pumpkin patch

Jireh is doing wonderful. We spent a very wet Sunday at the pumpkin patch to get Jireh his first pumpkin. So glad to get back to somewhat of a normal life and enjoy all these "firsts" holidays with Jireh. Thank-you Lord for blessing our family.

one week later

Here is Jireh right out of surgery 10/16/09






















Jireh one week later 10/23/09




God continues to amazes us how He has healed Jireh, and so FAST. Everyday Jireh is doing something new. He is completely off all medicine for pain. His incision is getting smaller and the stitches are prickly ready to fall off soon. We are still not back to any kind of normal schedule but the main cause of that is he is cutting his first tooth. It has felt so good to be on the other side of this journey and to now look back at how God saw us through such a difficult time. I remember last week fighting my doubtful thoughts and wondering if we were making the right choice to do surgery. Then I would hear the voice of God saying to walk in faith and trust Him with Jireh's life because he was my child. Walking by faith is: walking forward when you cannot see where you are going.

nice round head

at home

We have been busy adjusting to life at home now. Jireh has a messed up schedule and we have had some very late nights. Other than that Jireh only takes tylenol occasionally for being fussy. We continue to be so amazed that he is doing so well. There is nothing that seems to slow him down. He rolls all over on the floor and bounces on our laps. We have been looking through pictures of Jireh before surgery and now after and he looks so different to us.

One long night!

It has been a very long night around here. We are so thankful to be home, and yet Jireh has been on full melt down. Our Lord has carried us through the night. Both Joyce and Jireh are finally sleeping and I am going to be seeking strength from the Lord. He just might direct me to many cups of coffee and his word. I was so filled with Love last night as our family was back together. Sometimes I let life fog my eyes of the important things in life, with the details that I can't control. So many times I catch myself after saying " Mike you just missed that one. " Then I realize just how great the Fathers Love is. He is Loving, Kind, Merciful, Forgiving, All Mighty, All Powerful, Sovereign, Creator of the Universe who cares for me and is patient with me. Oh how I long work out the failings of the flesh, to be able submit this life to the Lord and whatever he has, and to Praise him for it. This journey has only yet begun, even after all these years. I am so thankful for all the wonderful examples of Godly brothers and sisters who encourage me. May this day be filled with Him to whom all Praise, Honor and Worship is due.


Mike

goodbye Children's hospital

We are home!!!!!!!!!! Thank-you Children's for the great care we recieved. Keep in touch Jennifer and let us know how Matthew is. We will keep praying for his recovery. We also are thinking about baby Shay and praying for her recovery. Its been a sweet blessing to know these families.

Jireh has had a bath and is doing wonderfully. We can't say this enough how amazed we are at his speedy recovery and for all the prayers.

4th day and were going home

Were going home!!! Praise the Lord. Truly amazing how fast Jireh has bounced back. He has not had any strong drugs since yesterday at 2pm. He has only had tylenol. Please keep Shay in prayer, we talked to her mother while going to the cafeteria this morning and Shay had a seizure last night and they had to put her back on the ventalator. The mother is so grateful for prayers. This has been a much longer journey for them. A scheduled surgery with a stay of 3-4 days has now turned into a 3 week stay with no word of going home any time soon. They are still in ICU and that is a place that does not go to sleep. Also, pray for Matthew. They are still not sure what is wrong with him. He does not keep food down and just having a hard time. I am going to take the mom downstairs to get a free quilt for him and give her a chance to take a break before we leave. Her name is Jennifer.

all better

Jireh has decided to be all better now. He is tired of being in bed and wants to be up.

day 3

Jireh is hanging on to "tye" the tiger. His new friend. And then we got a call from sister Joclyn and Jireh is carrying on a full conversation with her. These are precious moments. I think he is ready to go home.

