August 20, 2007 - Remember when...

hello all. We are all doing fine these days. Still closely watching Erik and praising God each day for the blessings he has given us. We are changing his meds and so far he is doing fine. It is difficult when caring for a child with special needs to pay attention to the little things and the progress that comes . . . slowly. God has been good to us and has sent many people to us who have been intentional in reminding us of Erik's progress . . . even when we may not be seeing it. Recently, we have been remembering and reminding each other of these things and would like to share some of them with you. Remember when Erik . . . - was having 60 plus seizures . . . daily - couldn't hold his head up - didn't respond to his parents or siblings - didn't smile or laugh - couldn't focus on faces - was fussy and uncomfortable - either from infection, hunger, pain, etc. - had to have his head held up to eat - had a shunt - had a broviac - use to sleep all of the time. couple of 3 hour naps during the day. - spent long nights, days, weeks at the hospital - when we did not even have to think about driving to Duke - it was like we were on "auto-pilot" - was awake throughout the night - when Erik's history, dates, surgeries, etc. were at the tip of our tongue Remember when Erik was: - in constant pain - having confused doctors and having to tell the same story over and over - when he would only look right - setting the clock for various times in the night to wake up to check on him - the doctors telling us it was only a matter of time - doctors telling us that everything that made him who he was was impacted by the seizure and that he would not even know his parents - telling the doctors that we know the "Great Physician" and knew despite what they were telling us that God would carry us through this. There are so many things we could say - these are just the few that came to mind recently. We are now seeing that our dreams and answered prayers are slowly coming true . . . in God's time. With each day, we are realizing that soon we will be able to say... Remember when Erik: - had an ng tube and couldn't drink on his own - couldn't stand - couldn't walk - when we didn't have to worry about telling Erik to stop running in the house - when he wore a diaper - when he had his wheelchair and how good it was for him - when he couldn't talk - when he had to take sodium citrate to keep his sodium levels up - when he was on seizure medicines. What a wonderful time that will be for Erik and for our family! What a wonderful testimony Erik will have to share! These things we now ask God for are so small compared to what God has brought him through so far. He has made it through so much and is more and more responsive each day. Please continue to pray for us so we can all celebrate together when Erik has accomplished all of the above . . and much more. Love in Christ, Erik's Family