Our family vacation in pictures

What a great summer!! Luke has been so healthy lately, which has truly been a gift from God. It's hard to believe that summer is just about over, it flew by so quickly. We were extremely blessed to have a wonderful vacation, Luke did great except for the van ride, he doesn't like sitting in his car seat anymore, we are going to have to start thinking about ways to help him be more comfortable in the van.

This Tatoosh Island which is just off the tip of Washington

We went to Cape Flattery which is just about the most beautiful place on this planet, it is the farthest point NW that you can go on the Continental of the United States

Here is one of the humongous tree's on the trail leading out to Cape Flattery

We were blessed to have Gordy's sister Pam and her husband Hal join us for the first part of our vacation. Here they are on our way out to Cape Flattery.

Here's Luke sitting by Sequim Bay, it was so beautiful there.The kids down at Sequim Bay Campground

Here we are setting up camp at Ft. Flagler, the sunset was so beautiful

We were so blessed to wake up to beautiful weather on August 30th, the 6th anniversary of Luke's near drowning accident. We spent about 4 hours exploring Fort Flagler, all the kids and Gordy rode their bikes and Luke and I walked the entire time, I figure I walked over 3 miles that day. It was one of the easiest anniversary day's that we've had by far, Praise GOD!

Here's Lily taking a little break from her long bike ride.

Ft. Flagler is so much fun to visit and it is beautiful too, we had a great time going through the little museum there on the grounds.

We went up to Hurricane Ridge just outside of Port Angeles on Sunday, the weather really wasn't great that day, but every once awhile we would get a beautiful glimpse of the Olympic Mountain range, it is so glorious up there.

Amy blessed us by watching the kids one of the nights that we were staying at Seaside, Gordy and I went out to dinner at Mo's, which happens to be by the Tolovana Hotel one of the places that we stayed on our Honeymoon, 27 years ago. After dinner we went on a short walk during which time we saw the most beautiful sunset we've ever seen in our lives.

The sunset was so beautiful, I found myself with tears in my eyes as I stood in awe of God's amazing handiwork. I had a wonderful prayer and praise time on the beach that night.

A few days later we took the whole family out to lunch at Mo's right by the Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach.

After lunch we went down to the beach. The kids had the best time diverting this little creek into their very own pool, they spent hours of fun making this muddy little whole.Luke had a great time at the beach also, here he is enjoying the beach while eating his lunch.The tide was down so far we were able to walk out to Haystack Rock. By that time though it was getting cold, that is why Lily looks so funny in this picture.

Lily ended up hitching a ride on either mine or Gordy's shoulders the whole walk back to our car.

I realize this picture is blurry but it is the only picture I have of my yearly beach picture of my kids. My family is growing! We were so blessed to have Josh and Natalie come down and visit us for a few nights and then Daniel and Sarah came down for one night.

Here are a bunch of goofball kids pretending to be in jail, in one of the many bunkers at Ft. Stevens. We went exploring at the old bunkers in Ft. Stevens, with Yoli and her kids, they joined us while we were camping at Ft. Flagler. The older kids played hide and seek in the huge bunkers while Yoli and I took the little ones for a long walk around the grounds.

We also had Nicole and Lance join us for a few nights while we camped at Fort Stevens, here is a picture of all the kids minus Luke, who stayed back at the trailer with dad that day.

Our last day at Fort Stevens was rainy and cold so we took a trip down the Oregon Coast to the Tillamook cheese factory. We all had such a great time eating a delicious Ice Cream cone while watching the factory workers below us.
Here is Amy with her new Beau, Lance at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
After we got back from the cheese factory we took one last walk to the beach to see the Peter Iredale, which is a ship that went a ground at Ft. Stevens Park many years ago.

The week after we got home from our vacation I took Natalie, Isaiah and Lance up for a 5 and 1/2 mile hike at Mt. Rainier. It was one of the most beautiful, awe inspiring, challenging hikes, I've ever taken.

Here is one of the many Reflection Lakes that we saw on our hike.

Here we are at the end of our hike. It was so hard, but so worth it!

I hope you enjoyed viewing our "slide show" of our vacation. Now we are back to real life, Luke has an appointment with his Gastronologist tomorrow afternoon, and he is back to having appointments with his OT again. I will not lie and say getting back to appointments was a easy thing for me it is not. I so enjoyed our break from appointments this summer and am thankful for God's gift of giving me that break.

I have some big news to share with y'all about exciting things coming up soon, but that will have to wait for the next posting as this one is already way to long!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

Still hoping and believing for the completion of Luke's complete healing 6 years later

Here are a few wedding photo's taken with my phone, I'm sure better ones will follow.

What a beautiful wedding! The Lord cleared off the clouds during the ceremony, no rain, Praise God, it had been forecasted to rain all week long. Everyone looked so beautiful, the park was beautiful, we had a very blessed day. The only thing I would of changed is it to be a little warmer, the wind was very cold at times.