We continue to Praise our God

Jireh had a good night. He had a few times of throwing up, yet that was to be expected. He continues to be strengthened by our Lord through your prayers. at 8:30am he got his drain tube out. the surgical team is constantly amazed at the rapid recovery. We are not. Our God has answered all of our prayers. As I had said from the beginning this has been about getting the help Jireh needed and that we could be a strong witness to those around us. Please continue to pray for baby Shay. When we last saw them she was getting a course to help with her infections and he blood oxygen levels. May God be merciful and healing to Shay and the Connell family. Jireh has a room mate named Mathew Clark. He also could use our prayers. He has cystic fibrosis and had to have his appendix taken out. He is not eating well and has an infection. Joyce and I continue to lift him up and ask that you would join us. Also lift up the family as dad is getting ready to be deployed which will leave mom (Jennifer) home with 2 boys and due in February with their 3rd. I do pray for their spiritual health above all. Here are a few pics of Jireh from this morning.


Mike

36 hours later

Jireh is resting and doing very well. We hold him for about 30 minutes at a time and then put him in his bed for about the same amount of time. We brought 2 toys from home that he hangs onto and won't let go. Too cute. So far, his eyes have not swelled shut. I am so thankful.

splitting headache

Jireh has given the phrase "I have a splitting headache" real meaning. Bless my sweet baby. He is such a trooper. God has given him the right amount of comfort and peace to endure such a hard thing. I stop and look at him and try to imagine what he must be feeling. All I can come up with is when you hit your head on things like bunk beds or cupboards that are too low. OUCH! we say with a good rub. Poor Jireh. So thankful for good drugs.
p.s. we can have visitors now. Just e-mail us, facebook or post a comment on the blog. Thank-you

31 hours after surgery

Jireh is doing well. We are holding him more than he is in his bed. He has nursed some. As you can see he still has the drain tube. The doctors say that will not be removed until maybe tomorrow night. The routine for today has been: Nurse Emily comes in every hour and checks his vital signs. He gets an antibiotic every 8 hours, and his pain meds every 4 hours. He is on oxy codine, tylenol and benadryl which is for the itching on his face. Jireh is very alert and looks all around. He is now playing with his toys.
Sweet "puffy" baby.

He is Greatly to be praised

To God be the glory great things he has done. We are out of ICU and down on the 3rd floor. rm 3017 bed 2 . God has been Merciful and shown his Loving kindness. Jireh is swelling, yet not as severe as we have seen. We are sharing a room yet there should be a lot more peace and quiet. I would ask that you would continue to pray for healing both for Jireh and little Shay Connell

leaving ICU

Praise! We are leaving the ICU in about 20 minutes. We will be sharing another room but are thankful that we can both stay in there and bring our bags with us. So far this whole time we have had to leave our things in the truck and we would both really like a shower by now.

Pics

As you can see he is doing well at times, and not so well 2 minutes later. We are praising God that the swelling is not as bad as could be. Mommy has been able to nurse and hold her little boy. What a joy. We do miss our other children. Joclyn, Janelle, Jeremiah, Jayna we miss you, we love you and can't wait to be with you also.

Mike

A difficult night

Thank you all for your prayers. It was a very difficult night for Jireh. He has started the swelling process, which is normal. It leaves him not very happy and agitated all at once. I am going to post several pics. Some of these may look worse than you might think.

viewer discretion adviced

This is actaully an amazing incision. Across the top of his forhead is a drain tube that will be removed by the 2nd-3rd day. Jireh is drinking mama's milk from a bottle and is resting well. When he starts to wake up he cries and the nurse gives him more meds to manage his pain. Jireh will be out of ICU by tomorrow. The surgeon's were in a few hours ago and told us that Jireh is doing amazingly well. They are just thrilled at how well he is doing. They also performed another surgery right after Jireh's today and it went well too. Praise the Lord for answered prayer. The medical staff here is great. Very nice to us and right there to answer ANY and ALL questions. Mike is visiting with the family in our same room. We continue to pray for baby Shay.

this is 3 hours later. Mommy having a hard time. VERY hard to see my baby look puffy right now. I just can not hold the tears back. I am trying so hard to not cry but I am overwhelmed of the goodness of God. HE gave me back my baby.

