I hate days like this

I hate days like this...


I am happy to report that we managed to surprise everyone and meet our families for lunch on Sunday. It was Grandparents Day and our families were meeting for lunch at my sisters restuarant. Everyone was sitting down and getting ready to place their orders when Matt and I walked arounf the corner. Needless to say there were some happy and confused people. We had talked to the doctor and he said that Matt could leave the hospital on Sunday instead of on Tuesday. He is doing so well!!! We had a home health care nurse come in today and she was also amazed at how well Matt was doing. She did not think that he needed the services of a nurse, but instead would push for there to be more OT/PT for him since that is what he needs most right now. I have also placed a call to the Dr. in San Antonio and I am expecting a call from them on Tuesday to set up the appointment to discuss treatment of the AVM. We are also going to see a doctor that specializes in eye care and should be able to help with the double vision. Things are going so well and it is so nice to be at home and in our own house. It was very nice to have Matt and both of the boys at home and under one roof last night. Please continue to pray for Matt in the upcoming days. He has made the transition to home pretty easily and we are praying that this continues. Please also continue to pray for the doctors that are going to treat the AVM that they will have Gods wisdom in how and what to do to make this thing in his head go away. Thank you all so much for your continued pray through this time in our lives. I always felt that you all were praying and that God was hearing everyone of the prayers that were going up. What an awesome God we serve and what an awesome miracle he has given us. Please share Matt's incredible story and I do believe that there are many lives out there that will be blessed by what he has gone through. I know for me I will always give God the glory for this blessing that he has given me. We love you all and please feel free to give us a call at home. I will be home with Matt over the next week and we would love to hear from you. Thanks again for all your prayer and all of your support. We love you all!!!!!

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And Two...
and two from...

Please Pray...
We have some very special friends, Kevin & Shanna Sherman, who live in Abilene, TX. They are the adoptive parents of Mary Grace. What is so special about this little girl is that she is the biological 1st cousin to our adopted daughters, Brenna and Bethany. So, you can understand why we will always have a close connection with this great family. I'm writing this post so that all who read it will pray for Mary Grace's dad, Kevin. He is about to undergo a series of procedures that will lead to brain surgery. He found out back in February, after having a seizure, that he has an Arterio-Venous Malformation, or an AVM, on the left side of his brain. With this AVM being on the left side, there are some risks/side effects of removing.

The main risks are partial vision loss, short term memory concerns, and problems with speech. The risk of not having the surgery to remove the AVM, is it could bleed which could be fatal. So, after much prayer and talking with his wife Shanna, and other family members, Kevin has decided to have the surgery even though there are risks involved.

The process begins on Wednesday with blood work. And then he will have 3 seperate embolization procedures which will help reduce the blood flow to the AVM before the actual surgery which will be on the 19th.

Please pray for this special family. They have 3 biological sons, and two adopted daughters (pre-K, and Kindergarten age). They are blessed to have grandparents who will be helping with their children while they are in Dallas. Kevin will be in ICU most of the time and I do not know at this time when he will be able to go home. It's hard enough raising 5 children when you are home with them everyday, so it is even harder when you have to be away and depend on others to care for them.

Please also pray for Kevin's parents, Shanna's parents, and their 5 children as they walk through this difficult time. They are a Christian family and know that all of this is in God's hands. Kevin stated in an email that he expects nothing less than a full recovery. Let's join him and ask God to heal him completely.

Thanks for praying! I'll update as I know more.
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Life sucks on days like this...

Blessed

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Not over yet...

My mom had her angiogram on Friday then she met with Dr. Polin on Tuesday to go over the results. The angiogram was not the most fun experience of her life, she felt like it set her back a couple of days (energy, strength wise), but she survived:). Tuesday Dr. Polin shared that the angiogram showed no additional AVM (PTL) but it also showed that he was not able to get all of the AVM during the initial surgery. There was so much bleeding during the surgery that he had to focus on that and was not able to remove all of the malformed blood vessels. Sunday I am taking her in to have an MRI - this will tell the depth of the AVM, whether it is close to the surface or deeper in her brain. Options - 1) if the AVM is close to the surface Dr. Polin recommends surgery - with the best (99%?) chance that he would be able to remove the remaining blood vessels; 2) if the AVM is deeper in her brain then another option would be radiation. This would be a one time treatment (at least from my understanding) and then they would monitor her for eighteen months as the AVM slowly disappeared. There is an 80% success rate with the radiation.

I could tell that my mom was a little down after hearing this yesterday - I think we all were. For all of us it raises the anxiety and stress once again - do we go through surgery again? Do we forgo surgery and stick with radiation - although not 100%? Once the MRI results are read Dr. Polin wants all of us to meet with him and mom to make the decision.

Prayer:
God's best - that HE would lead us as we make the next decision
Timing - Stacia's baby is due in eight weeks - if my mom has surgery again the timing of it will be critical (in terms of recovery, etc.)
Life - all areas of our life are really stretched right now - pray for God's grace as we go through this next hurdle

THANK YOU to everyone for their prayers - it is the BEST thing that we can do!
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