Happy 7th Birthday, Malachi!

Dear Malachi,


Today, you are "finally" 7 years old.  I say "finally" because it always seems like a long time until your birthday.  When summer begins, we start to count down until the day.  Since it is close to July 4th, we usually celebrate with a party a week or two early.  So, it feels like forever until your big day.


You have had a great time today and the previous days celebrating your birthday.  You got lots of money and items that you wanted like Jimmie Johnson gear, Build-a-Bear, Lego store, and Cars2 cars.  This past year has brought a lot of trials, but it has also brought great success.  You started out the school year in an NC public school.  Everyday was struggle at school.  After many tears and sleepless nights we moved you to FACS with Z.  It was most definitely the right choice.  Your 1st grade teacher was awesome!  After you ran out of the room, she stopped the class, and they all prayed for you.  When Daddy came to pick you up that day, they were all excited to share with him that you had a great day after that.

You got into full-swing in life and enjoyed playing soccer on a team with your brother and your Daddy as a coach.  Your skills and team work are greatly improving, and we are excited to see you grow in athletic ability.


We have enjoyed you growing spiritually, as well.  You prefer to sit in kids church when your Daddy is in charge, but you love to worship and sing.  Right now, you request "The presence of the Lord is here" the most.  We love to hear your sing.  We love to watch you worship.  We love seeing your grown and learn in the footsteps of our Savior.


Your tender spirit earned you the Kindness award in school.  That doesn't surprise me.  You are gentle and sweet to all (except your brother).  But, you LOVE Z, too.  When Z went into the hospital back in March, you cried before we took him to the ER.  You cried when you saw him in the hospital room with his breathing treatment and tubes attached.  You love him, and we all love you!


You are growing in height.  You are growing in ability.  You are growing in spiritual depth.  You are becoming an incredible young man, Malachi James, and we love you so very much!
-Momma

We are moving to PA!

I mentioned to others that I would explain how this new adventure in our lives cam about.  So here it is:


Back in March, Daniel submitted his resume' to Evangel AoG in Ephrata, PA.  He doesn't remember why he sent it to this particular church because he typically had not been sending resumes to NE states, but he felt God nudging him to do so.  He first interviewed a few days before Easter.  He had a second interview 2 weeks later.  On June 1, we drove (as a family) to PA to interview with the church and visit the area.  We had an incredible visit.  We had interviewed with several churches in the previous years, but they weren't in God's plan.  As we were visiting for a very short weekend and in continual prayer, God made it clear to us that Evangel was to be our new church family and home.  We had a long week of waiting, and I nudged Daniel to call and share his feelings.  He did, and P. Kevin shared the same feelings.  God was leading us to each other for this very season.


We were "unofficially" offered the job on June 12.  Daniel was officially offered the job as Family Ministries Pastor on June 14, on our way to FL to pick up the lawn mower and visit friends.  They asked for Daniel's first day to be June 15.  We had all ready been praying and knew that this was God's will.  This made the position very easy for us to accept.  We returned from FL on June 19.  We had a busy June 20, and Daniel and I departed to find a place to live in PA on June 21.  June 22 was our 10th anniversary, and God gave us an incredible semi-detached home at an excellent rate to rent.  At the same time, we got word that our tenant in our FL wanted to sign a lease for another 2-3 years.


Since returning home on June 24, we have been packing and sorting and preparing for the move to PA.  We are so excited about the location of the house in relationship to downtown, the church, elementary school, and the general atmosphere of the town.  We will be loading up the U-haul on Wednesday, July  11, and driving it up to PA on Thursday, July 12.  Daniel's first official day will be Monday, July 16.


I'm still not sure what I will be doing to earn money to help support the family, but I am wanting to work part-time, so that I can have the flexibility to help the boys in school and assist Daniel in his new job.  We work well together, and I want to be more involved in ministry.

We are in the heart of Amish country, and it is BEAUTIFUL!  We'd love to have you come visit.  We just bought an inflatable queen bed and have 2 inflatable twins.  We are having to down-size, and only have 1 bathroom, but we are always open for guests :)

Z's 3rd Hospital Stay

Almost 4 weeks ago, on March 23, Ezekiel came home from school coughing a little. He had been getting breathing treatments for a few days, but he had been responding well. Daniel gave him treatments at home, and he seemed to be all right for a about an hour. After that time, his breathing became very labored. It had been over a year and a half since he had had an asthma attack, and we were concerned that he wasn't responding well to treatments. We took him to urgent care as soon as they opened. I had just gotten home from work. We hadn't had dinner yet. We were hoping it would be a short appointment, and it turned out it went pretty quickly. Z's oxygen levels were not as high as we would have liked. They were hanging around 92-93.The doctor gave him a treatment and sent us on our way with a few prescriptions. I asked if he needed a shot of a steroid, the dr. assured me that he would be fine. She seemed to also think that the machine was malfunctioning, and that his blood-oxygen levels couldn't really be that low. Because, apparently, I don't know my kid as well as she does :(

We went to dinner and picked up Z's meds. After being home for a few minutes, we realized Z's breathing was not much better and was getting worse by the moment. Thankfully, my parents were home. They were happy to take care of Malachi so we could take Z to the ER. Malachi knew that we were going to leave him right before bed, and he knew Z needed to go, again. We sat down, as a family, and prayed for Z before we left. When I looked up, Malachi was crying. How much he loves his brother, and God blessed him with such a tender heart! After looking at Carolina's Medical wait times, we decided to make the 25-30 minute drive to the children's ER at Levine Children's Hospital and CMC main. They had a short wait time and had taken good care of Z during his mri, earlier.

