HOPE UPDATE

Hello dear praying friends and family! I am going to try to give a overall update on our Hope that I have been trying to get to for a while. : ) It is long as there is always lots going on with Hope, up and down, so here goes:

HOPE UPDATE

We are praising The Lord for the last 24 hours! Hope started to eat yesterday late afternoon and has been doing much better since! Eating, drinking, taking meds, generally happy, talking more and interactive with us. We are SO thankful to The Lord for His merciful Hand over us and Hope's life! And we are so thankful for a gracious God that delights to answer the prayers of His precious children! I always think of the mothers in third word countries that will watch their children starve to death from lack of food, when I'm watching Hope during these hunger strikes. I then thank The Lord that at least we have food to offer her.

HOPE UPDATE

Hello dear praying friends and family! I had grand hopes of getting an overview of where things are at with some recent pictures. . . that will have to wait a little longer as our Hopey is still sick and we are concerned. I would rather get a quick update out so you can be praying for her current needs.

Let me give you, first, a couple really awesome praises as we never want to be lax in giving God the praise He is due and sharing it with you, so you can praise Him too!

A little girl time while daddy is working on his sermon for tomorrow. Having a little tea party with Gabi! You can tell Hopey doesn't feel good but she did have a couple bites of the yummy Valentines cookie from Sweet Nonie and drank her strawberry milk "tea." Thankful for moments that God allows these two precious little girls, sisters and best buddies, to interact and share in fun together! While I was upstairs getting their snack tea party ready, Gabi told me that Hope asked her if she could play with her hair. Gabi out her head on her tummy and let her play with her hair. So sweet. How I love these little gifts that God has blessed us with!!! (Can you tell that I just found out how to put pictures from my phone on Facebook. Hee hee!)

We're Home - HOPE UPDATE

We made it!!! We're home. And although we still have a sick little girlie, she is enjoying the comforts of home such as a snuggle with little sissy in her beanbag chair. Thank you SO much for all your prayers! Even though Hope was sick and not feeling great yesterday, her fever backed off for the day and she was a great trooper on all the flights and transfers and layover! Her fever is going back up again today and so we know that God's hand of mercy was over her long day of travelling.

HOPE UPDATE

Hello dear praying friends! I have been wanting to send an update for quite some time but this month has been very very full for us in many respects. I have much to update you on and praise God for seeing us through a difficult month for our family. Prayerfully I'll have the chance to write a more thorough update soon, as well as start a blog site for those who are not on Facebook. But we do have a current request for prayer for Hope that I will just quickly share. . . we are currently travelling with her as we just finished attending the Harvest Pastor's and. Wives Conference in Orlando, Florida. She has had some health concerns since being down here, but today it got worse when she started running a high fever and has a bad cough. She is not feeling well and insomnia has set in again. She has been having other concerns as well such as not drinking/eating and refusing her important seizure medication. We have tomorrow to get packed up and ready to travel home and then spend all day Friday travelling home. She had a seizure on the plane on our way down and now with being so sick, we are concerned about her and the extra stress on her if still sick on Friday. Would you please pray that Hope will recover quickly from this virus bug and be much better before Friday morning travels? Gabi had a fever and was very sick on the weekend here but thankfully it only lasted 2 days. . . praying the same for Hope!!! It is 3 am here and Hope is still awake lying in bed. . . I am waiting to make sure she is able to finally go to sleep ok. Thank you dear prayer warriors! We are very thankful for you!!! You are so loved!!!

Cupcake Celebration

We had a wonderful cupcake celebration tonight!!! Thank you Katie Flury for your most delicious cupcakes! They were a big hit!!! Hope's G-tube removal went fairly well today. . . it's gone!!! Hope was super brave and opted to have it yanked out (the flange on the inside securing her tube was about the size of a nickel and her G-tube track or hole is about the size of a pencil. . . so it is quite uncomfortable). She wanted it ALL gone! Sadly the first yank did nothing. And even more sad, the second harder yank snapped the tubing and the flange stayed inside. They did their best to check and make sure that the flange didn't lodge in the G-tube track, and they think that it did not, but we will need to watch it closely that it heals properly indicating that they are right. There are other possible complications (although not common, as some people do opt to cut the tube to avoid the pain of yanking it out). The flange will now need to work it's way out of the body. Complications can be that it gets stuck in her gut somewhere and needs to be surgically removed, or the scarier one is that if she throws up and the flange is still in her stomach, it could become lodged in her esophagus and cause an airway obstruction. With Hope's whooping cough still present, she has thrown up a couple times this week.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for her safety and that none of these complications will occur for her. . . that the flange will pass safely and quickly! Hope was quiet all morning before the tube was removed and since she has been super chatty and smiley. . . she's pretty excited to have the tube gone! She like to put her hand over the bandage and feel her "flat" tummy! Well, besides the "hockey puck" or ITB pump. . . but that will be another story. . . : ) Thank you so much for all the encouraging notes and prayers and pictures!!! How fun to have celebrated with people across Canada and the United States!!! May God be praised, for He is good!!! As a sweet friend sent me earlier today. . . "TASTE and see that the Lord is good!" You are loved dear friends and family!!! : )