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!)

I lost 1/2 my wisdom!

Well I didn't lose my wisdom - they dug it out of my jaw! I had my lower to wisdom teeth pulled this morning. One was fully impacted and the other one was partially impacted and causing me a LOT of pain for almost 2 weeks now. They wanted to take all four but it would have been 500 since insurance wouldn't pay for the other two until they become a "medical" problem. So we opted to just do two for now. Josiah has had only his bottom two out for about 8 years and not had problems yet. They said it may be 10 years but sooner or later they will start to be a problem because they will keep dropping since they have no teeth to bite onto and stop.

I felt them put the IV in my then a few seconds later I was out! Then when I woke I was hiccuping. I sat up in the recovery room a few minutes later and almost passed out so they ran more fluids. My heart rate dropped to about 45. I was able to come home and eat a little yogurt with crushed up medicine in it. I then slept for 2 hours. When I got up I thought I felt pretty good so I cam down stairs and a few moments later I about passed out again and had to quick lay down. I have been up since, I feel pretty good other than the fact that my lower lip and chin are so numb I can't tell when my spoon is touching it, or when I have yogurt on it, or even when I am drooling!

Dillon's nurse is so sweet and is helping me today! She is wonderful! I don't know what I would do without her! I am so thankful the Lord brought her into our lives! Mrs. J also brought us a meal - soup! Perfect for me. I was able to eat a little of that already too. Thank you so much Mrs J!

Hopefully this numbness will go away soon and I am praying I won't swell too much...Sunday is probably going to be the worse day for swelling and we are supposed to stand in front of the church to join on Sunday morning!! So please don't laugh at my chipmunk cheeks! Ahhhh! Oh well. When you think to pray for me, please also pray for my mom - she got a tooth pulled today too!

Home Sweet Home!

We are home - Praise the Lord! Dillon is doing MUCH better. His color is good, his temperature is good, and he seems very relaxed. He is on room air (no oxygen) and doing good. They did not want to do the sleep study tonight because he was still a little sick and they do not want it to look like his tonsil has to come out if it doesn't really need to. We are rescheduled for April 20th.

EEG results - sorry I didn't post them sooner. The long movements that the doctors thought were seizures were NOT seizures those movements were just that - movements. He did have 30-40 short seizures in 18 hours but they were self limiting and very short (some were only a second or two) We may need to make some adjustments to his diet but no medication is needed! Praise the Lord! He may have had more since he was still sick too. But at least he is not having prolonged seizures! Answer to prayer!!! Now, if only I could get the doctors to LISTEN to me and stop drugging him.... oh well I guess I need the sign above his bed again that says 'HUGS NOT DRUGS!" ;-)

Needing sleep...thankful though for all the help we had a couple visitors and my sister in law. THANK YOU! Thank you for all who called/emailed etc.

Thank you for praying. Dillon is doing ok today. Last night the doctors thought he had a 30 minute long seizure and gave him 3 doses of heavy duty seizure drugs. I do not believe it was a seizure, even though I was at the Ronald McDonald house and did not see it. From what they described to me it sounds like Dillon was just trying to move from his back to his belly and as he was not able to he was getting upset and they misread that to be a seizure. We will never know for sure, but Dillon has never had a 30 minute long seizure before. Praise the Lord he is active and lifting his head again (normally those drugs leave him in la-la land for up to a couple of days!)

I was able to show the doctors who are on for tonight this movement and show them how he calmed right down when you sit him up or put him on his belly so I am praying they will not use drugs unnecessarily.

He is still wheezing and have a hard time keeping his lungs clear of secretions so I think we will be here several more days. (I had 2 hours of sleep then was waken to the "seizure" thing for 3 hours then got 2.5 more hours of sleep! I'm Tired!) Saturday my sister in law was planning to come so she will be here to help. Friends from Church had Jay on Wed and that was a big blessing! Several other people have offered to help with Jay...this is such a blessing to me! It is so wonderful to know there are people willing to help if I need them! Thank you!!

Please just keep praying for all of us. Jay is getting better, but now I am also getting sick. :-(

Dillon Update - RSV

Dillon got to his room and all settled around 4am. His fever was not coming down below 102.4 so they had to give him a different fever reducer which did bring it down somewhat. His test just came back positive for RSV. He did well in the night over all. We are trying to get a room Ronald McDonald House tonight if there are any available. Thank you for praying for him, I would imagine we will probably be here several days until they are sure his fever is under control and now with the RSV he will need to be watched closely.


Note: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children. RSV causes infection of the lungs and breathing passages.

