First ZOO trip!

Overbrook school for the blind had an activity at the Philadelphia Zoo today so we decided to go to it. Josiah and I decided that by the time we spent what we would have to to pay for my Mom and the nurse to go with us, plus parking we are half way to a year round pass so we got the pass. Now we can go whenever we want all year round, we can take two people with us each time for free and we don't have to pay for parking (plus you get discount in the gift shop but I don't like to spend money anyways...).

First animals JayDonn saw - some monkeys! Boys were his eyes big!

Grandma S and Jay looking at animals (the red mark on his head is from him coming down the ramp - Dillon's style minus the towel for the head!)

Dillon and some bats - yuck!

Dillon and the Tortoise (Miss Katie - Dillon vision teacher is there holding Jay too)

Me and my boys! (with a big lion in the back ground!)

MORE PICTURES TOMORROW! my camera started to die so my vision teach took some on hers and is giving them to me tomorrow....

Prayer requests

Hello Everyone,
I do have some prayer requests. Dillon's last EEG showed 30-40 seizures in a 24 hour period. They decided to increase the fat in his diet to try to reduce the seizures more - but instead I am seeing an increase. I am not sure why; it could be due to teething pain, or it could be the extra secretions from the vest chest PT, or it could be the diet change. So we are going to give it 10-14 days to see if the diet will "kick in" and start decreasing them. If it doesn't we will try going back to the original diet. Then if that doesn't work the doctor wants to start talking about going back on drugs. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Not the drugs that make him so out of it that he might as well be in a coma! Not the drugs that take away the little personality we do see in him. Not the drugs that have horrible side effects!

I was telling Josiah about it and what he told me is this: "He needs stem cell treatment asap.
Pray everyday. With you mom and Robin that the rest of the money will come in so we can get this done asap"

So I will - will you? Will you pray everyday with us that God will provide this money soon so we can get this done? Dillon needs to have this done soon. What an answer to prayer this has been so far. I mean come on - God brought in almost half of the money already surely He will bring in the rest! Think of how exciting it has been to see God answer my prayers, I can't wait to see Him bring in the rest. Do you want to be blessed? If so - join us in praying everyday and watch at how God is going to answer!

The things I am praying for:

1. The rest of the money to be provided soon
2. The stem cells will help reduce (or stop) the seizures and help improve his vision (AT LEAST!)
3. That the passports would arrive in record time! (we go Sat 25 to apply and it is supposed to take 4-6 weeks)
4. Pray for Dillon's Journey to be translated into Chinese to be taken with us
5. Pray that if it is God's will for someone to be able to go with me the money would be provided for that as well. (There is no nursing care provided - without help I will have to do 24-7 care)

Thank you! I'll keep you updated!

More Blessings

Saturday Josiah took my Dad to his work place as my Dad is in school for IT right now. My Mom, the kids and I went to the King of Prussia mall for a little bit. Then we decided to go to a cheese stake place instead of eating in the mall. When we got there a man came up to us and said, "You were here a few weeks ago and left a story. I read it and have been praying for him!." Josiah took me here right after my wisdom teeth were pulled and I didn't really get to eat so he took me back. It turns out this man was one of the owners of the restaurant. When we went to pay his brother, the other owner, told us our food was on the house "Happy Easter!" That was so nice of them!

While we were eating a man walked up to us and asked what was wrong with Dillon. I started telling him about the CP and how he wasn't breathing when he was born. He then asked, "Do you have any information about him?" I gave him "Dillon's Journey" the story of his life. He then asked me if there were any extra expenses we need help with? I started to tell him about the cord blood stem cells we want to try in China. He asked how much money are we looking to raise, I told him $25,000. He said oh that isn't a problem, I am with Sons of Italy and we just raised 40,000 for someone. He took my name and phone number and said someone would contact me soon. Please pray this would work out to help us with the rest of the money!

Extended family picture for Easter (my parents)

Our family!

Blessings/ What is faith?

I love when I can post a blog of blessings!

1. My wisdom teeth are healing and I am not in pain any more!
2. We were able to join Valley Forge Baptist Temple a few weeks ago!
3. Josiah's sister and then his parents were able to spend some time with us!
4. Dillon's volunteers have been coming faithfully and are such a blessing to our family!
5. Dillon's Nurse has been the most faithful nurse we have ever had, she is so sweet. We love her so much!
6. We have heard back from China about the stem cells - they got my first application and are going to tell me what other medical records they need for Dillon to be able to get stem cells!
7. My parents arrived in from Ohio yesterday. My dad is leaving on Sunday and my Mom will be staying with us for 4-6 weeks. My mom is here to help with the kids as Dillon's court case is planning to start on April 27 and last two to three weeks. It is going to be an emotional time and hard to hear everything rehashed in detail again. I have "lived" that day so many times since then, but this will be a lot. The court may get put back a little - we should know on Monday. Please do be praying for the outcome of this as well as Josiah and I as we attend everyday!
8. Dillon was approved for his medical bed! There is one little thing holding it up but I am praying we should get it in a week or two.
9. Dillon was given a 30 day trial of a new machine called the vest. It arrived yesterday! I have a video of it below. It does chest PT to help break up secretions. If at the end of 30 days the doctor and I think it is helping the company will help get the insurance to approve it.
   

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST.....

WE HAVE ABOUT HALF OF THE MONEY NEEDED FOR DILLON'S TRIP TO CHINA FOR STEM CELLS PLEDGED!

What is faith? I was asking my self this earlier this week. I was asking how do I have faith? Is it a feeling? Or is it a decision? Is it something I can just say "I'm going to do this!"? I was thinking of the verse in Mark 9:24 that says "And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." So if unbelief is something to be helped, then it must be something we can decide to do. It was easy for me to have faith that God would bring in the money when I thought it would only be about 6,000 but then when we did research and decided the cleanest, best place to go was China and that he would get 4 times as many treatments, but that it would also cost 4X as much - I didn't have faith. I had enough faith to believe in 6K but not enough faith to believe in 25K. I kept thinking to myself, what fund raiser can I do? I need to do this one, AND that one, AND this and that, etc. if I am going to get enough money. But then I just kept ending with, "Lord! I CAN'T do this! I can't raise the money! Only You can do this Lord, I have to depend only on You!"

Josiah kept telling me to just do what I need to do, that God will provide the money. I decided he was right! I ordered Dillon's birth certificate and got it on Thursday. We also went to CVS on Thursday to get photos for passports. I just have to schedule a time to go apply for the passports now. But as soon as I started to put ACTION behind my faith - God moved! You see, on Tuesday one of my volunteers asked a friend of hers if he could help us fund raise some money. On Thursday she called and told me he had several thousand, yesterday she called and told me he raised even more!

I guess I am learning that faith is a decision you have to make, and that when you really have faith there will be actions behind it. When God sees our faith He moves! And as the verses in Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us," Thank you if you are praying for God to provide this money for us to be able to try stem cell therapy with Dillon. Please keep praying, God is answering your prayers! I am so glad to be able to share some of our blessing with you since I know so many of you go to the Lord in prayer on our behalf everyday!

The Vest that Dillon just got yesterday! It seems to help him cough up thick yellow stuff - which is good because it means that stuff is no longer sitting in his lungs!

JayDonn wearing an outfit Aunty Hannah bought him!

Last Saturday they both fell asleep! Aren't they sweet!

Jay LOVED Daddy's motorcycle! (No, he didn't go for a ride...thankfully!)