June 28, 2007 - All Natural!!!

Yes -it is true. This morning Erik had his broviac removed and now he is all Erik! No artificial parts or pieces! As we think back to even a year ago, it is hard to believe we are where we now find ourselves - with a healthy little boy who smiles at us, knows us, and is working very hard to completely recover. It is truly a miracle and work of God that we are where we are. We are taking a big step this week and are taking the entire family to the beach for the week - Saturday - Saturday. We are very excited about this trip. It will be amazing to sit at the edge of the shore with Erik sitting as well and have the water come up. We cannot wait to see his reaction! Now that the broviac is out, we can give it a few days and then we will be allowed to submerge him in water again. This will be great! Please keep us in your prayers when we come to mind over the next week that it will be an uneventful and restful time for us all! Enjoy the holiday . . . Love in Christ, Erik's Family

June 13, 2007 - Where we are . . .

Hi. It has been a bust time for all of us. We are slowly introducing the new medication that we pray will control Erik's seizures while not impacting his sodium levels. So far all is going well. We know that it will take about 4 months to get to a level that will make an impact so keep praying that we will achieve success! We met with the school system last week to discuss Erik's plans for next year. We were pleased to learn that Erik has been given a spot at a school really close to Mom's work. it is a newer school and the ratio for Erik's classroom is 3 teachers to 8 kids. This was great news for us. His primary teacher is a trained Speech Therapist who decided to teach special needs kids - or simply - SPECIAL KIDS! We still had concerns about Erik being medically stable for an outside of the home classroom. The team agreed that he may not be ready medically and agreed to send a note to Erik's physician for his response. We agreed that he may not be ready for full-time in the classroom but we are also concerned about him not getting what he needs to continue to progress. We expressed this and were told that the services he currently receives from the school system may be increased and that he would also be able to go into his classroom during the school day for a few hours periodically if we wanted to do this. This would be great! They said we would be able to bring him in for story or play time which we think will be good to introduce him to them and them to him. We will see how it all works out! We have also celebrated life and earthly loss in the past few weeks. 3 (almost 4!) year old Nathan Naas and his family came into our lives during our extended hospital stay at Duke last Summer. Nathan went to be with our Lord the last week of May after a long, strong battle with a brain tumor. This has been an experience and inspiring journey for our family. We feel loss but we also know that Nathan and his family touched so many through their faith during the past year in a way that would otherwise not have been possible. Please pray for Nathan's family as they look ahead to what God now has in store for them. They have a website: http://www.peanutbutterpizza.com/NEN; User Id: Nathan Reader; password: Nathan. We also celebrated Erik and Nick's 5th birthday this week. WOW - time has flown by! We enjoyed a pirate party at the park and Nick was thrilled. Erik seemed to enjoy the commotion of family and friends and was interested in the gifts as well. Nick told us that "he was tired of being 4!" Erik has a new walker that we are introducing him to that we think is going to really allow him to advance. He can rest in it or choose to extend his legs to support his weight - when HE wants to. This is great! It is good to see him in the walker because he looks so big and he holds his head so well and he is eye level with the other kids which is great for all! Well, that is the update for now. Once again, thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and support. Please continue to pray for Erik and our family as we pray him to a full recovery and complete restoration! Love in Christ, Erik's Family