Dillon is in CHOP

Today Dillon's fever jumped to 103.5 so when Tylenol didn't bring it down we brought him to the ER at CHOP. They are going to admit Dillon to the pulmonary floor. Since he had such a high fever, diarrhea, vomiting, lots of secretions, and since JayDonn is still sick they want to keep Dillon here to keep on eye on him. His blood was very thick - so he is probably a little dehydrated. They are starting IV fluid and will start the IV form of antibiotic. They think his chest X-ray is showing pneumonia again too. His oxygen levels are doing pretty good so that is a blessing! He is very tired and limp, though.

JayDonn still is sick too, his fever has been around a 100 or less though. He was eating some today and being stubborn so I think he is on the mend...at least I pray he is since he has been really sick for about 5 days now....

Thank you for praying for us, we need it! :-) Josiah is going to be tired for work tomorrow so please pray for strength and safety for him. I'll update tomorrow sometime...

Think BIG - Pray BIG - Rejoice BIG!

I haven't updated in a while - so please bear with me on a long post.

Health Update: Let me start by saying that Dillon is feeling better. He seems to be fully recovered. The ER called me a few days later and told me he had the flu. Who knew?! JayDonn has the flu now. He has had very little to eat for 4 days, he has been vomiting and all too. He has been drinking a lot though. Last night his fever was 102. He is not active at all, all he wants to do is sit with us on our laps. My little man is sick and it is so hard to see him this way.

Answer to Prayer: We have been fighting the insurance company for over a year for a medical bed for Dillon so he won't get stuck in the crib slats when he has seizures. They kept telling me no - to just put bumper pads around the crib. Finally last week we got a phone call "You have been approved for the sleep safe bed!" AMEN!!! Click HERE to see what this bed is like. This is a huge huge blessing.

We had an awesome time in the House of God last week for a 3-day revival meetings with Evangelist Morris Gleiser. His messages were excellent. The weekend before I was heart broken and discouraged. (again....) Dillon has been doing some things that I am not sure what it is, but don't like the looks of it. He has been trying to turn himself into a backwards "C" (the back of his head and his heels are trying touch). His legs are also getting tighter and tighter and sometimes crossing at the ankles. I was discouraged. Hours and hours of therapy and this is still happening. Then we went into the mini revival - just what I needed. Bro. Gleiser's message on PRAYER was straight from God for me. Please click on the link on the word prayer and listen to it. It is very good. It will convict you, challenge you, and encourage you.

I can think BIG - I can dream BIG, but do I expect God to answer my prayers? Hummm. Do YOU expect God to answer your prayers or do you fall into the trap I do of praying but having doubt that God will answer you? Bro Gleiser used the story of when Peter was in jail and they were holding a prayer meeting (Tiffany version)...
"God please get Peter get out of jail! We need him Lord! Please make it possible for him to get out of jail!"
knock, knock, knock.
"Hey everyone, it's Peter!"
"Shhh be quiet girl, it can't be Peter, he is in jail. God, please will you get Peter out of there?"
"But he is out! He's here!"

They weren't expecting God to answer their prayer. God wants us to have faith that He hears us and will answer us. I have seen this in my life. I have been praying for over a month now that God would provide a way for us to do umbilical cord stem cells therapy with Dillon. (I'll explain all about it in another post) This therapy is very very expensive and not covered by insurance. I have been praying, "God, please if this is something you want us to do, You will have to provide the money! I don't have it!" I kept thinking of the song that says My Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. My Father owns everything on this Earth - if He wants us to have the $25,000 to do this therapy He CAN and WILL provide it. I did not tell people about my prayers. I think I told Josiah and I told my nurse. I was telling her, well If I am praying this way I need to start working on getting passports because I know He is going to answer and I better be ready for it. And I actually DID believe He was going to provide it!

Well, I am humbled to tell you, that a family who did not know anything of my prayers came to us a little over a week ago and told us they are making a major donation towards this umbilical cord stem cell therapy we wanted to try with Dillon. AMEN! What an answer to prayer! I was so excited, not just because of the money - although that donation made me speechless - not just because of the generosity of this sweet young couple - because I am so humbled that people would be so giving and selfless to try to help my family - but because this was a specific prayer request that I had brought before God and He answered! I want to continue live this way. I want to take a need before God and wait - expectantly - for His answer. There are sometimes my request will not be in His will, but sometimes it will be and I want to see Him work in my life and make it so clear that it is of Him!

Last Tuesday I took some cans to some local stores to see if I could place it there asking the community for help to provide the money to go. Today Friendly's in Pottstown called me to tell me to come get my can - it was getting full! They told me I can keep it there for as long as I want. I am praying that God will provide the money if He wants us to go to China for stem cells. I can't make it happen. I can't make people give. I can't go out and work to make it as that would not be good for my family. I can't earn it from home - I have tried to do my own business time and time again and God has proven to me that those truly were my own business - He wasn't in them or blessing them. However, in a little more than a weeks time He has provided just over 25% of the money we need!