This was taken about an hour after surgery. We will post some more pictures. Please know that they are a bit upsetting and you may want to scroll past them.

baby shay, jireh's room mate

Please pray for baby Shay, she is Jireh's room mate and could also use your prayers. She had an infection under her sternum. Please pray for her and her parents


Mike

The old saying

I sit hear beside Jireh's bed and the thought that strikes me is " In GODS hands ". Jireh was from the beginning of his life in the hand of God. When he first got sick,we thought he just needs some hydration, he was in Gods hands. Through all our trials in life do we see the hand of the almighty or are we so busy, blind, dull as to not see his hands. If we believe that all things work together for good for those who love Him, then this is for our good and if for our good then we are right where our Lord wants us; " In His hands". There are so many times in my life I want to do so much good, yet I feel rebuffed by our Lord. That good I see me doing would be in my strength, my way and apart from our God. Not " In His hands". We are all given not any more than he can carry us through. Gods desire is to use us to bring Him glory through the life He has given us. Whatever that is, is the best from God and the best for us. Is there any better place to be than to be in the hands of the Master? As Paul would have said " far be it". When Jesus asked Peter if he was going to quit following him as the multitude did, he reponded with " You have the words of God and are his Son, where else would we go?" Where else do we turn when all else seems lost? To hard. To much. Lets turn to the master and fall into " His hands".

Mike

PRAISE GOD

Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. at 10:35 they called us to say your prayers are answered. Jireh's surgery is complete and he is doing great. it wil be about another 1-2 hours till he is in the ICU and then we will be able to go back and see him. I would like to thank all of you for your prayers and ask that you would continue for his recovery.

PRAISE GOD for his goodness!


Mike

The Love of the body

I can never express our thankfulness to our Lord and all of you for the prayers, thoughts and encouragement. We are in the waiting period, yet very encouraged. We very much feel all your prayers. Thank you

Mike

Jireh started to suck his thumb because he is so hungry. This is right before I had a little melt down. The tears just fall out of my eyes. They assured me that the time from me to being out with the gas is 2 minutes. And praise the Lord, I was able to settle Jireh down and put him to sleep before they took him.

the 2nd call from surgery

Everything is going well. Jireh is doing just fine. We have a pager with us to allow us the freedom to go to the cafeteria. So thankful that we are here with Wes & Pam Spurling, Doug & Tina Riley, and Cary & Lois Green. We have been visiting and praying. And were trying to eat. I am having a hard time every time the beeper goes off. My mind wants to go straight to negative thoughts. But God is my strength and my fortress, in HIM I will trust!

he is in surgery

at 7:35 am they came and took Jireh back. He did sleep through the night (Praise the Lord) and did very well without being fed. Please continue to pray with us for his surgery, recovery and for strength for Joyce and I. Thank you for all your Love, we feel completely surrounded by it.

Mike

How deep the Fathers love for us

The song says " How deep the Fathers love for us, how vast beyond all measure. That He would give his only Son, to make a wretch his treasure." That is the first stanza of a song that is sung A LOT at our home, in the car, in the store. Quite frankly just about anywhere that the Lord prompts me. Sometimes even to the dismay of my family, because I will sing out no matter. Yet this morning I sit here thinking of the words more richly. The song wants us to understand the depths to which God almighty has reached out to us, the lengths to which he would go for us. as I sit here this morning ready to go, It really struck me; just how deep a fathers love can be. We have known of Jireh and his coming for about 14 months. Yet it feels like we have had him for such a great length of time that our love for him has grown to be so great. We must in just a few short hours give our son over to the medical staff at childrens, and rest in the Lord. Yet what really strikes me is that the God of the universe, the almighty creator, knew of Jireh from before the begining and how much Love must that be? I am not fearful. I stand firm in the Lord and his goodness. I am a father though, and I love my son. I want, pray for the best for him. How deep is the love the Father has put in us, for our son. His desire is to make our son his treasure. That is a deep Love, one that could only come from the Father.