Once we arrived at the ER, Z was back to a room within 25 minutes. He was soooo tired. It was late. They quickly got him on a continuous nebulizer treatment. He rebounded for about an hour, then was able to sleep. After being on the continuous neb for several hours and not having much lung function improvement, they decided to admit him. We move

d up to a room around 2am. They kept him on the continuous neb, got him on a round of 3 shots to open up airways, an IV with another medicine to open up something else in the airways. It was a loooooooooong night all ready, and poor Z had to be poked, shot, and a mask on his face for hours. The doctor even said that she didn't hear any wheezing because his airways were so closed off and restricted. We were definitely wise to take him to the hospital or the effects could have been much worse.

Daniel went home around 9am and returned a little after noon with items for me to get a shower, lunch, and Malachi. As soon as Malachi walked in the room and saw Z in the hospital bed, he began to cry a little, again. Malachi hadn't slept well that night. He w

ent to bed around 11 that night, was up for a little while at 3am, and was up for good around 6am. Malachi is not good with change.

Z was on a liquid diet, and was able to eat a popsicle and a little more. His levels didn't stay up while he was eating, but he began to pick up his spirits. We were visited by the children's pastor Andrew and his son, Garrett. The 3 boys played a few games on the hospital bed, and Z was starting to feel much better and talk a lot more.

By late evening, he was able to come off the continuous neb. He had been on it for about 17 hours, total. He ate all his servings of his liquid diet. After that, he began to say he was hungry. Doctor and nurses said he was doing well enough to eat real food. So, he ate crackers and goldfish. He was visited by Grammy & Grandpa (who let us get a quick bite while staying in the room with the boys), Maw-Maw Carol, Nana, Uncle Nathan, Ivey, and Bryson. Z was ready for bed by then.

He stayed off oxygen all night and let me sleep in the bed by myself instead of IN his bed! I kept expecting to wake up and see his oxygen levels down, but God was healing him and giving doctors wisdom. That boy was ready to go home less than 48 hours later! His previous 2 stays had been 5 days.

Sunday afternoon, April 25th at 1pm, we were on our way home!!! God loves us soooo much! I was able to get a sub for Monday. It was so nice to just sleep and rest. I had to catch up from all the events and lack of sleep from the weekend. Z needed to continue to rest, and we needed to keep a close eye on him. It was hard to go back to work on Tuesday, but I managed. Z was at home that day. We still weren't confident he was ready for a day of school. He did return on Wednesday to school, and he did just fine!

He now gets 2 puffs of the Q-var inhaler 2 times a day, a spray of flonase up his nose once a day, and we still continue the 1 tsp. of children's zyrtec daily. The cause of Z's asthma attack---high levels of pollen. We had a mild and wet winter. The zyrtec that he takes daily could no longer hold off all the pollen that his body was taking in. He will be on the Q-var inhaler "forever." He'll continue the regimen until he is cured of asthma. I'm ok with that. We were blessed to be at a great hospital with great nurses with knowledgeable doctors and a spacious room and a nice cafeteria. We had a short stay. We are blessed!

Dear Ezekiel,

Today, you turned 5 years old. The past few months have brought about challenges and many more joys. Since you turned 4, things have changed a lot! We moved away from Florida, you started physical therapy, had an mri, many doctor appointments to try to diagnose your little leg, and started K4 at FACS. You have grown at least 3 inches in the past year and gained at least 5 pounds. You are growing up and not out at all :)

God has been with you every step of the way. His hands are all over your precious, little life. You continue to surprise the doctors. Your legs are the same length! They were positive your left leg bones were shorter than your right, but they aren't. You still don't walk completely right, and your muscles are much smaller on your left than your right. You wear a brace in your shoes and have personal insoles. Each day you get stronger and stronger.

You don't have an enemy in the world. You are so much like your mom. You truly have such a gentle spirit and love everyone around you. Everyone is your friend. You come home and talk about "the friends" at school. Our say "my boys" or "my girls" when talking about them. Mrs. Z even had to teach you how to tell the friends to leave your alone, because you wouldn't say anything. The only person you were hurt intentionally would be your big brother, and that doesn't happen very often. Malachi is, of course, your best friend and your worst enemy. You 2 have always shared a room and usually do so extremely well. He needs you as a little brother to help ease his fears and anxieties. Through it all, you never complain and enjoy the fact that your big bro needs you.

Your laughter always fills the house. Your sense of humor continues to develop, and you get that from your Daddy. You LOVE to laugh, and we LOVE to laugh with you and at you :)

You still encourage us (as your parents), daily. For a time, you would often come up to me, as I was doing the wash, or vacuuming, or cleaning, and say, "You're doing a good job, Mommy!" If you had a knightly name, it would be EZEKIEL the ENCOURAGER.

Even though you were a surprise, even though you have experienced such intense health issues, even though you have been sedated 4 times, you hold the greatest outlook on life and have the most contagious laugh ever. You have taught us not to sweat the little stuff and to be thankful that every day that God gives you. I can't imagine life without you. God must have an incredible plan for your life, and you already have an amazing testimony of God's goodness and grace. Thank you for being you. Thank you for loving me unconditionally and loving God, too, as you grow and learn. I think God gives us children to teach and raise up in His image, but I often think that God gave you to us to teach us how to love HIM more and more.

Everyone is blessed to have known you. I thank God everyday for such a special young man.

Love,

Momma