Quick Update

Today was a quiet day for Selah.  Jon did some training with her trach.  It doesn't look like we will be leaving in the next few days as her blood pressure spiked or 'stormed"  and went high several times.  The doctors want to see this completely stable before she is flown back to Florida.  We are ok with that as we trust the medical care here.  They seem to really "turn over every stone" trying to find what is wrong and why and how to fix it!   So we are confident that they will adjust her medicine in a way to keep her BP more stable.  They certainly have been working on it.  They believe everything points to the reason for the high BPs is because of the brain damage only.  They do not feel there is any other physical reason. 

I took the boys to get hair cuts today, they were looking pretty wooly:)  Steve found a dvd of MADEA that we didn't have so that is what we watched tonight and I got some real laughs  going!  "Madea goes to jail ~ the play"  it was different than the movie (it was a real play) we got the movie one.  I have all of Madea's movies now I think!   It was good and had some good points and certainly some good laughs.  If you don't know Madea is my some what alter ego.  I appreciate Tyler Perry's work and how he always brings in a redeemative message as well as a prayer of salvation.  

I did LOADS of laundry today, really feeling at home LOL.  I actually had everything including our towels and sheets cleaned for about 10 minutes! 

Meet a sweet family who are here for their daughter to get a corneal implant tomorrow morning.  Their little one has faced alot of physical issues since her birth.  Pray that she will have sucess and pray for Dr A and Dr Chung as they work on this sweet little girl.  She could see for a short time after receiving corneal transplants but her eyes soon rejected them.  She was sad and let her family know that she wanted to see!!!  Please pray that this surgery will work for her and she will be able to see again!  Her mom and dad are very anixous!  You can just see the love they have for her!    Thank you for praying for this dear little one!  Put yourself in the parents' shoes and pray like that was your little bitty girl who wanted to see again.....

We see so much while we are staying at the RMH.  Some kids are here for just routine checkups and stay a few days, others have serious surgeries, or are born prematurely, or have accidents, or cancer ....it really makes us realize that we all go through trouble in this life!  We often find ourselves in rather deep conversations with families, some who are quite bitter about what their child has had to face.  We can truly speak from expirence when we talk with parents, even if our expirence is somewhat different but we've expirenced alot...  Actually while you are praying for us, remember all the families here, they are all facing some kind of storm and need  God to be with them!  Thanks!

Sam's eye surgery video

http://www.5min.com/Video/Helping-Blind-Kids-See-175537507



If you are new to my blog, you might like to see this video of Sam's original corneal implant surgery.  the vido actually shows some of his surgery (they actually gave me the video that had ALL his surgery on it too YUCK!) 

He was so cute and little!   (not that he is too big now hahaha!)  But the last scene were him walks to the toy was unscripted, his eye patch had just came off and he could SEE!!!  The looks on our faces were FOR REAL!  We had never seen him come across the room for anything.  He couldn't see if something was not right in front of him.  What a wonderful blessing Dr A has been to our family!!!!

So that is why we come here!!!!

 

Sarah and me before church.  she wore the bow all day!!!!!! 

 

Jon and Sam at the Farm Market

 

 

Some cute pics from yesterday!

Update on Selah!!!

This is hard to explain....Selah has responded before  to her cornea being touched BUT not to a hand moved in front of her face like it was going to hit her eye...well today she did! I noticed she was seeming to blink when the nurse was near so I waved my hand towards her and she blinked every time. It is a brain stem response that is a little higher up on the brain stem. I did it over and over and she responded every time! If I did it more than 4 times back to back, her response would start slowing down, probably because she was getting used to it. This is a GOOD sign!!!!!!! On the other hand she is still having MAJOR spikes in her blood pressure. Please continue to pray for more responses & low/normal blood pressure! This may put off our return to Florida date, which would be ok to us cause we so trust the medical care here!

 

We are really excited about thisnew movement!!!  This seems to show there maybe  some new brain stem recovery!!  I'm looking forward to us talking to the doctors tomorrow about it.  We want to ask again to have her re-evaluated for rehab.  We were told she wouldn't benefit from it since she had such little responses.  Maybe now they will reconsider, she has done more since when she was evaluated. 

 

We had a great day, Jon preached at Williamston Christian community church where some of our "snowbirds" go in the summer.  Ch 13 (the ABC station) videotaped his whole sermon!  A small clip was shown on Ch 13 tonight.  They picked out  some great  parts where Jon stressed the faithfulness of God.  You never know who is watching and what is going on in their lives.  If nothing else, maybe it can encourage someone to hang on to God during their trials!

 

Then we went out with a group of friends to Burnap's Farm Market and  ate outside...beautiful but cold (to us) day!   Then later  we met some of our old friends who we worked with in NYC years ago and went out to supper together.  What a great day and the best part was seeing more response from Selah!  Please pray it continues! 

 

She had the cutest, sweetest nurse who painted her toe nails with pink sparkly paint!  How cute and thoughtful:)   It just made me smile that she did that for Selah!!!   You could just tell the nurse loves her job and cares about her!  I know I say this all the time but I am so impressed with Strong's Hospital.  We are so thankful for the GREAT care she has received here.    She seems to be recovering form her dental surgery, although her mouth seemed a bit bloody tonight.  There was concern that she might have "pink eye" and she has been put on eye drops to make sure if she does, it's not contagious once she was on antibiotics for 24 hours.  We got a bit freaked out because of Sam's eyes!!!!  We've been scrubbing out hands!

 

So please keep praying!!!!!  Thank you!

Want to make me happy?

I have a good friend who has been in the process of adopting for sometime.  They were working hard to adopt a little boy with HIV & then his mom came back into the picture and they were unable to finish the adoption.  Then they were committed to going to get a beautiful little girl with HIV and a family in the little girl's country stepped forward for her.  Since then they have pressed forward despite their heartache, knowing that God had placed this desire in their hearts to change a child's life forever!   I know the heartache they have gone through and I really want to bless them.  They will be leaving soon for our children's country to adopt a child.  They are really stepping out in faith, not 100% sure of what child they will come home with but they know it will be the child God has for them.  The child they adopt will be Special Needs, with medical needs.  

So in support of Selah and Sarah would you give to their Family Sponsorship Fund?  They need around $2000 to bridge the gap, they've paid all their fees up to date out of their pocket,  living frugally...You can use either of the below web addresses to give through.  I could open both.  The top one has a cute little blurb that my friend wrote that will make you smile. 

This family will give this a child a wonderful happy and probably a bit spoiled life:)  Thank you for being a part of a miracle!!!!!


http://reecesrainbow.org/22613/sponsorcooper



http://static.reecesrainbow.org/donation-box/fsp-CooperOwen.html 

My favorite picture...

 

This has to be one of my favorite pictures....

It's Sam, Jon and Selah in the apartment in Kiev Ukraine after we'd traveled all night on a train.  Selah was so excited she didn't sleep all night!

Then she fell asleep on daddy's shoulder holding his hands!!!!

Strong's Muesum pictures!!!

 So very thankful for his life!!!

 Sam had to ride the train 5x!  he was so happy and cute on it

The kids outside the Strong Muesum

Sam and Sarah on the light up floor.  They loved it so much!  If I were ever rich I would buy them a floor that lights up!  they spent a very happy hour playing on it!

 

Yes Sam is resting on my lap so I can rub his back and he can look at the lights at the same time

 

Sarah's first ride on a merry go round.  she is actually really excited:)