Mike

the hat before surgery

We are so thankful for special friends. Thank-you Mrs. Hinman for the darling hat.

surgery tomorrow

The call came in first thing this morning from Children's hospital. All the details prior to surgery. I was a bit "out of it" but quickly got it together. Jireh's last feeding is at 1:30am. We need to leave the house at 5:00am to be at Children's by 6:15 am. Jireh's surgery is at 7:30am. Jireh can have his favorite blanket and one toy. We decided on his singing dog that is always in bed with him. We thought this was a good choice in case Jireh's eyes swell shut, he can still listen and touch his dog. He also can have cereal at 11:30 tonight which we will do. We are praying that Jireh will sleep VERY good after his 1:15am feeding. There is nothing after that. What would work out just perfect is that Jireh sleeps until we leave and we can just put him in his carseat and prayerfully he will fall back to sleep. Thank-you to EVERYONE who is praying for Jireh. We covet all the prayers and know that Jireh is covered in God's love.

packing

Jireh's bag is all packed. Now all we have to do is pack ours. I am thinking that "less is best" so to speak. I hear that the hospital rooms are quite small. Mike is making plans to sleep in the his truck with an airbed while I stay in Jireh's room during the night.

so many details

One of the details:
Since I am nursing Jireh and he will be having a blood transfusion, I am juicing carrots, apple, and spinach to help build up his immunities.

blood

Off to Children's tomorrow. They will test Jireh's blood and make sure that his donor blood matches his. They do this before surgery to make sure Jireh's body does not reject it. Please pray for the blood. That the donor blood is pure and perfect for Jireh.

one week to go

Reality is striking hard. One more week and were off to Children's to really have this surgery done. honestly today I have been fighting the anxieties that pop up. I find myself getting weepy when I am holding Jireh and nursing him. I just look at his head and cherish this time of no scar. I kiss his sweet head and as the tears roll down my cheeks, I thank God for providing doctors for this surgery and a great hospital and most importantly for friends that are praying for our sweet boy. God is so good to us. May I have the strength to fight off the doubt and fears. Jireh is God's child and he is only loaned to me. Next friday I have to physically hand over Jireh and give him to the doctors. In my mind I will be handing him back over to God. I pray that God will give him back to me just hours later with a new and improved head. I pray that Jireh will go on to live a great life with a great story and that he will know the Lord at a young age and able to share the greatness of God.

learning how to read with daddy while waiting for the doctor to come in. One of the pre-op apppointments on Monday.

Jireh Malachi

Our little boy truly is a gift from God. Joyce and I prayed for three years about doing a vasectomy reversal and believed that God was calling us to correct a mistake I had done. As we looked into the cost of the procedure we were surprised by the cost. from $ 2,500.00 to $ 10,000.00. Not money that we had just saved up. So we prayed, and prayed, and prayed. In April of 2008, the Lord taped the money on our front door. LITERALLY! Praise God he did. As Moses had told Issac, Jehovah jireh, I knew what our little boys name would be if the Lord would allow us to get pregnant, and if it was a boy. I get to choose the name of the boys and Joyce gets to name the girls. Malachi means my messenger. I had felt that if God would allow us to have more children, then he might also have much to say to the world with the little life he was bringing forth. So that gives us Jireh malachi. As you may have read from Joyce's comments above, God is using Jireh to demonstrate himself to the world through all the medical procedures, the churches that are praying for him in the many states, and now through these pages as we walk with God daily and allow you to see and read. I pray this is an encouragement to you as you read.

Mike

For all of you who do not know what we are about to go through, let me tell you about it. Our sweet baby boy was born with craniosynostosis. Basically his skull is prematurely fused and is shaped like a football. He has to under go surgery to correct it. If we do not do surgery than he would have a head that would not allow his brain to grow normal and could cause some major problems in the future. Finding this news out was upsetting to say the least. But God has provided so much encouragement through other people that have gone through this same thing. We have already met a wonderful family in Idaho that walked this road 5 years ago. They shared with us all their pictures from start to current and there little boy is doing wonderful. We continue to put all our trust in the Lord and thank HIM daily for doctors that specialize in this area. So far, Children's hospital has been great. We are praying that our experience there will be good and that we can be light to others there as well. This is a journey we are on and we know that God has big plans for Jireh.
Please continue to pray for us. We know that we can only do this with the LORD'S strength.

home of the C's

Just getting started with blogging. Please be patient with us.