Update: When it rains, it pours!

Thank you everyone for all of your prayers for Sean. His spirits are good! We are beginning to see signs of healing. He has a little more mobility in his arms and a little less pain in his shoulders. He is most grateful to be able to feed himself, brush his own teeth, etc. Funny how last week I wouldn't have thought to be grateful for that :) He has also been able to type some without too much pain so he can try and get back to his school work. It would be awful to get far behind or have to drop a class. He is really looking forward to graduating this summer. Holding a book in order to read it is still difficult, but I am trying to find creative solutions. In the morning he drinks his coffee out of a tall clear tumbler with a long red crazy straw!

I am sure I can thank the waiting room full of coughing, sneezing people as I waited in in hospital Friday for the fact that all of us are sick. I should have taken a bunch of vitamin C and other immune boosters when I got home. My sinuses feel like they are pushing my teeth out. Normally I would be whining to Sean about needing a hot bath and a nap! Joe has croup. That is just wrong. Poor kid cannot breath without sounding like he is gasping desperately for air and then coughing like a barking seal. He is fianally sleeping for a bit... I am going to try some onion poultices later tonight. I am grateful that he is my 4th child and I have gained the knowledge that croup, while sounding deadly, is really a reasonably minor illness.

We continue to pray about what God is doing with all this. Certainly I am reminded to be grateful for all we have! I feel a bit stuck in the mire...but a head cold can make you feel that way in the best of times. Every doctor who looks at Sean or his many x-rays, CAT-scans, MRIs, etc tells us how incredibly "lucky" we are. Perhaps, but I really believe God was protecting him, even directing us with this injury. We absolutely praise God that he is not dead or in a wheelchair! It is also changing the way we have thought sbout some things and opening some new opportunities. Since Sean is now able to sit up for a few hours at a time, he is doing all the homeschooling for now!

It is possible I will need to get a job. Sean is self-employed so we don't have any income right now. I have not had to look for a job in about 7 years! I have been teaching childbirth classes and working as a doula when I can, but I am yet to figure out how that translates into a job that can support us for a while. Not to mention making sure the kids are cared for and not putting too much stress on Sean at home. Kind of makes me wish I had finished nursing school! 3rd shift nursing sounds a lot better than third shift grocery bagging :) Not to mention is pays better...

I have so far avoided major emotional breakdown. My house is a complete diaster and I have a lot more questions than answers. Perhaps my sick kids are almost helping. As long as I just move from one mess to another, one project or runny nose or bedtime accident, or making odd smelling homemade cough syrup, or running to play practice, fall fittness, gathering Sean's prescriptions, reccords, doctors appointments, etc, etc, etc. It might never actually crash! Who needs sleep? Or sanity?

I can pretty much say, because it seems silly to keep the secret now. I was supposed to be going to Haiti next month. Ha! Again. I refuse to be beaten! So, evil Satan...I am not giving up on my family and my family includes Sophia! I may not see her this month or next, and it may seem like the road is not more difficult than ever but somehow, somehow we are going to bring her home. We are going to get through all of this, and we are going to be stronger and know more about where God is leading us.

Prayers for my Sean...

Yesterday Sean was injured at work. He has a relatively minor spinal injury and is still enjoying the hospitality and room service of Aurora Hospital. As of now he has to wear a lovely spinal collar and is in a tremendous amount of pain. We expect him to come home tonight but life is going to be very different around here for a while. We are thanking and praising God that the injury was not even slightly worse as they expect that he will fully recover. Another lb. of force could have put him in a wheelchair for life instead of inconveniencing us for a few weeks.

To all my praying Christian friends, we covet your prayers. Sean will not be able to work. Pray that somehow we find creative ways to make ends meet and see God's provision. Also pray for me as I care for him as well as my children and that he makes a supernaturally fast recovery. Next week when we meet with the neurologist I want to be a witness to the healing power of Jesus Christ, that we might say "Look what the Lord has done". I believe in miracles, and I believe that not only will be be able to take off his spinal collar in a week but that the scans will show no damage, no swelling. That Sean will have full use of his arms and hands and without pain.

I wanted to post a lovely picture of him in C-spine showing his forehead stitched from nose to hairline... but I took the picture with my phone and I have no idea how to get it from there to here!