Here is the last photo I have of Sarah Larson before she becomes Mrs. Searles

Here is Sarah walking down with her Dad

There were a few funny momentsSuch a beautiful couple

It was a beautiful day, at the beautiful Scenic Beach Park

The first kiss as Mr. & Mrs. Searles

Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Searles

The Reception area was just so old fashion, matching the house it was in.

Here's Luke trying to stay warm

Here is a picture of the Emel House where the reception was held

Our newest family photo with our whole family, we are so blessed!!

Rehearsal Dinner at Black Bear Diner

Dad holding Luke at the Rehearsal dinner

The only stressful part of the day is when we got there and realized that we had left Luke's wheelchair stroller in the back of our little van, we had taken our larger van so that we could get everything transported out to the park. Yoli saved the day, she went to our house, out to our shed in the back and got out a old wheelchair stroller, it ended up working out okay, but did give me a few minutes of extreme stress.

I promise to post some more pictures when I get some of the professional ones back.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

PS Just wanted to let people know that I do post pictures and give more up to date details on my life on my facebook page, if you want to become my friend just ask, be sure to tell me you are a blog follower so that way I will allow you to be my friend.

My son is getting married tomorrow to the love of his life

Here I sit at my computer late at night, way to late at night or perhaps I should early in the morning, I'm having a hard time shutting down my mind tonight. Tomorrow my precious Daniel son is getting married to the love of his life Sarah. I remember the day he was born, he was such a sweet little baby boy. We have so many stories to tell of him being such a busy, busy boy, so full of energy and life. I remember when I brought him home to homeschool him, I thought both him and I would never be close again, it was so hard and challenging to get him to listen to me and do what was told to him. But after much time and discipline and lots of love and prayers we began to really get along, I had to learn his learning style and he had to come to the fact that we were going to make this happen. Each and every night I would pray with him before he went to sleep, as I've done with all my children each night I would say to the Lord, "I pray that Daniel will grow up to be a mighty man of God, full of integrity, a man that will always serve you and love you." One day I realized that was exactly how Daniel had turned out, God had answered my prayers. I also remember praying that God would bring a precious young lady into his life that would Love God and love Daniel always, once again God has answered my prayers in bringing Sarah into his life. She is the perfect soul mate for him and I know that God is going to use them to bring glory to His name.

I remember shortly after Luke's accident Daniel went through a very deep depression, blaming himself for what happened to Luke, as we all did on the horrible day. I remember crying out to God to bring Daniel out of his depression and that God would show himself to Daniel in a new and mighty way. God is so faithful He not only brought Daniel out of his dark depression, but he also blessed him with a renewed sense of passion and desire to serve God with his whole heart, soul and might. Daniel and Sarah both amaze me with their strong desire to serve God and to HEAR God speak into their lives as they have chosen to begin their marriage serving and pleasing God first and foremost in their lives. In the Bible it talks about the enemy, which is satan coming to steal, kill and destroy and that is exactly what he tried to do to Daniel and our family, but I'm so excited to say that the rest of the scripture talks about God coming to bring life and life more abundantly and that exactly what He has done for Daniel and our family. Not only did he not destroy our family, but he was destroyed as we learned to lean on God in a whole new way.

I woke up this morning singing praises to Jesus, thanking Him for His mighty works and power in our lives. Thanking him for keeping Luke healthy, knowing in my heart that their will come a day when Luke will be healed, thanking him that tomorrow my son is getting married to the love of his life, thanking him for His abundant provisions in our lives, thanking Him for . . . . I've said it before and I will say it again and again, God is wanting you to come to Him with your impossible problems and prayer requests, He is waiting to answer your prayers, just call out to Him in faith believing and your prayers will be answered, He is a faithful God that loves you so much.

Please be praying today for sunshine Daniel and Sarah are getting married out doors at a beautiful park, also be praying that God will bless Daniel and Sarah with many, many wonderful years of marriage, and for Luke to stay healthy and for him to have a good day today as we will be spending the majority of the day outdoors. Thank you my dear friends and know that soon I will be posting some pictures of the wedding for all to see.

Love in Christ,
Daniel and Luke's Mommy Suzi

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

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

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

he got a precious visit from the sweetest dog ever.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love y'all,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

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

Finally a Long Update full of all kinds of News!

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

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

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

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

I'm so thankful that prayers are "FREE"

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

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

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

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

Would really appreciate your prayers today

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

Thank you,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

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

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

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

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

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

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

THANK YOU,
Luke's Mommy Suzi

Wow, What a Week!

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

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

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

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

Luke getting kisses from Auntie Jill

Luke getting lovies from Zeke

Luke getting a kiss from Daniel

Lily giving Lukie some more kisses

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

Here's Luke in the balls with his OT

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