last blog, Isaiah is doing much better with the rash that he has had for some time now. In fact he decided that tonight was his night to make dinner for the family. He made Nachos with cheese cooked on top, the only big mistake he made was cooking them on a Tupperware plate in toaster oven, thankfully Amy came into the kitchen in time to stop a disaster from happening. I already mentioned that Luke is doing better, but he still needs to get over the congestion that he gets at times through out the day. I need great wisdom on making his food, I tackled that big job today, with the girls help. I'm praying that this batch will be just what he needs to clear up the congestion that he has been experiencing and put some more meat on his skinny bones.

I pray that God will bless you today, just remember: Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. This scripture was given to us the day after Luke's accident by the Dr. in the PICU, to bring us comfort in our time of need and I continue to find amazing strength in knowing that God is truly in control.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue