As of about 2 hours ago, my mom was discharged from the hospital. We are so thankful she is well enough to go home. The doctors got the oral pain medication under control and then she was ready to go. She says she is thankful to be back into her own bed.  More than anything, she seems to be relieved that this is over and she can now start seeing what the next steps will be. She will be going back to the doctor over the next few weeks. The extensive pathology reports should be back soon and then we will be sure if all the lymph nodes are clear. The initial report was that they were all clear, but this is the last step. Please be praying that the news comes back positive, as this is what the doctor is expecting.

Josh's parents came this weekend to help with the kids so I could be with my mom. They were leaving church on Sunday morning and Josh's mom slipped with Ephram in her arms. Trying to protect him, she took the brunt of the fall and hurt her foot. She ended up in the ER that night and found out she had broken her foot in 2 places. She is now on crutches and in a cast for a while now. Please pray for her to feel encouraged as she is feeling pretty down right now.

Things here are okay. I am feeling pretty down myself. Aren't we just a bunch of happy people? Noah continues to not sleep well which leads to mommy not sleeping well.  When mommy doesn't feel well... it's not a pretty picture. I could really use your prayers right now. Pray that I feel able to handle the responsiblities and obligations I need to fulfill. Pray that the sleep I do get is multiplied by a loving God who knows I need lots of it! :-)

Thank you to all of you out there who so faithfully pray for us. We love you all.

Just wanted to post a quick update that Mom's fever is back to normal as of 3 a.m.  I just had a chance to talk with her for a moment and she sounded like she was doing fine. The nurse was just giving her another round of pain meds so I'm sure she'll be fast asleep at any moment! :-)  Thank you for praying for her...

Things are going well over at Spectrum Butterworth.  My mom says the pain is a more endurable than she had anticipated. They are keeping her pretty doped up to keep the pain under control.  They did have her stand up for a minute or two today.  Keeping all the tubes and wires straight was quite the challenge. :-) She did very well and did not get too light headed. One prayer request- around 8:00 this evening she started running a fever. After another hour it had gone up significantly. They were taking some blood samples and doing a chest X-ray to see if she is developing pneumonia. Please pray that this truns out to be nothing of significance and she can continue on the road to recovery. 

Here at the Buck household, things continue along pretty quietly.  Josh is planning on starting driver's training this spring. We (meaning me) are excited to allow him some independence and get him out of the house on his own.  The house is coming along amazingly well. The drywall is pretty much done. We are starting to pick out things for the house such as bedding for the kids bedrooms and that kind of fun stuff. :-) Ephram started crawling TODAY!!! We are so excited. He was 10 months yesterday and finally decided to get moving. He is so laid back we think he has had no desire to try. He is so cute, he gets his nose all scrunched up and gets this gummy smile on his face like he's so proud of himself! Noah continues to be a stinker. He is getting up a lot at night and not going back to sleep. This makes mommy tired. He has found danger again in some new ways. Day before yesterday, he drove our van across the road and ended up in the neighbors yard. We totally flipped! He got himself into quite a bit of trouble. He has started a new med and we are back to monitoring his every move. Please pray for his safety and our ability to be good parents to him. Zoe is loving learning. She is learning how to sound words out and loves to figure out what letter "comes next." Vowels are hard for her but she is doing great. She is also our little homemaker. She definitely has the gift of hospitality. When she heard I was heading up to the hospital to see grandma, she had to make grandma some food. She got a baggie of animal crackers and strawberries for her. When I got home, she asked me if grandma liked her food. She loves to be a caretaker. She is one special gal.

Josh's mom, dad and brother came up last night. The snow made the trip trecherous but they made it here safe and sound. Having them here allowed me to spend the day with my mom. After all she has done for us, it was the only place I wanted to be. It's nice to be able to do something for her for once. :-)

Tomorrow is Easter. I pray you all have a blessed day and remember to stop and think of what an amazing God we serve, one who died on a cross and then miraculously rose from a grave so that we can have eternal life. Wow.  When you grow up in the church and hear it so many times, it sometimes doesn't seem so amazing. But when you stop and think, how can we be anything but thankful?  Even when life throws you curve balls, the truth of Lord doesn't change. And for that, I am thankful.

Surgery day post 2

Jean is out of surgery.   It took seven hours instead of eight, and the doctors said that it went very well. She is not out of recovery yet, so we haven't seen her. Keep praying because the pain is supposed to be pretty intense.  More later today.

Jean Surgery pt. 1

Jean went in for surgery at 10:45 today. They removed four lymph nodes, sent them to pathology, and already have the results back.  There was no cancer in the lymph nodes.  This is really really good news!  She is still in surgery for several more hours with reconstruction . Keep gene in your prayers, and we will update again later today.

After a long reprieve from the blogging world, I am back at it.  Josh had to teach me how to update on this new site, but it turns out to be easier than the last! I am about as computer illiterate as they come, so easy is always a bonus.

Life here has continued on.  Very little change has been seen in Josh's physical condition over the last few months. This is very discouraging for him.  It is also a fact of life right now.  Although we have seen little change, our prayer is still for God to heal him.  Both Josh and I have come to the consensus that if God chose to heal him to the point of paraplegia, we would almost consider him healed.  What many people do not understand is the significant difference between quadriplegia and paraplegia.  Josh needs about 90 percent of daily living done for him. Because he has such little use of his upper body, his independence is very limited. He needs help eating, showering, moving from one position to another, changing batteries in his wheelchair, getting a drink of water, and the list goes on.  Those with paraplegia (and by no means am I discounting the heartbreak and major life changes these people go through) can typically learn to be 100 percent independent again. They learn to do things very differently than before, and almost everything is more difficult than it was before the accident, but they do not have to count on other people to help them all the time. So, as you can see we would be happy with more independence even if that includes a chair.  This would still take a total miracle, but we serve a very powerful God.

We had an eventful day today.  The morning started out with a church board meeting at our house.  I kept the kids in another room while the group met.  About noon Grandpa S. came to pick up the kids (they hadn't seen them in over a week as they had been on vacation in Mexico).  Noah was absolutely beyond excited, screaming like a wild banshee. They watched the kids while we were going to go over to some friends' house we had met through MFB.  As we were nearing ready to leave, Josh began to get dysreflexic and our plans came to a halt.  We stayed home and worked at getting Josh back to where he needs to be health wise.

We then headed over to my parents for a pizza party.  The kids were all playing on the bikes outside and enjoying the sunny weather.  They all had a great time. It makes me very anxious for spring to show it's lovely face again.

The house is coming along incredible well. Drywall and siding are starting next week.  Framing is completed, shingles are done and many other things are moving at lightning speed. According to the builder, he estimates we wil be in by the second week of June. Amazing.  We would love to have the summer to get used to our new surroundings, spend time with new neighbors, and get the kids acclimated to their new surroundings. We are starting to see the end in sight and cannot believe we are going to be moving into a new house built by amazing people throught he love of Christ! Thank you to all of you who have given so selflessly to us over the last 14 months. We are yearing for the day where things start to feel normal agian.  We keep in mind how long it took us to get to that point after Ava died. We know we have some ground to cover but believe that God will continue to give us peace and reassurance that we can handle this life change if we depend on him.