November 22, 2006 - Happy Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving! We are happy to report that Erik is home for the holiday! He seems to be doing great! He fell asleep on the way home and when we put him in his bed he had the biggest smile on his face! What an answered prayer! We are so thankful for all that we have - God, our faith, friends, improving health for Erik, family. Please remember to give thanks this Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for! God has again impressed upon our family stronger values and appreciation through our experiences with Erik's journey. Our Father has been so gracious to restore Erik to where he is today. What pleasure is ours to be able to observe his restoration in the coming years! Happy Thanksgiving! Erik's Family

November 19, 2006 - Erik's pushing forward

Dear all: Erik made it through surgery fine this morning. They placed a central line allowing him to receive strong antibiotic therapy for 8-12 weeks. We are praying that this will be the last of his numerous hospitalizations! What a great day it will be to know that we have spent our last night in the hospital! Yesterday's bible reading presented the following passage that we wanted to share with each of you. The past several months have been really difficult for our family and in particular for Erik. Many times people ask us how we are making it through. First of all - we don't have a choice and God has shown us that the good things that take place along the road greatly outweigh any difficulties we have faced. We have each grown and matured in so many ways as parents, as a family, and in Christ. This passage touched us because we do know that God's purpose for Erik and our family is manifesting through all of the challenges we have faced. He is changing us through each event as we continue to rely on Him for strength. We also have seen God allow us to share our faith with each of you which is an extension of His work in our lives and allows us to be faithful witnesses for Him. Please pray for Erik to become and remain infection free and for the surgery sites to quickly heal. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you . . . Erik's Family Passage 1: Peter 4:12-19: Glory Just Around the Corner "12 -13 Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner. 14 -16 If you're abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It's the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others. If they're on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that's a different matter. But if it's because you're a Christian, don't give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name 17 -19 It's judgment time for God's own family. We're first in line. If it starts with us, think what it's going to be like for those who refuse God's Message! If good people barely make it, What's in store for the bad? So if you find life difficult because you're doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he's doing, and he'll keep on doing it." END.

November 17, 2006 - Pray the Infection Away

Hello Everyone! Here we are at Duke. We have had an interesting day or so. The bump on Erik's head that we mentioned in our last emal continued to slowly get larger. Wednesday we called Duke to talk about our concerns. Last year when the infection was treated, we were told that we literally caught it just in time. If we had waited even as little a 12 hours, Erik would most likely have been dealing with life-threatening circumstances. Reflecting on this, we called to report the changes in the bump and his seizure activity. We made an appointment for 11am yesterday and ended up being admitted for surgery. They performed a CT scan with contrast and noticed that the area where Erik had surgery last year followed by the infection appeared to be changed indicating possible infection. We met a new neurosurgeon - Dr. Gerald Grant. We really like him and believe he truly has Erik's best interest at heart. We were doubly pleased to know that he trained with Dr. Steinberg in CA! This was such good news for us! We so many times wondered if we needed to just take Erik to CA to get things resolved where they started. It is like God brought CA to us! Very comforting! They decided to go to the OR and see what was going on. It was a good thing that they made this decision because the infection that he had last year in the bone had apparently "hung around" and had deteriorated the bone that was taken off to perform his surgery to remove the AVM last year. The surgeon said that there were fragments of bone in there and hardware that was intended to hold things together - unattached. They cleaned the area out and left the bone off. The plan now is to see what the cultures show (what kind of bacteria is causing the infection) and determine what treatment to pursue. It could be that they will be able to teat him with oral antibiotics or they may have to put in a central line and give him stronger antibiotics. We pray that they will not need to put a line in. They also are hoping not to have to put a doner or artificial bone over the area. It may be safe to just leave the bone off of this area. Please pray that Erik will not need a central line, that his seizures will cease, that the infection will be cleared from his body, and that he will quickly be fully restored. We know that God will continue to carry us through. Happy Thanksgiving! Love in Christ, Erik's Family

November 3, 2006 - All is well

Greetings! Things are going well for us here in Apex, NC. Erik is doing well. He defiantly is aware of things that are going on around him! This is good news since the doctors did not think that he would recognize us or be responsive. He is really funny though because when we leave to go somewhere if we do not take him with us, the nurses say that he complains for about 30 minutes. I guess he is either getting mad at us for leaving or calling out to us! Either way, it is a great thing to see! I want to share something that I thought of over the past few weeks. I heard an _expression at work recently that I wanted to share. It was that we need to be sure data collected is correct so we keep those accountable "off of the radar" if there really is no problem to report. I thought about this alot. It made me think about how lucky we each are that although there are billions of people on this Earth, God keeps each and every one of us on "His radar". What a wonderful place to be! Erik has defiantly been on God's radar for some time now. Although we may not feel like it sometimes, he never leaves or forsakes us. How wonderful for us all! Thanks for all of your continued prayers and support. Love in Christ, Erik's Family