Urgent Prayer Request

I guess I should say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all those that have checked back in after the holidays! I have been a poor blogger for myself lately, but that is because I have been working on another blog. A precious family that we went to church with for years has been going through a major crisis. Their two year old son, Nate, was diagnosed the week before Christmas with a rare and aggressive form of cancer that has caused tumors on his brain and his spine. After a surgery to remove one tumor that resulted in several set backs, we were so excited that he was going to start chemo and hopefully slow the growth of his tumors. Nate recieved his first round of chemo this weekend, only to have to be rushed to the ICU because his body would not process the chemo correctly. Please join me in praying, fasting, and crying out to God for this little child of His. His parents have amazing faith, and I know that God is at work in this situation. I have created a blog with updates about this family and I urge you to read it, pray about it, and pass it on to other believers so that they can be praying for him as well. I want to get as many people prying for this guy as possible. Thank you for spending a little bit of time making a big difference in the life of this family.

Click here to visit his blog!

Brandon and I are doing well! We just went on a weekend get-away to San Antonio just for fun. We had a good time, and when I can I have pictures to post from Christmas until now! I hope that everyone is starting off the New Year well.

Prayer Request

My Grandma (my dad's mother), is in the hospital in Temple, Texas. She was admitted due to severe abdominal pain this weekend. They found that she had an obstruction that they were able to partially clear out today. They also found that she has a mass that appears to be cancerous. Prayers are already being answered, though, because it appears that the mass is not connected to any organ, which means that it most likely has not had the chance to spread. My grandma is such an amazing woman of faith, her trust in the Lord is so encouraging to see. We are praying that Grandma's wounds heal rapidly, that the doctors are able to remove all the tumor, and that there is no cancer anywhere else in her body. I am praying that the tumor is biopsied and there is no cancer. My God can do that!!! Thank you all for lifting my family up in prayer today and throughout this next week. I know of the power and comfort that comes from a body of believers praying for you!

Thanks again for all your prayers. My dad has had a long year, and I know that this is concerning him. May God bless each of your lives this week!

Take a second....

I don't know if you have heard of this family or not, but I have been sucked is by their blog. Nathan, the author, is the husband of a woman who is courageously and graciously battling cystic fibrosis. They had a beautiful daughter 12 weeks ago that was born very premature, and is growing and developing with God's grace. They found out today that there is a possible donor for a lung transplant. They have had a false alarm before, so I can only imagine the pins and needles they are waiting on. Tricia (mom) needs the transplant to be able to fully enjoy her daughter and husband without being attached to a ventilator and in the hospital. Please pray that these are the lungs for her, and if they are, that the surgery goes well. I only watched my Momma suffer with a lung disease for a few days, but I have a tender spot for those that suffer with any lung disease.

Take time and catch up with their family when you have a chance, and remember them if your prayers. We have an awesome God and I believe that His plan is perfect.

Their blog in case my links don't work: cfhusband.blogspot.com

Wednesday's update

Well, you keep hoping for good news, but I have none to give everyone. I am so exhausted and discouraged but I really need encouragement so I thought I would post and y'all can forgive me if my spelling or grammar is bad. Since I last posted so much has happened that it is hard to know where to start. On Monday they found what they call "free air" or air in her abdomen where it should not be, and completely unrelated to her lung issues. They gave us several options, and ran some tests and last night we found out that the leak was in her bowels. Her doctor felt that he needed to operate because the risk of infection was so high, even though that was the last thing her lungs needed, and so she had to go into surgery today. As he put, he felt "painted into a corner." It was the classic catch 22, the steroids she has to take for her lungs slow her body from healing and make infection symptoms harder to recognize. They performed the surgery and unfortunately the perforation was in her colon, the worse place it could be. They removed a large portion of her colon, and were forced to give her a colostomy bag. She did ok during the surgery, but because of her lungs she was unable to come directly off of the ventilator, so she is in ICU on the ventilator heavily sedated. This is not at all related to her lungs, but the steroids they have to give her to keep them working will prevent her from healing from her surgery quickly. There is a great risk of infection when you operate on the bowels, and they are watching her closely to see if anything develops. She will be in the ventilator for days, and has no idea that she could have a colostomy, so when she wakes up she will have a lot to take in. We are all in shock, we thought she might be coming home soon.

Please pray for healing for my mom. Please pray for her to have no infections. We need her too bad to loose her to this. Thanks for all of your thoughts. Keep them coming. You help me more than you could ever know.

I am trying to be strong... but it is hard. Love you guys and thanks for everything.

