Thursday, March 1, 2007

Today is the first day of March! Can you believe it? We hope this post finds each of you doing well. We have had another good week at our house. Everyone is still well, for which we are very thankful. Jonathan finally made it back to drum practice last week. He was very glad for that. We are still working hard at school. Right now Jonathan is working on fractions, common factors, factor trees, and reducing fractions to the lowest terms. He seems to be catching on to that very quickly. He is doing really well in spelling this year and continues to do well in grammar. He is also working very hard on his Awana verses. We made out a schedule last week of what sections we have to pass off each week in order to finish his book by the end of the year. He is on the 6th chapter out of 8 and I know he will be able to finish it without any trouble. We did really well with our exercise this past week. Jonathan decided he wanted to try riding his scooter during our walk last week. I think he thought that it would be easier than walking the entire way, but in reality, it turned out to be just as hard as everything he has done. So we split up the time between walking and riding the scooter. He seems to enjoy that so we have done that each day for the past week or so. On Wednesday, after much thought and prayer, I finally decided to put Jonathan back on his sleeping medicine. He only woke up a couple of times on Monday night, but on Tuesday night he was up and down a lot for quite some time. I prayed during my prayer time on Wednesday morning and asked the Lord if I needed to put him back on it. I feel like this is what He told me to do. The Lord knows how much I wanted to put this behind us, but I also know that I must trust Him, His perfect will and His perfect timing for Jonathan regarding this. It took a couple of days for us to see a significant difference, but he is now sleeping peacefully again almost all night long. If he wakes us, it is very brief and only once or twice. He is however only taking half a pill and doing just fine with it, so that is a blessing. So for now, we are back on the medicine. Thank you for praying about that. I am confident we are where we need to be at this time. Thursday, Jonathan was back at basketball practice. This week the kids played three games of knock out. During the first game, Jonathan lost his ball and had to chase it all the way down the court. While he was getting his ball back, the coaches kept the other guys from making their baskets until Jonathan got back there and made his so he wouldn’t get out. It was a hoot. Jonathan managed to stay in until about the third guy from the end on two of the games, and then he got out early in the last game. They all seemed to enjoy this and they had a great time as always. Friday was a special day for us. Elizabeth and Sarah had the opportunity last Thursday and Friday to be ushers at the Majestic Theater in Dallas for about 3 performances of the Dallas Black Ballet that schools around the area were coming to see. They had a great time and were able to earn some extra money for their choir tours this summer. Since they were already downtown, we took the opportunity to go visit a little boy named Jordan who is at Our Children’s House where Jonathan was. One of our precious supporters and prayer warriors sent me an email about this little boy when he first became ill. He got sick and one thing led to another and he ended up having a stroke, just like Jonathan. I was able to talk with this mother over the phone while he was at Children’s Medical Center and was able to share some things with her about our own experience that she could keep in mind. The day after I talked with her was when I got sick and so did the rest of the family for the next week, so it was about a week and a half before I was able to talk to them again. When I called Children’s I found out that he had been discharged and figured that he was at the OCH. After tracking them down there, we were able to go visit them and meet them in person. We are always thrilled to be able to share Jonathan’s story with anyone we can. Jonathan does not hesitate to step in and talk about God’s work in his life either. He talks about as much as I do! I was pleased with the progress I saw in this little boy. He is moving his arms, rubbing his face with his hands and his eyes are about half open and I would watch him blink off and on, just like he was awake. There are many similar things about both of our boys and there were times when I felt like I was looking at Jonathan again. The kids left for a little bit to go visit our friends there and we were able to see Mrs. Stephanie, Jonathan’s OT, before we left. After our stay at the OCH, it took me a while before I could even drive by without my chest tightening up anxiety creeping into my heart. Even now when we go to visit, I pull in one of those familiar parking places and say every time without fail, “I’m glad we don’t have to do this every day anymore.” But the Lord has been gracious to us and allowed us to revisit here several time for different reasons, and those anxious feelings are gone. This is a place of precious memories where miracles happened in Jonathan’s life. It’s a place that each time we visit, we come bearing testimony of God’s amazing power to heal and deliver and restore. It’s also a place where we get to do what we love to do most…minister to people who are in need of hope and encouragement, just like so many of you did for us when we were there. I hope you will pray for little Jordan Capener and for his parents, Todd and Michelle, that God will make Himself known to them in a powerful way, and that Jordan will join Jonathan and the host of other miracles out there in proclaiming the greatness of our God all the days of his life. Jonathan had another basketball game on Saturday. He did great again, as usual. This week he even tripped and fell down while he was running down the court and got up and moved on without any hesitation whatsoever. He made a couple of “J Play” baskets and did a lot of running up and down the court. We are going to miss Upward a lot when the season comes to an end in a couple of weeks. This has been such a