We are so thankful for friends. We could not have made it this week without the help and support of them. We had meals delivered, help with watching the kids, pizzas picked up for us, groceries brought over, and so much more. We are SOOO appreciative that it is hard to express in words. The Lord again had planned it all out for us. We are blessed beyond measure.
I always like to send cards of thanks and I have to be honest, I just do not have time. I hope those that read this, you know who you are and we are thankful for you.
Blessings
Saturday, December 12, 2009
The kids update
I have not been able to post due to Dan's surgery and then our computer breaking down. ??? So, I have lots of updates.
Joshua- His foot has healed from the toothpick incident very well. He did so well with all that. What a big boy! I am losing my baby.... boo hoo. He is turning out to be a fine young man and we are so proud of him.
Kayleb- He is doing great. We have taken him off of some of his med's and changed some of the others to see how he would respond. He is SOOO into hunting this year. It is too cute. He went out with daddy before surgery to deer and squirrel hunt. You would have thought we gave him a million dollars.
J'Dyn- She is doing great and has relaxed on trying to be the mother. That is very hard for her and I am proud that she is tryiing so hard. She is loving playing dress up and dolls with her sisters. They get into their little tiffs but are working on "working it out."
Mari'An- She is a huge helper around the house. She loves to sweep and clean the table. She says she cooked at the orphanage but I do not feel comfy with her helping with hot stuff or throwing her a knife just yet. She is a joy!
Luke- He is doing better with his English but still relies on Mari'an for help with words. I see them speaking more English to each other which is great. He is shy and very quiet. He loves playing outside and riding his bike. We had a new swing set built as the last one was on its last leg. He has so much fun on the stuff.
Amelia-She has been doing so well. She is smiley. loving, friendly and just a good girl. I thought she would be my problem child as she threw fits ALL the time. She came out of that and is doing very well. She always has to have some toy in her hand.
Nadia- She continues to be our little THUNDER girl. She mimics everything we do and is as smart as a whip. We are waiting to potty train her until things calm down around here. She can do it, we just need to give her a bit of encouragement. She is sweet and so loving!! Cute as a bug.
Mommy- Tired these days.
Daddy- Wants to be well
WE are so blessed to have these precious kids in our life. We hope we can raise them in such a way that they will know Jesus and rely on Him for their life. He is our only hope in this world. It is a scary world out there.
Joshua- His foot has healed from the toothpick incident very well. He did so well with all that. What a big boy! I am losing my baby.... boo hoo. He is turning out to be a fine young man and we are so proud of him.
Kayleb- He is doing great. We have taken him off of some of his med's and changed some of the others to see how he would respond. He is SOOO into hunting this year. It is too cute. He went out with daddy before surgery to deer and squirrel hunt. You would have thought we gave him a million dollars.
J'Dyn- She is doing great and has relaxed on trying to be the mother. That is very hard for her and I am proud that she is tryiing so hard. She is loving playing dress up and dolls with her sisters. They get into their little tiffs but are working on "working it out."
Mari'An- She is a huge helper around the house. She loves to sweep and clean the table. She says she cooked at the orphanage but I do not feel comfy with her helping with hot stuff or throwing her a knife just yet. She is a joy!
Luke- He is doing better with his English but still relies on Mari'an for help with words. I see them speaking more English to each other which is great. He is shy and very quiet. He loves playing outside and riding his bike. We had a new swing set built as the last one was on its last leg. He has so much fun on the stuff.
Amelia-She has been doing so well. She is smiley. loving, friendly and just a good girl. I thought she would be my problem child as she threw fits ALL the time. She came out of that and is doing very well. She always has to have some toy in her hand.
Nadia- She continues to be our little THUNDER girl. She mimics everything we do and is as smart as a whip. We are waiting to potty train her until things calm down around here. She can do it, we just need to give her a bit of encouragement. She is sweet and so loving!! Cute as a bug.
Mommy- Tired these days.
Daddy- Wants to be well
WE are so blessed to have these precious kids in our life. We hope we can raise them in such a way that they will know Jesus and rely on Him for their life. He is our only hope in this world. It is a scary world out there.
Update on Dan
It has been 9 days since Dan's surgery. He does better and better each day. He walks very gingerly and still has lots of swelling and pain. The doctors orders are to do limited activity this week and then can start adding more starting next week. He cannot lift over 10 pounds for 4 weeks. WOW!!! I did not know that going into the surgery.