A Quick Note about my Mom

Well, we got here and I got to see Momma Saturday morning. Her doctor told my dad that the preliminary results are good. She appears to have inflammation, not tumors or infection, but there is no answer to why. I was expecting her to be weak from surgery and possibly in pain, but she is not really in any pain. I was pretty sad when we left last night, because in the 8 or more hours I was up there, Mom made no progress breathing better. She has been on steroids for 6 days and she is not improving lung/breathing wise at all. I am so very thankful that she is not in pain and that she is feeling better, but she is not improving her breathing at all. She is breathing so shallow, and today the doctor tried to take down her oxygen intake and she had a pretty bad incident just going from the bed to the toilet 2 feet away. She had a good nurse in ICU that would get in her face and tell her to breath slow and deep, and also keep her honest about how she was doing, but her other nurses let her tell them that she is doing great and say things like "you are the best judge of how you are feeling." Really? She thought that her bathroom trip that her oxygen levels dropped so low was her best time up yet?!?! Does that sound like she knows how she is doing?

Please pray for her tonight and tomorrow. She is off of all of her monitors, which is so very scary to me. Now, no one will be alerted if she starts breathing poorly, and they only check her vitals every 8 hours! It is so insane to me that she doesn't have more supervision, and to make it worse, she is the farthest room from the nursing station that is on a different hall from her. I am going to have to trust that the Lord will watch over her and protect her. If not I will go crazy.

Brandon left today to go home, and I will be here until Mom is home and settled, which could be a long time (a week or two). I miss him, and I know it is so selfish and silly, but I hate being away from him. I won't go on and on, I know that my military wife friends would want to strangle me for being such a baby about being away from him. I just haven't been away from him since we got married for more than a day, so this is new and with my mom being so sick I miss him being here to support me.

I will try to post as soon as she comes home. It may be tomorrow. I do not know really what the goal is to get her home. Thanks for all the prayers and emails. They are a comfort beyond what you could imagine.

Update on Momma

Well, Momma will have her biopsy tomorrow (Thursday) morning. She will have a large section of lung removed to be studied. Well, I think that it is large, they told her it will be about the size of her thumb. She will have to remain in the ICU for at least 24 hours to watch her chest tube and monitor her breathing.

Please pray for her safety and for the surgeon's skill tomorrow. Unfortunately, the doctor's have very little clue what is going on with her. They have told her it looks like she was exposed to toxins for several years. That scares me because it could mean that the damage is long term. We all need a little comfort, especially my momma who is terrified of the surgery. I will post when I know more after her surgery tomorrow.

Brandon and I will be leaving to go see her Friday, even though she keeps telling me that we do not need to. This weekend is ACU's homecoming and we were planning on going to that, but I do not think that I would enjoy the festivities knowing that my mom is lying in a hospital bed.

Thanks for your prayers, as my anxiety level fluctuates, I am reminded that my friends are out there praying for her.

Now I just wish that we could have Hugh Laurie from House come and look at her! He would be able to figure out what is wrong!

Prayer Request

My mom has had pneumonia for about 4 weeks, and they put her in the hospital today. She has been at home with oxygen for about two weeks, and they haven't seen enough improvement. She seems to be in good spirits, but I know that she really did not want to have to be hospitalized. My prayer is that she can get the medicine that she needs, and that she can recover quick. I ask for your prayers for my mom and dad. It is so hard being this far away from her and not being able to be there with her. It helps knowing that my friends and "webfriends" are praying for her recovery.

***UPDATE***

Well, after a sonogram they did to determine where they needed to drain Momma's lungs, they discovered there was no fluid. They did a CAT scan, and they now do not think that she has pneumonia. The doctor told her today that it looks like she has been exposed to toxins for an extended amount of time. They have scheduled a lung biopsy for tomorrow to see what it is that has infected her lungs. Please be in prayer for her and for our family. We are all a little startled by the news today. I will post as much as I can as soon as I can. Thanks again for your prayers.

Prayers Needed

*UPDATE*
Thank you for all those that said a prayer for Gama yesterday. She was sent home from the hospital after running several tests. It was revealed that she was dehydrated. Since she has had open heart surgery, we were expecting it to be her heart, so we were really relieved when we found out what it was. Thanks again for all your prayers.

Brandon's Gama was taken to the emergency room this morning, and so far we have very little information, we just know that she was not feeling very good. Please lift her up in prayer this morning, that it is nothing serious.

Here she is with Papa and Jesse at Thanksgiving:

Prayer Request

In your quiet moments please remember this sweet family in your prayers. While I do not know the couple personally, they are related to a dear friend of ours. Their twins came very early, and they have sadly lost one. The little boy, Kanyon, is doing better daily, praise the Lord! Their blog is kept up by a relative who is doing an excellent job keeping everyone updated. There are hundreds of comments from people praying for them and encouraging them, and I know that they could use hundreds more!

It is amazing what prayer can do! I ask you to join in and pray for this young family, for peace and comfort, for the doctors, and for little Kanyon to keep growing and developing. Thank you for remembering them!