On the Road to Recovery

We are now 10 days into Bethany's recovery from a freak accident she had at the pool. (You can read about her injury here)   The emergency oral surgeon on call at the hospital had us come to his office for emergency surgery to re-set her teeth back into her gums and to do full scan of xrays to make sure there was no other damage.  At that time he gave her about a 30% chance that the teeth would survive the trauma, sent us home with STRICT guidelines and 3 different medications for a time of "wait-and-see"  The day after the accident, she went back for her first followup and he said it looked as if she'd been healing for a week already and upped her chances to 50%, encouraging us to stay very rigid with the plan he told us to stick to.  This included sleeping upright in a recliner, no submersion of water in her mouth that might cause bacteria (swimming, showers, etc), absolutely no activity, and a liquid only diet through a straw.  We were severe with our approach to this medical advice, even though it was brutal on everyone.  Well, God has heard our prayers and honored our hard work, because after her visit today the doctor is 75% sure that her teeth are going to survive this!  They are still loose, but no where near as loose as he would expect them to still be at this stage!  He has upgraded her a little bit in her activity level.  She can now eat soft foods such as puddings, pasta, etc.  Nothing harder than a tuna salad sandwich is the guide he gave us.  She can go back to her bed, start taking showers on her own again, and get up and around for moderate activity.  She's a little bummed that she has to get back to her chores now!  He still does not want her doing anything that would risk contact, so still no sports, no swimming, and nothing around a lot of other kids.  They aren't completely set, and so even a small bump to the mouth would loosen them right back up.

We are praising God for how quickly her recovery is going, and are expecting continued healing!  Our prayer going forward is that nothing would set back her healing process, and that she will not need any root canals in the future.  Doc is still saying that she'll definitely need them down the line, but we know God still performs miracles!  She will definitely need braces later on, that's already evident.  We also would add to that prayer list that God would provide for us financially through all of this.  We know He will, just as He always has!  Thank you all for continuing with us in prayer!

What a Month!

When Josh and I made the decision to stay home this summer instead of going on a family vacation and to the Southern Baptist Convention in Texas, we figured that we were going to have a quiet, low-key summer at home and maybe even get ahead on some things financially.  We could not have been more wrong!  First, we went through the closing down of my salon and all the transitions that went along with that.  Then, we were approached about hosting a foreign exchange student from Spain for a month, and Alberto came to stay with us at the end of June.  During that time, I went through extensive physical therapy to attempt to heal a torn rotator cuff.  It bought me a little more time so that I don't have to have surgery yet, but with my daily work load it's not likely that the tear will heal on it's own.  Now, we have the added excitement of Bethany's injury keeping us busy.  The past month has been filled with one crazy trial after another.  Even though we still cannot go on a vacation, we have decided to take a week off in August as a family to just be together and do some day trips before the kids go back to school.  We're all looking forward to getting some rest and praying that Bethany can eat by then.

We all appreciate that so many of you are lifting Bethy up in your prayers.  She has another appointment with the surgeon this Thursday and we are hoping for good news.  It hasn't even been a full week yet since her accident, and Bethany is starting to get very aggravated.  Up until today, she has been handling everything in stride and keeping a positive attitude.  I think missing church today and knowing that she's going to have to miss VBS this week has gotten her into a funk.  She all of a sudden got argumentative and antsy this afternoon and is getting frustrated that she can't eat food with us.  The hardest part of all of this is helping her remember that even though she feels fine, she has to follow doctor's orders so that she has a chance of keeping her teeth.  We won't know for several more weeks if the teeth are still alive or not.  Her sunday school class sent home a gift for her, and that cheered her up so much!  It's been very sweet to see so many people sending her cards and fun things to do to keep her occupied.

I'm also grateful that Josh's mom was able to come again this morning to sit with Bethy for an hour so that I could still teach my Sunday School class.  Teaching on the books of Job and Ecclesiastes right now has been a gift from God.  Josh and I both have friends who have also been going through a lot of trials and changes in their lives, and having the constant reminder that God is in it all has been a great blessing to all of us.  Nothing happens without God's allowing it to, and even though we may never get to know the "why's", we can trust in His sovereignty because He is God.  We can also enjoy His blessings every day even though there are trials all around us.

I'm looking forward to posting good news after our appointment on Thursday!  Keep praying!

Please Pray for Bethany

Last night, the kids were having an overnight with their cousins. They were swimming in the neighbors pool, and as Bethany pushed herself off the bottom of the pool, her lower jaw hit the bottom rung of the ladder, pulling her bottom four front teeth out of their sockets. We received the phone call sometime before 8:00 and flew to meet them at the hospital. The emergency doctor sent us to an oral surgeon at 9:30 pm where he spent over an hour placing her teeth back in and stitching her gums up, using only local anesthetics. Everyone was very impressed with how calm and brave she was considering her age and the severity of the trauma. We got home around midnight and started getting her settled in for the night.

Last night, we were told that there was a 30% chance that we might save the teeth (they are all adult teeth). At her follow up visit today, Dr. Linman said it looked like her teeth had been healing for a week already! He bumped her chances to 40-50%, so that's encouraging! She is on a strict liquid only diet, antibiotics, pain meds, and zero activity for the next 2-4 weeks with weekly visits to the surgeon. Time will tell what will happen with her teeth. Even if we can save her teeth, she will still have a very long road of recovery including root canals and orthodontic work for several years to come. If we can't save them, she will have to wait until she's older to receive implants. 

We know that God isn't surprised by any of this and whatever happens, we will praise Him for it. I'm so grateful it's just her teeth and she is still with us! Please pray with us that Bethany's teeth will heal quickly and that she will have minimal procedures ahead.  We appreciate your love and support as so many have offered to help. The best help you can give is to pray for the best case scenario.

She has to sleep in a chair so she doesn't roll around or lay on her face. Any kind of jarring or moving or bumping the teeth will decrease the chance of restoration.  She is such a trooper!

Independence Day Celebration

Alberto has officially been initiated into the craziness that is our family!  We spent the last two days with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends to celebrate Independence Day.  I checked with him several times to make sure he wasn't overwhelmed by it all, but I have a feeling it's the most fun he's had with us since coming here!  We spent lots of time in the pool, the boys all played baseball, soccer, and badminton, and of course we had tons of fireworks.  Exhaustion has definitely set in after two days of intense sun and play.  Totally worth it!

Alberto's First Week

It has been almost one week since we met Alberto, a student from Spain that we are hosting for a month.  He lives with us full time and goes to Bethel every weekday for class and outings.  We could not have asked for a better first time student than Alberto!  He is so polite and easy to relate to!  At first, we had a little trouble with the language barrier, but his English is getting better and better every day, and we are learning to understand his speech better and better every day.  We have learned that our church is different than he's used to, but I don't think he hated it. :)  We have been swimming, gone to the fair, and took a trip to a Must-Go-To All American Walmart!  LOL  Tonight, he joined Josh and the kids at church for Martial Arts classes and it looks as if he had a pretty fun time with it.  He is REALLY into sports and wants to learn baseball while he's here, so we are going to plan a Silverhawks game and some time at the ball field soon.  All in all, I think it's been an amazing week and I am very encouraged by how well he has fit into our family.  I hope he's having as much fun as we are!  :o)