In beginning this blog, I've kinda written a history of my life and my family. Looking back, it seems I stopped the story in '06 when we adopted Shad. Well we got home from China at the end of Jan '06. Jon's first Sunday as pastor of our church happened while I was in China so I came home as a pastor's wife! At htat time, we still lived in our trailer in Polk City as the parsonage was in a mess and we were unable to move in. During '06, many people of the church donated their time and energy to fixing up the parsonage so it was liveable! Basically the house had to be gutted and redone. Unfortunately the roof was not redone at the same time as that is becoming a problem and concern for us. The inside of the house was done in neutral colors and is nice. It's a very small house but it is manageable for us. Thankfully the work got done in time for us to move here so Steve could start school in Aug '06. He started at Zephryhills Christian 5th grade.
During this time, Sam was doing somewhat better physically. He was crawling and pulling up. At the time of our move he was 2 1/2. He did spend alot of time in the hospital in '06 and '07. It seemed when he'd get sick, he just couldn't fight it whether it was a cold or a stomach problem. We were also keeping a watch on his eyes. His left eye had already rejected the donor cornea and his right eye was clouding up which told us he was slowly losing his sight.
Shad was adjusting to the family and his new life and doing good.
The church/parsonage is located outside of a small town in the woods. Actually the property sits at an angle and the backside of the property borders on a wetland preserve. Across the street is a wetland preserve and on the left side of the property across the highway is also a preserve. You can imagine all the critters we see around here. Snakes, raccoons, possums, deer, wild boars...the list goes on. Of course the church came with quite a few stray cats, that my kids and me love...
We have a large fenced in yard where we have a swing set and a trampoline to keep the kids occupied. They have plenty of space to run and play.
So '06 turned into '07 and things were going good. The church was slowly growing and becoming a more relevant church. We were happy. Jon's job at the prison was going good and neither position was interfering with the other. Sam started walking in early '07 right when he turned 3 years old. We were thrilled! When he was younger, we both felt he probably wouldn't walk as he couldn't hardly hold himself upright when he was about 2, but when he started crawling we thought he might walk but it happened so quickly (for Sam) that we were shocked!
Then in June '07, after a routine exam under anesthesia, Sam's doctors gently told us that his right eye had rejected the cornea and he did not have much more sight than just awareness of light. That was hard to hear. but one of the doctors told us about an experimental surgery that was done in Rochester NY where artificial corneas were implanted into the eyes of children enabling them to see better. I contacted NY and Sam was set up for surgery in August "07.
We drove up....that was a long trip but we did some fun things like we stopped at the Billy Graham museum in North Carolina. That was cool. The kids got to see alot of the country and mountains which was cool.
We expected Rochester to be a huge town, like Miami or something. As we drove into it we were shocked at how small it is. The hospital we were at was at the south side of Rochester and only 3 exits away farmland stretched out. We didn't know that was such a farming community. We love Rochester! Our family stayed for 3 weeks at the Rochester Ronald McDonald house and were treated so kindly by the staff. Sam had his left eye done on August 8 and the right eye done on August 13. What a dramatic difference in appearance after the surgery. We are so thankful for Dr James Aqualvella. He has worked since the '60's perfecting a artificial corneal implant that would help children to see. He is an older man now but still going strong! What could we say to a man that gave his life to work on something that has given our son so much more sight? I will always be grateful to this man! Sam was the 46th person in the world to have this done. While we were there , there was a family from Italy, whose infant son had the transplants done and as we were leaving a family from Ireland came for it for their 6 yr old daughter.
The picture above is before and afters of Sam's eyes. The top left is before any surgery. The top right is after the left eye was done and the bottom was after both eyes were done! How beautiful for the first time ever to be able to really see into his sweet little eyes!
Despite the surgery, Sam is still blind but there are degrees of blindness. Not many people are black blind, where they see only blackness. Most people fall into the category of visionally impaired. That's where Sam is. He sees objects about 2 feet in front of him. He doesn't have much vision in the lower part of his eyes and stumbles over things on the floor. Even thing he leaves on the floor! But there is such an improvement from where he was at. We could tell immediately especially the day after the right eye was operated on and the patch came off. He was reacting to toys in a way he had never done before.
Before we left Sam was featured on a tv show here and once we were in NY, we were on a couple of shows there. That was fun for us. When we got back on, we were on a Christian tv show and had so much fun doing it. Jon was a natural!!
On our way home, we stopped in Washington DC for a few days and had a great time. We stayed in an older hotel, 4 blocks from the White House and took the tour all over the city. At the Vietnam War Memorial, I began crying as I walked down past mementos that had been left just that day for some dead soldiers. It was overwhelming. You want to believe those lives were not lost in vain...
After we got home, Sam developed a inflammation in his left eye. It was swollen up in a matter of hours and we drove to Miami in 4 hrs and 10 min. Usually it is a 5-6 hour trip! God was gracious to us and worked a miracle. In the 6 weeks he dealt with this, he had 4 sonograms and all of them showed that the retina had detached. If the retina detaches, you become black blind! When the doctors went in to see if they could repair the detachment, the eye was fine and there was no detachment! Even the doctors said it was a miracle
So from Oct '07 to Nov '08, Sam's eyes were stable. He didn't have much sight in the left eye but that was not from he inflammation but rather from a film growing on the back of the implant. It was cleaned off once but grew back. His right eye was good and he was growing more confident in his walking and playing.
Then in Nov'08, he woke up one morning with all the sight gone from his right eye. So at that point, he was basically blind. It was a hard time for him and for us. But again God was gracious and after a couple of surgical procedures, his sight came back as good as it ever was. His body just looks at the implants as something it needs to fight and it fights them. He's on 32 eye drops a day so you can imagine how much fun that is...we've been doing eye drops for so long now that it is second nature to us and him.
In the past year, we've dealt with some things in our church and the church has gone through a time of change. It was not pleasant, but there were things that had to be dealt with. It's funny how some little things grow and show you what's really in peoples' hearts. We've learned alot and it's been good for the health of the church. through difficult situations, you really learn to look to God. So without going into a great deal of detail, I'll just say I'm looking forward to the future of this church and all that God has for it and for us. We recently changed the name from Branchborough Assembly of God to Grace Church. We have a lot of things planned for the next few months and are excited to see what happens.
I look back over the fall of '08 and think how God brought us through. We had things going on in the church, Sam's eyes, Jon's dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and his brother had a heart attack..all within a matter of weeks. What a crazy time but God was so good and faithful to us! God is so very faithful and kind! He is with us when life gets rough and He brings us through it all...
"Therefore I will not fear though the earth be removed and thought the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea"
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