great year for Jonathan. He has grown so much since last year and has gained so much confidence in himself this season. We were able to obtain some video of the basket that Jonathan made a couple of weeks ago. It is going to be part of the Awards Night video that is being made. Hopefully we will be able to put it up on the website soon. I’ll tell you, it makes me want to jump up and down and shout every time I watch it. God is so good! We had a great day at church on Sunday. The sermons that Dr. Anderson preached on Sunday were about believing that God can do miracles today. I had the chance to share a little of Jonathan’s story with him after the service Sunday morning. His words echo what I am learning in the Believing God Bible study that I am doing right now. While I have always believed and openly testify to that belief that God can do miracles today, I’m not sure I could ever say that I had seen one personally. God was gracious to show me first hand that He is able to do great miracles today and it has caused me to Believe Him for great things on a larger scale and to actively look for them all around me. Dr. Anderson said that “Miracles are God’s signature – It’s how He makes Himself known.” How blessed am I to have God’s signature to look at every day not just in my precious son but in my entire family, for we are all God’s miracles. On Sunday evening, Jonathan was a little late coming down from choir and getting to church. When he finally reached us in the Sanctuary, he was beaming and beside himself with excitement. He got a part in the spring musical that the Children’s Choir will be doing at the end of April. He was so excited he almost couldn’t contain himself. He told everyone he came in contact with about his part. We are really looking forward to it. This will be his first role since he played Tiny Tim in Ebenezer, just before he got sick. After the service, we got to enjoy hearing Sarah and the Clarion Choir (Middle School Choir) present music at their Dessert Theater fund raiser. They did music from the Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, a medley of fun songs from other Disney movies and High School Musical. Sarah had a solo in High School Musical and she did a fabulous job! We always get so many compliments on Sarah when she sings because her face just radiates her enthusiasm and love for music. She is a true joy to watch and to hear her sing. The Dessert Theater was so much fun, but we were wiped out by the end of the day. We are still doing well on our diet. Jonathan has almost made his goal for this month. He has one more pound to lose that we will hopefully lose this week and he will have lost 10 pounds. He is looking really good. He pulled out a polo shirt that he has never been able to wear (it still had the tag on it) and he wore it Sunday night to church. He was so proud!
Thank you so much for your prayers for Jonathan and our family. God is so gracious and good to us. We have much to be thankful for. We hope you will continue to pray for Jonathan about a few things. Continue to pray for his sleeping that God will heal this and that we will be able to put this completely behind us soon. Continue to pray for success in our diet and weight loss. Pray that Jonathan will meet his goal by the end of the week and that we can begin our new goal for March of losing another 5 pounds. Also pray for our upcoming doctor appointment. I have struggled with who to use for his endocrine doctor. To be honest, I really didn’t want to go back to Children’s because I am not expecting to get any more help from them than I did from Cooks. But after praying about it, I felt that the Lord wants us to return there as a testimony of God’s healing, so I called to make an appointment. I will have to fill out paperwork again before getting a specific appointment, but it should be some time in April. You can also pray about horse therapy which we found out begins again next week. Although we really want Mrs. Julie back as our instructor and Gracie as our horse, please pray that God will orchestrate both of those details for Jonathan’s good and for His glory. I hope that you will also pray for me as well. I have been earnestly seeking the Lord this week about understanding Jonathan’s diabetes. There are some trends that I see in Jonathan as I watch his blood sugars each day that I don’t understand and I don’t know how to change. Most people will respond that I will never understand it because no one understands why this disease does what it does. But I know that God knows and understands. He is not the God of confusion and He has promised to give me wisdom if I need it. I found this Scriptures (amongst many) that really spoke to me about this process. Isaiah 42:16 - "And I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone." I am a blind person on this path of diabetes that I do not know, nor do I understand – God has promised to guide me. I am walking in darkness – God has promised to turn it into light. I am on this rugged path of learning how to effectively deal with this disease in my child – God has promised to make that rugged path into a plain. These are the things that He will do and He will not leave them undone. I’m Believing God for this. Pray that I will not lean on my own understanding, as much as I want to understand this disease, but that I will trust in the Lord with all my heart and make Him known in everything that I do. I know that He will be faithful to keep His promise to direct my path (Prov. 3:5-6). The other Scripture I have found is one that I have claimed before on this journey and I am claiming it anew with this process. I hope you will pray it and claim it for me as well. Our family is so blessed by your friendship, your love, care and prayers for us. Words will never be adequate enough to express our gratitude to you for all you do to carry us through this journey. May God give you a blessed week.

Isaiah 30:18-21 - Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him. 19 O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. 20 Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. 21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

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