My Friend Needs A Miracle

On Thursday our friend Debi, pictured here in black, went in to surgery for a ruptured disc. Something went horribly wrong during the surgery and when she woke up she was

paralyzed on the left side of her body. As of last night the paralysis now from the waist down

and has been placed on a feeding tube because she no loner has working bowels or bladder.

Debi is a fine lady. She has been a hair dresser for over 30 years. She has two children and four grandchildren with one on the way. She has endured many life trails and right now she is

on the toughest one of her life. As of last night she was starting to have difficulty breathing. This vibrant, energetic woman needs our prayers and yours. Please lift Debi Gesky up in your prayers, in your church services and spread the word. Debi needs a miracle right now and she needs God to move the mountains out of the way. God is a big God and He created the mountains and He has the power to move them. Stand with me and her family today as we seek God's healing power for Debi!

Still waiting...

Well we are still waiting for that marble to pass. I have to say the treasure hunting is not my favorite thing to do these days! It seems as though what ever Sara was dealing with she must have passed along to her brothers. All three boys have been affected as well. I hate having sick kids! They are miserable which means we are miserable as well. Each one is dealing with a different sickness. Eli had a stomach bug that really wreaked havoc on his system...poor little guy couldn't keep in thing down or in. Kris dwelt with a headache and body aches yesterday. I am hoping he is better today. Keeping him home from school another day. Jaron is home as well. He has been running a low grade fever and has a very sore throat and headache. Thankfully Sara is completely better now!

As for the marble, the doctor consulted with a few surgeons and did some research and found that it could take Kris 3 weeks or more to pass this wonderful little thing. So treasure hunting we will continue. The doctor thought he would be funny yesterday. We were talking about options and what the plan is for the next few days and weeks if it lasts that long. He says, "Hopefully it will pass and you can clean it up and save it in his baby book!" HA-HA Doc! I don't think that is something I will keep. Let alone ever have in my house again! Although it is sorta funny it is still a bit scary as well.

This week has been long and I am SO thankful for all the prayer support we have gotten. I know it is because of prayer that Sara improved so quickly and that we have been able to deal with the marble issue and the fact that all three boys have gotten sick as well. So if you were praying for us...THANK YOU!

God is so good!

This week has been a long week for our house. Actually the last two weeks have been filled with activity. SO lets catch you up on the Kelly activities....in the last two weeks:

* Kris was baptized...YAY!

* Jaron was healed of hypothyroidism (with evidence)

* I was diagnosed as diabetic - controlling with diet and
exercise for 4 mo. then will return to see the doc and
do more tests and possibly start meds.

* Friday. May 30th, went to the boys' school musical...very cute!

* Sunday, June 1, had a Snow Cone Party for the kids celebrating the
end of school beginning of summer break.

* Monday went to the pre-K picnic with Sara & Eli. Enjoyed talking with the other parents. Got to witness to another parent about God's healing. Her 3 yr old daughter after catching the flu at 18 mo almost died, has a heart condition due to the flu. Such a beautiful little girl. Was able to invite them to church. Hope they come. Really pushed the children's ministries.

* Tuesday was the last full day of school for the boys. They went to school on Thursday to pick up their report cards. Both did very well! Jaron had all A's. Kris master all of the tasks he was to master educationally and on the IEP tasks. He master a few and for the first time this year was progressing on all the rest! Huge improvement for Kris. Both have been advanced to the next grade!