God has been teaching me lesson after lesson ever since my precious little boy came into this world. I think He might be teaching me how to pray and expect Him to answer me. To have faith, to have a REAL prayer life. Not a prayer life of "God thank you for this food, bless it to our bodies. Be with us today. Amen." No, not that, but a real prayer life where I can talk with Him and know He is listening to me. To have real faith - the kind of faith that the Bible says can move mountains. And believe me - raising over $25,000 for Dillon and I to go to China for about a month, and for me to be brave enough to go, would be moving mountains - at least in my books it is!

I promise I will gather info together for you all soon on the cord blood stem cells and put it in another post. I don't know how to end this post other than to say will you pray with me? Not only for the money to come in, and not just that we would see some real improvement in Dillon after the therapy, but also that my faith would grow in all this. That my life would be forever changed after seeing God work in such a might way.

Think BIG - Pray BIG - Rejoice BIG!

From the ER...

Last night Dillon's nurse called off and he spiked a fever with heart rate around 240. We got the fever down with medicine and took him to the doctor today. She sent us right up to CHOP's ER. We have been here since 6pm. Dillon will be going home very soon though. Everything came back fine (chest X-Ray, blood tests, etc.) We are still waiting on a blood culture and urine culture but they feel we can go home. The doctor was also concerned b/c when she touched his lower right stomach area he moaned. This is the area of the apendix (sp?) so she wanted to be sure there was nothing going on with that. The belly X-ray and CBC (blood work) did not show anything.

We still don't know why Dillon' s has been having fevers for 9 days even though he has been on antibiotics for 7 days, but maybe it is just a virus. We have to see our doctor in Paoli tomorrow.

Gotta go they are letting him go now at 12:45am

Dillon is Sick Again...

Friday evening I started to feel sick - a lot of sinus stuff. Saturday Dillon started to come down with it. He had a ton of extra secretions. On Sunday he threw up. On Monday he threw up twice and after the first time he coughed for about 15 minutes straight. This is our sign - he aspirated. (Food went into his lungs) Last night he had fevers over 99 which is very high for him who is normally in the 96's. He was breathing heavy last night and was just clearly miserable. Today we took him to the doctor. He has pneumonia in his middle right lobe and and an ear infection in the left ear. He is back on antibiotics. However, every time he goes on the antibiotic he gets a horrible yeast rash. Last time it was raw, bleeding, very painful, and left his skin discolored for about 3 months. The doctor also gave us a higher strength anti-yeast cream this time.

Please be praying for him. He is so tired he isn't moving at all. He is only whimpering a little. The poor little guy. My hear breaks for him. He goes through this about 3 times a year. He can't handle the throw up so where you and I would normally be a little sick he ends up REALLY sick! I had NO idea he had an ear infection - we probably wouldn't have known till it started to bleed because he has NO way for showing me. My heart breaks for everything Dillon can't do. But he is in God's hands and God directs us for him. He let us know Dillon needed to see the doctor. Praise the Lord for that!

After the first doctor appointment we had to go to Philly for a neuro check up. He hasn't lost weight but he hasn't gained since September so they are going to increase his food a little. All his blood work came back good. They are pleased over all with how he is doing they don't even need to see him again for a whole year!! :-)

Thank you for praying for Dillon. While you are praying for him- I have a friend who has a 1 year old girl who is in the hospital with pneumonia as well - hers is from RSV though. Please pray for them too!! I know they would appreciate it.

Tuesday Time Together

Last night after Daddy came home from work we had a great time together. JayDonn was wrestling with Daddy on the floor and laughing so hard. Then we put Dillon on Daddy and he enjoyed laying on Daddy's chest. He fell right a lseep on the steady rhythm on Daddy breathing in and out. Then we did a little cleaning.

Daddy and Jay cleaning the stove

JayDonn helping Daddy wash dishes

Dillon and Mommy vaccuuming the carpet
Not the best picture of me, but at least you can see Dillon good. He seemed to enjoy walking around with me like this!

A little later Dillon and JayDonn were playing together on the sofa.They are so sweet together....

More together time....


And no - Jay is not always so sweet. Here I am asking him to kiss Dillon....

Josiah and Tiffany Update

Ps 118:22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. 23 This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

Everything good in our lives is because of God. It is God alone who is to be praised. The Lord is blessing us and leading us over these last several weeks. God's work is something we cannot orchestrate of our own accord. It is all God's doing. His timing is impeccable and we wanted to share with you what God is doing in our lives. God has brought several people across our path from Valley Forge Baptist Temple.

On Monday, January 19th our nursing agency sent us a nurse who lives 3 blocks away from us. She is a member of Valley Forge Baptist.

It was Tuesday, January 20th, God led us to resign membership from LVBC - in the weeks leading up to this we knew it may come to this although this is not what we had personally desired. The same day Josiah's Director and Supervisor at work praised him for the good job he was doing which doesn't happen every week or even every month. To God be the glory! It's because of Him that Josiah can do anything at all.

