I'm Still Here

Jordan with her new shades (although we were at South Coast Plaza they are NOT designer :) ).

"Man it will sure be nice when I have my new thumb so I can get this candy out!"


Noah with his candy necklace ever so serious and Jordan being her usual silly self.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted but here's the latest:

Jordan's next surgery is set for Tuesday Feb 17th (this coming Tuesday) at 7:15. They will confirm the time soon hopefully. My mom is flying in as usual for the week, I think Shan's parents are going with us for the surgery and I am pretty sure we'll let Noah join us while we wait this time. We are trying to let him be as involved as possible to give us the chance to make it fun for him rather than scary or something he's removed from. At the same time we are trying to be sensitive to the fact that he is only 3 1/2 so we limit some of the things he knows. We'll take his favorite donuts and a movie for the laptop. Amazingly this surgery is outpatient so we're hoping to be home by naptime. Strange.

Dr. Jones will take a small piece of bone from Jordan's fibula (spelling??) - the outer, lower leg bone and he will pin it to her thumb. Right now the thumb on her right hand has the lower bone up to the first knuckle. Beyond that she has a tiny chip that is not really attached to the other bone, it's floating near it. Because of this her thumb bends all directions with no stability, as if it were just skin. Hopefully this bone graft will stabilize and lengthen her thumb so she has a pincer grasp. There is a decent chance that the bone won't take and pretty much a guarantee that the bone graft will wear away after several years and have to be redone. How many times can it be redone? I'm not sure but I'm guessing not too many. I really have no idea the long term results. All we know is that by roughly three years old the brain decides what works and what doesn't so the timing is good for the surgery now.

This is Jordan's fifth surgery in two years and we expect another ear tub surgery and another face surgery by the time she's three (seven surgeries total by three years old). Each surgery seems to get more difficult even though they are less severe. The first two included multiple surgeons and every limb and her head but she was a baby then so the emotional aspect didn't come in to account as much yet. She is now quite fearful of doctors, she understands that a surgery is coming up, she gets weepy and emotional approaching surgery and afterwards struggles more with the limitations (no walking etc.). In the same way with Noah, every year she becomes more and more a part of our family and we grow more in our love for her and appreciation of the way God created her and the gift that she is to our family. Although we trust in God's plan for her life it still gets harder to again face the risks of surgery and to see her through the recovery.

You can pray for us if between now and then and we'd be so thankful:

- Pray that Jordan would get over her cold and be healthy enough for Tuesday.

- Pray for my mom as she was recently diagnosed with Cataracts (on top of another problematic eye disease she has struggled with) and also for her this week as she deals with the loss of her brother-in-law (her sister's husband died). On top of that she has a stressful job that she will be trying to focus on a bit while she is out here for the week helping us.

- Pray for our trust in Lord before, during and after surgery.

- Pray for God to uphold Jordan and to use trials to draw her and Noah to Him, eventually for them to come to repentance and faith.

I'll post more as it gets closer to confirm the details.

Thanks for checking in after my long absence. :)