Which brings me to Wed. and my wonderful knee surgery on my "Florida knee". I have been calling it that so that family and friends in Florida understand I finally got it fixed up. YAY! Plus the fact that I just had surgery in Jan on my left knee. I had a scope done as seen above and the orthopedic surgeon basically fixed the two tears in the cartilage. One he snipped out the torn pieces and the debree left behind. The other he sewed the pieces back together and hopefully it will heal on its own. He also did some poking at the cartilage taking small pieces out hoping to create enough scar tissue to add cushion where the cartilage has been worn down to the bone.
I also found out I have Chondromalacia patellae which means "softening of the articular cartilage of the knee-cap." Basically the underneath of my knee cap was a mess. The doctor describe it as blistering bone and he basically shaved and smoothed it out. As well as did some smoothing (shaving) of the femur bone where the knee cap glides over it. We are hopeful that will take care of everything.
I go for my 2 week post-op visit and we will see from there. The doc told Sean I will need cortisone shots on a regular basis. I am suppose to get the pictures of the inside of my knee from the surgery. If I do I will post them here as an educational tool and so show off my knee. So far this surgery although has been painful has been a lot easier because I am able to bear weight on it as tolerated. Which I can only tolerate a little bit at a time right now. Everyday is a little better than the last. As long as I ice after doing my exercises and after doing any type of standing and walking I do well at controlling the pain that and pain medicine. Here you can see I have three incisions. Two are larger than the other. Don't let those small incisions trick you...small does not mean no pain! In fact in my case I was in severe pain and still have bouts with severe pain when not taking the pain meds regularly. I came home with an ace bandage from the middle of my thigh to my toes and on the other leg I had a surgical stocking. The kids thought it was hilarious. In fact Sara, our 4 yr old, wanted to know why I was wearing tights, and said, "you look funny mommy!" Which through tears I said thanks. The pain at that point was so bad I cried for 2 hrs even with the strong pain meds. The picture above was taken Thursday night. I had to change the bandages. Looks good! Today I have more bruising and no more ace bandage to wear except at night when sleeping. Although wearing it through the day does make it feel better. Today I plan to spend sometime outside sitting inthe sun. As you can tell I have lost my "Florida" tan. I miss Florida....you can be tan all year long all free from the sun of course!

God was good to me during the surgery. I had no nausea like I have in the previous surgeries. I also asked the Lord to show the doc that I did not need a lateral release, a lateral release consists of dividing the vastus lateralis muscle. By dividing the vastus lateralis, this muscle is weakened, and if tight, stretched out; hence restoring balance to the Quadriceps muscle. It would mean another 6-8 weeks off my feet and longer PT time. Thankfully Dr. Morgan did not perform this procedure. Which means I will be able to enjoy the summer a lot more. I prayed that I would not need the procedure and God answered that prayer! Thank You Lord! Later I will post about my first PT experience. Lots to me angry about here....but God has been good again and provided me with a very experienced PT and on that will help me where the other two have not! Explain later in a different post.

Get out and enjoy your day! I am!

Made "New Again"

Today is Good Friday. I am so thankful for what my Jesus did for me so long ago. He touches my heart everyday and gently guides me when I have decisions to make. The biggest decision I have ever made was accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. NO my life has not been all happy and a garden of roses. Remember every rose as thorns! I challenge you to just try God! He will radically change your life if you truly seek Him and follow His teachings in the Bible. I can't promise that everything will be pleasant and cheery but I can tell you if you place your trust in Jesus that you will have peace that passes all understanding through the toughest times. I have and I know this from experience. Today I plan to just go spend time at the alter, pray, sing some praise songs and then sit and wait on the Lord. Later this evening we are having family communion for the church, we look forward to serving communion to the members of our church and praying with for them. Take time to think about what to day means!

Celebrating Today!!

Hallelujah! I am free from that lovely medicine called coumadin! YAHOO! No more blood thinners! I am clot free! I left my house this morning excited with he prospect of seeing other human beings (other than my husband and kids) today and going shopping. Now here is the thing I want to share the most with you. When I left the hospital I was given my appointment time for today's ultrasound on my legs. It was set for 1:15. Which I thought was great being that Sean had to do the over night shift. It meant he would be able to get a little more sleep time. Well last Thursday I got a call saying my apt. was at 11:15. I figured ok that would be better because we would at least be home by the time the kids go out of school and we wouldn't have to get someone to pick them up.
Well I get to the hospital, get checked in and waited maybe 10 minutes and the tech comes out to get me. She proceeds to ask me if Icame early because of the storm that is coming our way. A winter storm as it is called...meaning we could get snow, ice, sleet and freezing rain. Bad stuff when mixed together. I looked at her and said no that I have been called by a woman on Thursday telling me my apt was at 11:15. She tells me normally it is a man (Doug) that does the apt calls so she was confused. I looked at her and said well maybe an angel called and changed it so that I could get home before it got bad outside. She just smiled.
Now I believe in angels and God was definitely looking over us and preparing today for us because not only did I only wait 10 mins to get it (norm wait is at least 30 mins) and we had Eli & Sara with us but as we left the hospital the storm started. Sleet every where and it took a matter of 3 minutes for the roads to start getting slick and dangerous.
Unfortunately we did not get to go shopping but we did grab lunch as we drove home. I was a short outing but it was nice to get out of the house. Another reason I believe God had a hand in today's events ... had my original apt time been correct we would not have been home to get the boys. On our way home I thought I better call home and check our messages, good thing I did. WE were about 5 minutes away from home when we learned that the boys were being released from school within the next 15 minutes. Had I not called we would not have gone straight home and the boys would have walked home and been stuck outside in the freezing cold. God was not only watching out for us but for our kids as well.
Next Monday I go to see the surgeon and I will be 4 weeks post op! I am so hoping that he will release me to do ROM exercises. Until then I can now rest easy knowing that I am clot free and no longer taking terrible meds.
Out side is looking more like a winter wonderland again. We have about 1/4 inch of ice on the vehicle windows which means the ground is probably worse. According to http://www.weatherunderground.com/ we are looking at 2-8 inches of snow and possibly up to 3/4 inch of ice falling before the snow comes. We are hoping that we will be spared the ice storm so that we do not lose electric or our heat! Keep us in your prayers~
Today as all days God is worthy of our praise~

