It's Been a While!

Our trip to the Midwest was full of unexpected turns, but all in all it was a fun-filled and memorable time. Because of Kaleb's hospitalization the first week of our trip we, sadly, had to cut our time in Evansville down to only two days. However, God was gracious to give us an extra sweet time with Todd's family though it was all too brief. One of the highlights of our trip was being able to go to our old churches and thank many people in person for praying for us. There are simply no words to communicate how powerfully God has worked in our lives through your prayers.

Towards the end of the trip, Zion caught hand, foot, and mouth disease, so our anticipated return to friends and ministry in Boston turned into two weeks of quarantine as it gradually spread from Zion to River to Todd. Kaleb also got sick with a severe ear infection, so, needless to say, we haven’t had a lot of sleep!

In spite of that, God’s still been giving us plenty of opportunities to continue to represent Him to our neighbors, build into the church, and grow closer to Him and each other. We hope to send out a GCC ministry and Trinity Cambridge update soon with some very exciting news on what God's doing there!

Feeding

Because of Kaleb's sickness we had to reschedule Kaleb's appointments with the feeding team. These appointments with the PECAN team (Pediatric Cardiac Nutrition), Speech Language Pathology, and Airway specialist are important ones to evaluate where kaleb stands since his GJ tube placement and his tongue tie fix back in April. They will evaluate if he is able to swallow now. The airway people will also send a scope down his throat to evaluate his throat anatomy and workings. Hopefully by the end of these meetings we'll know more about the likelihood of kaleb eating by mouth in the future.

Chiropractor

While we were in Louisville I was able to take Kaleb to an excellent pediatric chiropractor to look at his neck and overall development. She had seen him back in January and was very encouraged regarding how he is doing now. She was very helpful in helping us think through how to best help him develop structurally, since he has been significantly set back by multiple lengthy hospital stays, as well as an unclear (so far) skeletal condition. She said "I think he might be able to crawl and even walk one day!" That took me a minute to process, since I hadn't thought that much about the possibility that he might NOT be able to walk, but then in the same moment to hear her belief that he probably will walk was very encouraging. Thank you for praying for our son. God has been so gracious.

A Trip of a Lifetime

July 25 (this Friday!!) to August 4th I will be joining my parents and siblings and spouses for a once in a lifetime adults only family trip to Italy to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and their 70th birthdays. After much prayer, discussion, seeking counsel, and waiting we decided it would be best that Todd would stay behind with our kids, particularly with Kaleb, freeing me up to go. He said doesn't want me to miss out on this special trip. I'm so humbled to have this opportunity to enjoy, rest, recharge, and spend undistracted time with my family.

The added bonus is that I will be able to spend two extra days visiting our sweet Italian friends, Rocco and Madi Dalia, in Turin. Rocco attended the Sovereign Grace Pastors College with Todd and they lived with us during that time. Since then they returned to their home city, Turin, and helped launch a church plant with Sovereign Grace Churches while doing university ministry.

A very selfless friend of ours, has volunteered to come to Boston to help Todd with the kids (it's a virtually impossible task for one person) while I'm gone. Please pray for them!! I'm hopeful and expectant that God will meet them and make it an enjoyable and memorable week.

Please Pray for Us:

• For Todd:

  • That God would watch over him and the kids while I’m gone and protect them from sickness/emergency

  • That He would bless him in lavish ways and that they would make lasting memories.

  • That God would provide the extra help he needs when our friend is not there and that he would find it easy to find time to work.

• For me:

  • That God would bless my time away with my siblings and parents

  • That He would guard my heart and mind from sadness and worry

  • That I would steward the time well to rest and rejuvenate physically and spiritually.

  • I’d like to focus some of my downtime on reflecting and writing on our experiences the past 10 months, as well as seeking to work on a group of songs that I hope to record as an album for anxious hearts, primarily to sleep to.

• For Kaleb:

  • To continue to strengthen his neck and back muscles

  • To learn how to swallow so we are able to introduce food into his diet.

  • For clear answers from the airway specialist

  • For helpful information next month from seeing two new departments: nephrology (kidneys) and neurology.

• For Zion and River:

  • That they would sleep, obey, and have loads of fun while I’m gone.

  • That God would save their precious souls for His glory.