We saw the Dr on Thursday for our first follow up and got great news. The cancer was contained within the prostate and did not spread outside. So, there will be no further radiation or chemo necessary. PRAISE THE LORD!!! He has to do follow up tests every 3 months and then every 6 months for another year. If all is well, his numbers should show there is no more cancer. We are so greatful that the Lord led us to finding this early. 10 more years may have caused it to spread. This was not a fluke by any means!!
Continued prayers are asked for as Dan recovers. He has along way to go to get back to himself again. Thanks to all who have prayed.
We saw the Dr on Thursday for our first follow up and got great news. The cancer was contained within the prostate and did not spread outside. So, there will be no further radiation or chemo necessary. PRAISE THE LORD!!! He has to do follow up tests every 3 months and then every 6 months for another year. If all is well, his numbers should show there is no more cancer. We are so greatful that the Lord led us to finding this early. 10 more years may have caused it to spread. This was not a fluke by any means!!
Continued prayers are asked for as Dan recovers. He has along way to go to get back to himself again. Thanks to all who have prayed.
Cookie time
The kids have been helping make Christmas cookies. Their eyes light up like never before as they frost the cutouts, put kisses on the blossoms, and eat their FIRST piece of Christmas fudge. Pure joy!!! They are great littel helpers and follow right along with their brothers and J'Dyn. They want to learn everything. Sometimes that can get overwhelming for me, but I try not to get frustrated. They are having so much fun.
Christmas is all new for them and we are so excited to share the REAL meaning with them. They know who Jesus is so now we have to teach them about the day He was born and why. This year will be more special than any other. Well, maybe not, but it will be close. :)
We have popcorn balls to make which should be very cool for them. We will see. They love popcorn.
Christmas is all new for them and we are so excited to share the REAL meaning with them. They know who Jesus is so now we have to teach them about the day He was born and why. This year will be more special than any other. Well, maybe not, but it will be close. :)
We have popcorn balls to make which should be very cool for them. We will see. They love popcorn.
Pneumonia
Nadia has had a cough for the last couple of weeks. Well, I decided to take her to the doctor today and guess what? She has pneumonia. A slight case but non-the-less, pneumonia. This has been quite the week!
She is on antibiotic and a cough syrup. She looks great and is as active as ever. Who would have thought?
She is on antibiotic and a cough syrup. She looks great and is as active as ever. Who would have thought?
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Joshua's foot
Wednesday before Dan's surgery, Joshua was playing in the living room and stepped on a toothpick. It was stuck in his foot and broken off at the skin. After attempts to get it out, I took him to the urgent care where the doctor spent 45 minutes extracting a one inch piece of wood. Not the place I wanted to be the day before surgery, but I guess that is where the Lord wanted me. :) He is doing GREAT!!! His foot continues to get better each day and does not hurt him at all.
Surgery Update
Lots to update since our last post. Here is goes.
Thursday was a pretty rough morning with lots of tears and the unknown facing us. We were so blessed with Dan's parents being here and friends showing up at the hospital to pray for us. We were overwhelmed with everything and the prayers helped tremendously for comfort.
The doctor told us the surgery would be about 2 1/2 hours. At 10:45 they wheeled Dan away from me (that was an aweful moment) and I went to the waiting room. Norton hospital is wonderful!!! They have a board on the wall that has surgery updates throughout the time Dan was in sugery. They also gave me a beeper for additional updates. We watched the time tick away and then the board said they had made their first incision. AH!!! Dan's dad followed the minutes for us and at 12:10, we were beeped and told the surgery was complete. We were shocked as that was only 1 hour and 10 minutes vs the 2 we were told. I was taken to a room to wait for the doctor to update me.
This was a moment of complete praise to Jesus. The first thing the dr.said was the surgery went very well and it was a textbook operation. YEH!!! Because Dan did not have any problems, his prostate was very firm, young, and not enlarged. It was easy to preserve the nerves, cut the tissue away, limit blood loss, and complete the surgery quickly. Our prayers where answered for this part for sure.
Dan spent that evening coming out of the anesthetic. The doctor wanted him to get up and move around. When he tried, he got very light headed and dizzy. This was a result of his blood pressure dropping to 98'ish over 48'ish. So much for his HIGH blood pressure. Because it was so low, he was having these side effects. Dan's dr. said he needed to stay in the hospital until he could stand and walk. By Friday evening, he was better and we could leave. We made it home by 8'ish. Being home was great "medicine" for him.
He has been doing very well. He is sore from the surgery and his muscles are sore from walking gingerly. The catheter is a whole different story. It takes a lot of getting used to. He is getting better hour by hour.
