Luke is 2!

Well, another few weeks have flown by. I just don't know how it can possibly be Nov. 1. We had a few milestones this month. Luke's 2nd Birthday was Oct. 20th. We celebrated by having family and friends gather in his honor. My uncle Tom dedicated him to the Lord for us with a wonderful message of parenting and adoption by Christ. We are so thankful to all our family and friends that have supported us spiritually and will continue to nurture Luke. We pray that he will also choose to have a relationship with Christ and recognize that we are responsible in helping him learn how to do that. He already folds his hands when we say "let's pray"!

Cole, Shelby and Piper are busy with their own responsibilities. Shelby is in basketball season and Piper's gymnastics meets have started. Dave is still in the job search, but having a great time looking!

Halloween was fun. The costumes are from the Harvest of Family Fun at church. On Halloween night we went to Shelby's basketball game and then her team had dinner out. Hannah and Natalie Zob were with us and it was fun. Not the typical, but a good night!

Fall Fun

This will be short and sweet! We are doing well. Luke is healing after his surgery and we have one more check on the palate stitches next week before all regular foods are back in the diet. The hole is NOT getting bigger and really the last time I looked I couldn't see much of one. The surgeon said that there was no way they would put him out again to fix it. It was just way to small so Thank the Lord!

We just came off of a really busy week. Cole was in High School Musical 2 at Eastlight. I know he really enjoyed it. He was in the chorus and had friends in it. The high light was the back flips he did across the stage a few different times. Very impressive. We also had The Hatfields here visiting for the pumpkin festival. I'm not kidding when I say it rained for four days straight. But there we were with the umbrellas out walking around with mud on our feet. Now that's LOVE!

Dave is home now. His last day at Morton Metalcraft was Sept. 10. It was very sad. We both went out and took Luke to visit. It was his first and last time to see what was 20 years of our family life. I have to admit it hasn't been the same for Dave, but he will GREATLY miss his friends there. We both had tears swelling as we visited with his co-workers. Please keep him in your prayers as he continues to seek out what the Lord has for him. In the mean time I have a few little things around here he can do!

Hope everyone is having a great Sept. I would love to hear from you! Love, Missy

Prayer Request

Monday Labor Day we were getting ready to go up to the Lake and I noticed a small hole in the back of Luke's palate. This is not suppose to be there and could have happened for various reasons. We have tried to keep him down and as far as I know he has not put anything in his mouth, but regardless we have this little spot that hasn't totally closed. When we called the Doctor he said that there was a small chance that it could close on its own. So that is what we will hope for. Next week they will look at it and let us know how to move forward. Otherwise he is doing great. Eating OK hates the fact that he doesn't have alot of freedom, but he will get by. Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the rest of the summer!

Surgery Update for Luke

OK well it's Sunday morning and we have not done what I thought we would do!! Surprise! The image of us sitting around in the hospital room with nothing to do was not realistic. We did sit around for a couple hours without anything to do, but it was before the surgery and there wasn't anything to write about. After that I'm not sure how the time flew by so fast.

We arrived at the hospital at 7. Surgery scheduled for 9:20. They actually took him back at 11:15. He was in good spirits and we were holding up. It helped that my mom, dad and Jeremy arrived and hung out with us. Finally, he went back crying wrapped up in his own blanket. Dave's allergies were acting up and I just wiped the tears. We knew he was in good hands and everyone worked really hard at coordinating their times so he could have all three of the procedures done at this time. We are so thankful for that. Dr. Hertenstien came over and within 10 min. they paged us to say the tubes were done! Unbelievable. Next, Dr. Rhee came over from their office and within another 20 min. they paged us saying the circumcision was done. And finally Dr. Elwood worked on the palate. This took an hour and 45 mins. By this time my parents and Jeremy were gone, we had eaten lunch and were just visiting with people in the waiting room. Dave went up to recovery, I met my mom who had picked up the kids, fed them and we all were going to meet in his room. We did and what we found was a pathetic little guy. After that it was just hours of comforting him, couldn't have done that without all the great nurses, and my mom running the other kids around to all their stuff. We came home at 7:30 on Thursday night and have had a good weekend of recovery. He has to wear these arm splints so that he can't put anything in his mouth and I have to feed him a blenderized diet. That is the worst part because he wants to do everything himself. We are starting to feel like we are getting over the hump. We still have to watch him like a hawk, but are very encouraged that we have had such a great experience. Thanks for everyone's prayers, sweet messages and visits. We love you all. The Lord provided peace, Dr.s schedules to come together and alot of help. Thanks!