Good News!

Tonight before leaving for church I called to check in one more time on R.J. and...... He was doing "GOOD". They had done another "wash out" and it went well. His temperature was down for the first time since the surgery on the 20th and....the P.T. came in and did a little physical therapy on his arms and legs and was astonished at how strong they were. I talked to him on the phone and was told that he had a big smile and was nodding his head with a big "yes".

My, My, My, what miracles. Everyday he is alive is a miracle. Nothing short of a miracle. He is still critical and I catch myself trying to guard my optimism, but you know what? I am witnessing a miracle and I just need to see it for what it is!

Praise be to my Father, great things He has done!

R.J. Another Day Another Miracle!

Well, he made it through the 5 day watch period! He has kept a temp of 100 to over 101 since the major surgery on the 20th. They took the breathing tube out yesterday! He is sleeping a lot. He is still here and he is still fighting. The prognosis is still "slim chance", but we do know that God is the chief physician and it is ultimately still in his hands. Please keep the prayers coming. Thank you so much for the prayers, the emails and the phone calls. Our family really appreciates it.

R.J.

Today, Thursday April 23rd our grandson is about to undergo another surgery. On Monday the surgeons did the "big one". They did six re-connections. Connecting the small bowel, the pancreas, the gallbladder, the colon (what's left of it). They had one shot to put things back together they didn't really want to do it that way, however time was running out. He was bleeding out from the lining getting deteriorated from all the leaking fluids in his body. The prognosis on Monday, was "very slim chance of surviving the next 5 days", if he does then half of the battle will be won.
They are going in today to see how the "hook-up" is holding. They are keeping him paralyzed so that nothing comes apart. We don't get to talk to him and get a response but we still talk to him and tell him how much we love him and that we are here.


O.K. he is back from surgery. All went well! From what they could see everything is holding together. He has to make it through the next two days and if he does then they say half of the battle is won.

They let him wake up, they took away the paralytic meds so now he is looking at us and responding very well. If all goes well they may take him off the ventilator tomorrow.
Please pray for us tomorrow. If he is off the ventilator and can talk and we may find out what happened to him. This will prove to be difficult and we are sure heart breaking.

It is hard to concentrate right now but I hope this gets you pretty much updated. Please keep the prayers coming.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying.

Update on R.J.

Since the previous blog R.J. has had 5 more surgeries. He is holding on to the good small bowel that is left. He is awake for the most part. The ventilator is turned off but still in. There is still swelling of the other organs and they cannot do reconstructive surgery in his abdomen until it is all gone. He has been open since the first surgery on April 1st. They are really needing to be able to reconstruct and close him up.

We really need your prayers. As soon as they take the tube out of his throat the detectives will question him. Please pray that we can be there. He is very safe and secure with us there. I am afraid he will be too afraid to tell the truth if we are not there to reassure him that he can come home with us when this is all over.

The surgeons are going (in) everyday and looking and as soon as the swelling is down enough they will start reconstruction. Therefore we will really have no warning it could be any time. The surgery will be 6-8 hours.

Our life as you can imagine is up in the air. We need to work, but our heart is to be with our grandson to help him recover and mostly to protect him. We don't know what happened, who hurt him and it is so very difficult to be 800 miles away. We are self-employed so we can get up and go without a boss to answer to. However, work has been basically non-existent since the first of the year. My husband is trying to do some small jobs enough to finance our trip back and stay there. Hotels and traveling is very expensive. Please pray for provisions so that we can be where we need to be.

I will update as soon as possible.

Thank you so much for your prayers. It is a miracle that our grandson is still with us. He is not "out of the woods" by any means, so we continue to need your prayers for R.J. We would love to be celebrating his 9th birthday with him here safe and sound.

Critically ill grandson...R.J.

R.J. is the red head! Connor-left, Malachi-front
Bryson-right

R.J., Malachi, and Austin - Spring Break 09

We have three grandsons who live in Lawton, Oklahoma. Until the middle of March we have not been able to see them for four years. My step-daughter left with them and wouldn't have any contact with us. I know you're wondering why, well if we knew I would tell you. The father has called us throughout this time period keeping us informed about their welfare and such. It is a tough situation. Misty, my step-daughter did not come in to our lives until 1999. We got to know her and love her and she made us grandparents. We absolutely loved and adored our grandchildren. She got mad one day and up and left and until March we had not spoken with her.

However, we have prayed continually for our grandsons, their well-being and most importantly their salvation. Just days after my husband felt like he really petitioned God more earnest than ever before; we received a phone call from Misty. She said she was having problems with the oldest boy R.J. (he is 8) and would we consider taking him for his spring break. Well, we couldn't wait. We drove and met them in Arkansas and picked up R.J.

We had a great week. This boy had no behavioral problems at all. We had a house full of kids that week and there were no problems whatsoever. The week ended too soon and his mother came to get him on Friday, March 20th, (my birthday, no less) It took 2 hours for us to calm him from his sobbing and begging not to leave. It tore our hearts out. Later that night we talked to him and he said he was okay, and he promised to be good so that he could come stay all summer with MeMe and Poppa.

God answered our prayers in March. Little did we know that there was tragedy to follow. Nevertheless, we know God is in control, he knows are hearts desires for these boys and we are praying for His will to be done. God is working on our behalf for us to be able to be in their lives.
Sometimes answered prayers are not simple and sweet sometimes it is very painful. "God, we believe, help thou our unbelief"

We were on our way to the airport Wednesday, to pick up my mother-in-law when we got a call that R.J. was being air-lifted from Lawton, OK to Oklahoma Universty. We got Jimmy's mom went to the house threw very few things in to a bag and left. We got here at 9:00 am on Thursday morning to find that he was here not because he was sick and his stomach had been perforated "as we were told", but instead it was a blunt force trauma, still under investigation. The other two boys Connor and Bryson are in protective custody. My husband along with the parents are in Lawton, OK now trying to see the boys and see if they can be released to our care. Rusty was in Iraq and got here Friday night, therefore, we are hoping they will release them to his custody.

There is so much so I will try only to cover the medical issues and you can just use your imagination at how we are dealing with the questions of who did this to our grandson.

The injury was so severe that his small intestine was totally ripped apart from his stomach. It had been in this state for 24-30 hours before receiving medical attention. He died once on the flight and was revived. He then was not able to make it to the children's unit of the university so the pediatric surgeons literally ran to the other side and had to open him up right there in E.R. to save his life and stop the bleeding. We have done through 2 more surgeries since then. They actually do the surgeries in his hospital room in PICU because it is too dangerous for him to be moved. The surgeries are explatory/cleaning surgeries. His stomach is still open with a wound vac inside. Friday they found more dead bile and had to remove it, the surgeon said no more can die or we will have to let him go. The chaplain came in during the middle of the surgery to prepare us that he was probably not going to make it.

He made it!

He had surgery again Sunday morning, they removed part of his colon that had died. He did well through that surgery.

He is on dialysis, ventilator and chest tubes, and multiple drains and tubes all in him. His liver is in bad shape but has improved in the last 24 hours.

They are keeping him paralyzed because it is too dangerous for him to be awake. However, for them to get a feel for his awareness underneath the drugs, they backed it off for a few minutes and he looked at us and got too excited his blood pressure went way too high. They had to quickly put him back under. But for a brief moment he looked straight into Poppa's eyes and he squeezed and held on to his MeMe's hand.

This is all I can handle right now. We sure do covet your prayers. We don't know who hurt this baby and the detectives have not gotten anywhere .

Please pray that the truth is revealed and that we can give these boys a home of love and protection.

Love you

Lora