The song I have sang all day is this:

WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE LORD
Words and Music by JAMES HUEY

When I think about the Lord

How He saved me, how He raised me

How He filled me with the Holy Ghost

How healed me to the uttermost

When I think about the Lord

How He picked me up and turned me around

How He placed my feet on solid ground

CHORUS:

It makes me wanna shout

Hallelujah, thank You Jesus, Lord, You’re worthy

Of all of the glory, and all of the honor

And all of the praise

Teaching Children the Importance of Prayer

Sean and I are huge advocates of prayer. Yes we are Christians and that should be a daily part of our lives but for many Christians, time gets in the way and they just don't make it a priority in their daily walk with Christ. One of the biggest things we have always done with our kids is pray with them. Not just at dinner time or bedtime but when ever they seem to have a problem. We started praying with them as babies. Always saying a night time prayer over them as well as when they were sick. As each of them grew our prayer time has changed. We make it a point to pray with them before sending them to school (on most mornings..occasionally time gets away from us) and definitely at bedtime. But there are other times as well. Such as when situations of illness arise, bad attitudes, school tests, sports (games) and other times as well.

One of the biggest times this week was on Tuesday night. We were sitting in the hall due to the tornado sirens and warnings on the tv as well as outside were going off. Thankfully our area was spared from those storms but I can tell you the fear in our house was very real! Our oldest, Jaron, was terrified. Oh he had lived through a variety of hurricanes in his short life but this was different. A tornado has so much uncertainty and he has seen the devastation they make on tv. So he was scared, shaking and crying scared. His little sister ran to her room and gathered all of her teddy bears and placed them around Jaron and told him, "Its ok, my teddies will protect you!" It helped him a little but you know what helped him the most?! PRAYER! Sean and I prayed with the children for safety and peace. Then Jaron came and got in my arms and I pray for him again. After the urgency was over Sean took Jaron aside and talked and prayed with him some more. I am sure that we will have more times of waiting out the storm in the hall or bathroom or even the basement of our church. But one thing you can be assured of we will not be waiting out the storm alone...the Bible tells us that where two or more are gathered He is there. When we pray He comes and is there. Does that mean that we will always be safe...no. Sometimes God allows the storms of life to come and occassionallythat may mean devastation follows but we rest assured on the fact that our feet are planted on solid ground and that our God is a big God and He will see us through the storm and will help us rebuild if needed. Storms are times of growing for Christians. If we hold fast to God's word and promises and trust He knows what is best for our lives then through the storms we shall see the rainbow!

The following ex cert is from a recent newsletter I received from "Hearts at Home". I thought it was great! Take time to pray with and for your children. No matter what they need it !

15 Things to Pray for with Your Children

1. Pray with thanksgiving that this child is part of your family.

2. Pray for your child's safety, and for the safety of

all children going to and from school and during their school day.

3. Pray for your child to have a keen awareness of

God's presence throughout the day.

4. Pray that your child will be willing to work hard to

make the most of the gifts and abilities God has given her.

5. Pray that your child will be a blessing others.

6. Pray that your child will find pleasure in learning

and accomplishing new things.

7. Pray that your child will find good friends.

8. Pray that, in working on any special projects, tests,

or challenging assignments, your child will be able to

master the necessary skills and information.

9. Pray that your child will make wise choices and good decisions.

10. Pray with thanksgiving for the blessing of a good education.

11. Pray for children that may be causing problems

for your child or others at school.

12. Pray for your child's future spouse.

13. Pray that God will show your child one that needs a friend.

14. Pray for your child's teacher.

15. Pray for your school's principal to be a Godly leader.