God is SO good!!!

The past few days have been so unbelievable. What a roller coaster of
emotions! So many people praying. So many prayers answered. This has
been such a difficult time, but such a time of growth. God is so
faithful!

We went for the post-op visit with the Dr. today. We left speechless. The Dr said everything looked really well. There was no sign on infection and very little inflammation from the surgery itself. JR could even see 20/40 out of his eye. The Dr. told JR he could resume activities when he felt ready. He even said JR could run, work out, drive, etc. He should even be able to return to work sooner that
originally anticipated. None of it makes sense. When we started this
"adventure" on Sunday, everything looked so bleak. The possability of
JR being able to see out of that eye didn't look promising. And now,
here we are. One day after surgery and the Dr. says that he should be ok.

God has been so faithful. There have been people praying all over for us. I
have no doubt that God has answered those prayers. He answered them in
a huge way. JR and I walked out of the dr's office today speechless.
It's just amazing. God is so faithful! Our biggest hope and prayer is
that we are able to share this story with people we know that don't
know Jesus. We are hoping this is tangible proof that God does exist
and that He saved JR's vision. We are giving Him all the glory for this miracle!

Even though this was a really scary time for us, I honestly was never scared about JR's vision. It was obviously was hard seeing my husband in so much pain,
but I always felt this peace about how it would turn out. I felt like
God gave me peace so I could use all my strength to be there for JR.

Thank you again for all the phone calls, emails, messages, and most of all, for your prayers!

Post surgery update

Just wanted to post something really quick to let you know how everything went. The Dr. was able to clean most of the debris out of his eye. He put 6 stitches in his eye. JR is in A LOT of pain right now which vicodin isn't even cutting. I'm praying he will be able to sleep this afternoon.

Looks like best case scenario JR will be out of work for 30 days. It will take a long time for his vision to return to normal. The Dr. seems optimistic that he will regain most of his vision. He did say that there is a chance that he may develop a cataract from the blunt trauma to his eye.

I'll try and post more tomorrow after we return to the Dr.

Thank you all so much for you prayers! We have felt so covered in prayer. We love you guys!!

Tricia

Please Pray

Ok, I have a big prayer request. Sunday afternoon JR was helping change the brakes on his dad's van. He was using a pair of needle nose pliers to try and stretch a spring into place. He was using all his strength to try and do this. However, the pliers slipped off of the spring and ended up going into his eye. After a trip to the ER in an ambulance, the ER Docs sent us home saying it was just a bad scratch. We went to see the specialist today and he was very concerned. He said that the pliers actually went into his eye and left a hole. There was fluid leaking out of his eye, which obviously is not a good thing. To top that off, you can imagine how dirty the pliers were since they were working on a car. When he went into his eye, somehow it left his eye cut in layers and there is all kinds of dirt and junk in his eye.

The Dr. told us to immediately go to Ann Arbor to have surgery to fix his eye. We were shocked. We had no idea it was so bad. So, we called my parents and they picked the kids up from school early and brought them to our house so we could say goodbye to them while we packed up.

We made it to Ann Arbor and thankfully the leaking in JR's eye had slowed enough that the Dr. wanted to wait until tomorrow morning to do the surgery. If he would have done it tonight, he would have been working with people other than his normal staff, and in an operating room other than his. He felt comfortable enough to wait just so he could have his own room and people to do the surgery. So, we actually ended up coming home for the night so we could sleep well and because we don't have to be back to the hospital until 11:00am tomorrow morning.

So, if you could pray for JR tomorrow at noon, I would appreciate it! Here's the biggest scare. If he gets an infection in his eye, he will lose his sight. The problem is that the surgery itself is risky because it can cause infection. But leaving all the junk in his eye, and leaving the hole open is an even greater risk.

We do feel very fortunate though because all of this damage occured below his sight of vision. If it would have been higher even by a few millimeters, he would have lose his sight immediately. God has been so good! All the doctors kept saying to us was how lucky JR was that the puncture happened where it did. We are definitely praising God for that! JR actually has a very good attitude about the whole thing. He knows the risk of the surgery tomorrow, but he isn't worried. He knows that it is out of his hands and that he can't control what happens. His words tonight were, "even if I still lose sight in my one eye, I still have Jesus. That's all that matters." I am so thankful for his attitude and I am trying to have the same attitude. This could have been so much worse. We are just thankful the pliers went in where they did.

I hope this post makes sense. My mind is completely a blur right now and I don't even know if I am putting two complete thoughts together. I will try and post tomorrow night and let everyone know how the surgery went.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Tricia

I don't live in the ghetto!

The past few months have been interesting around our house. There were 5 or so break-ins on our street, then some teenager decided to run away from the police and he thought our backyard would be a great place to run and hide. Thankfully we have some awesome neighbors who actually helped the police catch the teenager. Then tonight I'm alone with the kids and cop cars start going up and down our street with their bright lights on searching. Great... what's going on now? Seriously, we don't live in the hood or anything. I actually really like our neighborhood! I think a bid part of it is the apartment complex that is really close to us.

The last house we lived in had people shot around us and a murder just down 2 blocks. We thought moving into a family neighborhood would be a safe bet. I'm thinking that just might not be the case though.

On a cool note, I got a call from our next door neighbor this morning because she saw that our back door was open and had been for a little while. She was calling to make sure we're ok. How awesome is that! We are all looking out for each other. It's almost like we have our own neighborhood watch going on. Still scared though!!!

So, anyone want to come over to our house ever again? Didn't think so...

Cancer Pt. 2

Well, I talked with my dad tonight and it looks like he's not going to have the surgery after all. He wants to try a "homeopathic" type cure first. This makes me a little nervous. He is 73 years old. I would like to see him just have it taken out, but I'm just his kid. I can't make him change his mind. I guess he knows of some other people that have cured this type of cancer by eating cottage cheese and flax seed oil. I guess I can't say too much about it because I don't know much about it. But to me it doesn't sound like a dairy product and some oil can cure cancer. So, we'll wait and see. He said he'll try it for a month and then see what his bloodwork says. I guess one month can't hurt???

ARGH!!!

This weekend I found out that my dad has prostate cancer. When I heard those words, I was speechless at first, then the emotions started to pour out of me. I was obviously scared, but from what my mom said, if you're going to have cancer, this is the kind to have. He went to the Dr. today and they are going to be able to surgically take it out and that will be it. No radiation or chemo or anything like that. I am so thankful!