no SPECT scan

Thursday morning (yesterday), Elijah woke up with a cold. He is rarely sick. Todd and I both immediately thought that "God is preventing this SPECT scan for some reason". (Due to the sedation used, Elijah's congestion would be bad combined with anesthesia.) So, no scan today...and later on, we found out that perhaps some things had been overlooked concerning insurance coverage. For whatever the reason, things have postponed again.

I am frustrated at how long this process is taking for Elijah to get hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We have been working on this for months...and have spent many hours researching, talking to people on the phone, and trying to arrange the details. It is a full-time job to juggle my child's medical care and schedule!! :) I'm not sure how one little boy can be so complicated, but I think I'm going to start calling myself his administrative assistant.

Whenever I start stressing over the time it's taking to get started with HBOT, I feel a little tug inside my heart...the Lord saying, "Rest...it's in My hands". So while I continue to do all possible, the stress is not mine to take. God knows the perfect time for Elijah's brain to receive this therapy.

Elijah's "crawling"!

Tear-Jerker Alert: You might cry if you watch this!

This is a video of Elijah today in his 'crawligator'...and it's the best he's ever done. An AMAZING gift from our God! You will hear Traci, Elijah's P.T., practically screaming. :)

Thank you, Lord, for these fumbled and imperfect, yet blissfully beautiful movements of hands and feet...

for eyes to see You work...

for allowing me to feel a joy so deep it aches.

Will you thank Him with me? You who have prayed and loved and labored with us for this precious child.

just living life

Here we are in our raggies after picking huckleberries and then driving to the "top of the mountain", with it's alpine lake. So beautiful, and SO COLD! We finally started a fire to warm up our toes.
This is Mr. Elijah getting a head start on working with shaving cream. His physical therapist, Traci, is always coming up with fun ideas for our little guy, and we love her!

We wanted you to know about two things that are heavy on our hearts.

The first concern is that Elijah has pretty much stopped drinking from a bottle. After literally hundreds (if not thousands) of hours working with him, it would be incredibly discouraging if all that effort seemed to go out the window. In the Philippines, Elijah also stopped eating for a week. Since he didn't have a g-tube then, it meant our only choice was to feed him with an eye-dropper and he ended up dehydrated and in the hospital. Thankfully, we are not under that level of stress now...and we are extra thankful for his life-saving g-tube! We're not sure what's happening, but it would be great if Elijah could continue to eat on his own.

The second thing is a new type of therapy being used for children (and adults) with brain injuries called hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We have this treatment available to us, but because it is not widely medically recognized, Elijah's medicaid probably will not cover this. Elijah will have a SPECT brain scan done next week to document the blood flow that his brain is currently receiving. Then we plan to do the hyperbaric oxygen therapy, followed by another SPECT scan. IF (and that's a big "if") we can document a functional change in Elijah as well as improved oxygen to his brain, perhaps we can convince our insurance or medicaid to cover the cost. However, money isn't the biggest issue to us, although it is a factor. We are mostly just encouraged that there is a tiny gleam of "hope" for kids like Elijah! We have been cautioned so many times not to get our hopes up, and that improvement is not guaranteed. We know, we know...but how can we not try?

Thanks for caring about our little boy. It is yet to be revealed how many gifts have been given to us because of your prayers.

Sending a hug,

Julie

grace

I see her walking on the street just ahead of our car. I know she sees us. She picks up her pace, leaving her friend behind, disappearing behind the building before we can say 'hello'.

I seethe inside. Just how many times, Lord, have we tried to reach out to this girl? I can't even count. Why, too, am I surprised at the sting? It should come as no surprise. "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." -- John 15:18

My anger reveals what's inside my own heart...bitterness, judgment, and lack of grace. So often, lately, it seems I am confronting those attitudes within. I've also been thinking about how I sometimes greet people I categorize as "different than me". A subtle reserve, a tiny lack of warmth...cleverly hidden, probably not noticeable but to my closest friends and God.

Break my glossed-over pride, Father...make me aware of how great my sin-debt is to you, and how much You love the ones around me. Teach me how to love despite rejection; how to be real and still love like You do.