We are so thankful for all the prayers. The kids have doing VERY well thru all of this. WE are trying to keep our routine going and so far things have not been too bad. We cannot wait for life to get back to some kind of "normal."
I am so thankful and blessed that we can finally put the surgery behind us and look to the future. Dan will continue to have tests and various follow up visits because he is now a "cancer survivor" and we need to make sure it stays that way. We decided during the first week we were told about his cancer that we would take it one day, one chunk at a time. The first hurdle is now over and we move on to the recovery stage. There is alot of changes in the future but with the Lord we have found a tremendous peace about it all. We hope we can be used to share how the Lord has been amazingly faithful thru it all.
Continued prayers for Dan's recovery and for future heart tests. During this process, tests revealed that there is some abnormalities that need to be addressed after he recovers. That will be another chapter of the book I am going to write someday. :) Until then.......
Thursday was a pretty rough morning with lots of tears and the unknown facing us. We were so blessed with Dan's parents being here and friends showing up at the hospital to pray for us. We were overwhelmed with everything and the prayers helped tremendously for comfort.
The doctor told us the surgery would be about 2 1/2 hours. At 10:45 they wheeled Dan away from me (that was an aweful moment) and I went to the waiting room. Norton hospital is wonderful!!! They have a board on the wall that has surgery updates throughout the time Dan was in sugery. They also gave me a beeper for additional updates. We watched the time tick away and then the board said they had made their first incision. AH!!! Dan's dad followed the minutes for us and at 12:10, we were beeped and told the surgery was complete. We were shocked as that was only 1 hour and 10 minutes vs the 2 we were told. I was taken to a room to wait for the doctor to update me.
This was a moment of complete praise to Jesus. The first thing the dr.said was the surgery went very well and it was a textbook operation. YEH!!! Because Dan did not have any problems, his prostate was very firm, young, and not enlarged. It was easy to preserve the nerves, cut the tissue away, limit blood loss, and complete the surgery quickly. Our prayers where answered for this part for sure.
Dan spent that evening coming out of the anesthetic. The doctor wanted him to get up and move around. When he tried, he got very light headed and dizzy. This was a result of his blood pressure dropping to 98'ish over 48'ish. So much for his HIGH blood pressure. Because it was so low, he was having these side effects. Dan's dr. said he needed to stay in the hospital until he could stand and walk. By Friday evening, he was better and we could leave. We made it home by 8'ish. Being home was great "medicine" for him.
He has been doing very well. He is sore from the surgery and his muscles are sore from walking gingerly. The catheter is a whole different story. It takes a lot of getting used to. He is getting better hour by hour.
We are so thankful for all the prayers. The kids have doing VERY well thru all of this. WE are trying to keep our routine going and so far things have not been too bad. We cannot wait for life to get back to some kind of "normal."
I am so thankful and blessed that we can finally put the surgery behind us and look to the future. Dan will continue to have tests and various follow up visits because he is now a "cancer survivor" and we need to make sure it stays that way. We decided during the first week we were told about his cancer that we would take it one day, one chunk at a time. The first hurdle is now over and we move on to the recovery stage. There is alot of changes in the future but with the Lord we have found a tremendous peace about it all. We hope we can be used to share how the Lord has been amazingly faithful thru it all.
Continued prayers for Dan's recovery and for future heart tests. During this process, tests revealed that there is some abnormalities that need to be addressed after he recovers. That will be another chapter of the book I am going to write someday. :) Until then.......
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Post adoption report
Monday was our first post adoption report visit. As we were sharing about each child, we truly realized how blessed we are with our new 4. These kids are amazing. Even with their little quirks and cultural differences, they are great. The report is due Dec 30 to the agency and it looks like we are done on our end. YEH!!! One done two to go.
Dan's surgery is Thursday, Dec 3rd. The Lord has given us much comfort and peace at this time. We are still feeling like we are living outside ourselves on some days; this is not happening! But, it is for some reason. We pray that we can use this as part of our testimony to share how amazing Jesus is in our lives. We are still nervous...... But the blessing is the Lord helped us find it very early and it can be taken care of. Prayers please.
Dan's surgery is Thursday, Dec 3rd. The Lord has given us much comfort and peace at this time. We are still feeling like we are living outside ourselves on some days; this is not happening! But, it is for some reason. We pray that we can use this as part of our testimony to share how amazing Jesus is in our lives. We are still nervous...... But the blessing is the Lord helped us find it very early and it can be taken care of. Prayers please.
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