Thursday, February 2, 2012

UPDATE and PRAYER REQUEST


I know so many of you are praying for little CREW. He needs prayer more than ever now.

The surgery for tomorrow (Thurs)  was cancelled late this afternoon.  He has a yeast/fungal infection that would make the surgery too dangerous. 

I just had a long conversation  with his Mom and Grandmother.  You can imagine the emotional let down when you were so wanting to get it behind you, plus protect the bladder which is outside his body, to be put inside.

But there are even more complications.  There was such a large team of medical staff scheduled to perform the 10-12 hour surgery.

There were doctors coming from other places, anesthesiology  specialists for long surgeries, all marked out for tomorrow…so reassembling this team quickly will take a miracle. 

Keeping Crew well and infection free until that time is the biggest concern.
Please continue to pray for the family.  Just the logistics of being away from home are so hard. 

Crew in hospital

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

MY HEART


This will be the post that I will have to try not to drown the computer from tears pouring over it as I type.

Four years ago Amanda was packed and ready to head to the hospital to deliver my husbands little namesake…We were so honored that this boys name would be Jack Voss, named after both his grandfathers.

It was Super Bowl week and coincidentally Eli was the winner that next Sunday…and look who is playing this Sunday..

Parker had been “the one and only” for so long. 
Then Greg married Dana and Austin joined our family, BUT could I love another little boy the same. 

Parker had lived with us, he had grabbed my heart and I had held on tight.  That’s one I can’t explain.
 
Amanda and Micah were so gracious to let me stay in labor and delivery with them and be there when Jack made his entrance to the world. 

(My girl has babies easy) with no drama…I remember seeing his face and instantly falling head over heels in love…instantly…He was perfect..

we laugh now…if we had only known then how different his personality would be from Parker’s.
Parker is quite, Jack is loud.  On the third day he came home totally fine or so we thought…

I have written about what happened next but 2 days after he came home we were in the NICU with him fighting for his life.  He had meningitis.
I will always believe had Amanda not gone with a gut feeling something was wrong, we would have lost Jack. 

He was a very sick little man and we did not take a deep breath for a couple of weeks.  It was one of the scariest times of my life.

Today he turns 4!

Totally fine, the funniest kid ever, a laugh a minute, a strong willed child, a talker, a climber, a mess.  No one makes me laugh like him. 

He breaks things and he’s sorry but don’t make a huge deal about it because he doesn’t care that much. 
He puts stickers on everything and he has signed his name on a wall or two.  He is free spirit. 

You do not want to have a discussion with him in the toy aisle of Target.  He will win.  (At least with Grammy)

He does not like gul stuff…that’s girl in Jack language.  He really thinks he is Woody from Toy Story and don’t try to convince him he is not.
 
He thinks he speaks Spanish because he watches “Dora”!  He tells us certain words he says are in Spanish.
 
He hates talking on the phone so don’t call him. 

I cannot imagine life without him.  So today we are celebrating  the gift of Jack.  We call him our little hippie…

He has long hair with culs (curls)and he does not want them cut off.   The red on his nose in the picture below is because he decided he wanted to be Rudolph and proceeded to color his nose. 
Guess what?  He has my heart too.

Some of the many faces of Jack.

LOOK AT JACKS EYES....HE IS a LOVER
                        

new years jack

Jack rudolph


cute Jack 2


JackMobile

amanda and Jack

Alvin and Jack


Serious JackI LOVE YOU JACK STROTHER


On a very serious note, please pray for little Crew as he has his first surgery on Thursday at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
I was not sure what it would be and his Mom said it was fine to share the details.   
The first surgery will be very long.   
It will be to move the belly button up to the right place, putting the bladder in his body, breaking/dislocating (not sure which one they will have to do) the pelvis. He will have a scar from his belly button to the pelvic bone and he will be in a body cast from his chest down. His arms will be free. The cast is for his pelvis to heal and he will have it for 4-6 LONG weeks! It breaks my heart to think about it.  So please remember the entire family in prayer.
    
Crew and Marie


           Crew and his Mom Marie