Wednesday, A kind man at our former church called me up and told me he's been out of the loop as he's been in Jr. Church, but he loves us and wants to still fellowship with us. He recommended that I check out Valley Forge Baptist. He works with 3 Christian men who are members there and one of them, Mr. G, has a son who is a missionary to Honduras out of their church.

Wednesday evening we went there and 2 of the men greeted us and said that they were told to be expecting us.

Thursday - Friday several people from church called or wrote to tell me they are sad to see us leave, but that they will be praying for us. They said it doesn't matter which house of God we attend as long as we are serving the Lord, we will always be brothers and sisters in Christ. Interesting enough another brother also recommended VFBT to us.

Saturday, we just so "happened" to bump into Mr and Mrs G at the store and they invited us over for dinner Sunday afternoon. We found they also only live blocks from our house! It was a blessing to see Mrs. G in public dressed in a Godly manner in a dress and buying modest shirts/skirts for their 11 year old daughter.

Sunday, we had a blessed time in the house of the Lord and sweet fellowship with the brethren there at VFBT. They had a baptism in the morning service and had 2 missionaries there and the church voted to take them both on for support.

Tuesday, January 22, Pastor Greg Joyner and his wife came visited us for about an hour and a half. It was very encouraging what they believe and the standards they hold and the leadership covenant they have to hold leadership and serving members up to a higher standard so as to be above reproach. They also have a Bible Institute and full-time 2-3 year internships for pastors in training and missionaries in training who have already completed Bible Institute and/or Bible College. You get to shadow the pastors on a rotating basis for this entire time. He also explained how you must be a member for at least a year before you could begin teaching Sunday School, Preaching at the Prisons and Nursing Homes, or things like that. Till then you can be involved at visitation, in the choir, ushering, etc. It was very encouraging.

We've been praying God would direct and make it clear which church he wants us to join.

Wednesday evening we had snow/ice storm. We went to the other church that we had wanted to check out since it was closer. The Pastor there is very good, but they are allowing members to read from the NKJV and allowing members to preach and lead singing who do not come on Wednesday evenings. Pastor Joyner said they do work with this Pastor sometimes but would consider themselves to be more conservative.The Lord has thus far made it clear he wants us at VFBT.


This is all because of God. To God be the glory! Mt 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

JayDonn Update

Let's see, where do we start here? On friday JayDonn got four shots at the doctor. He is now done until he is four years old though. It was so cute, after the shots I gave him some of the ice coffee and he stopped crying!

Tuesday night we had visitors from the church we visited (more on that in Dad and Mom update which I will do later). JayDonn was showing off for them and decided to walk up the ramp - only he wasn't looking where he was going. He walked right into the side of the ramp and fell and hit his face of the side board. He, of course, was crying so I ran over to pick him up. I moved his hand and saw blood. I yelled for Si who rushed him into the kitchen and washed the blood so wee could see the source. It was then we saw a hole in his lip where his tooth must have punched right through. We thought we were going to have to take him to the ER for stitches so I ran and got the baby Tylenol. As soon as he tasted the Tylenol he stopped crying. I called my brother in law who is an EMT and asked what he thought we should do. He said if the bleeding stopped we are probably fine, unless it starts to bleed again. Right after getting the tylenol he wanted down to play and ran right for the ramp! The bleeding did stop quickly and I gave him some frozen fruit to suck on to bring down the swelling. The rest of the night he played as though nothing happened! He does have a swollen lip, but other than that he is fine! Here is his picture after the incident. :-)

Yesterday we went outside to play in the snow. It was JayDonn's first time in the snow. Last year it melted before I could get him out so this was fun for Mommy and Jay. Enjoy some of the picutres....

Sledding down the basment doors. He didn't seem to like it as every time I asked him if he wanted to do it again he said very firmly "no!"

This was the snowman Jay and Mommy made. Jay didn't care about it at all until the face was put on, then he wanted to kiss it.

This is pretty much all for Jay. We are still working slowly on potty training him and that is going well.

JayDonn throwing snowballs!

JayDonn's first snowman!

JayDonn's First time playing in the snow!

Dillon Update

Dillon has been doing very well, dispite the fact that we have not patterned him since last Thursday.

Blessing #1: He has even started this thing where sometimes he will coo when we show him his pictures! When I turn the picutre he coos again. When I take them away he stops. When I show him again, he does it again. Robin and I are thrilled as we have seen this several times and fully believe he is telling us he is seeing something. Do you know what this means?? He is starting to communicate a little bit to us!!!!! Please pray for this to continue and to get better each day!

Blessing #2: Dillon even starting to kick his way down the ramp again a little bit this week. Not as well as before Christmas but still he is starting to get better.

Not a blessing - but an update: Last Friday we had to take him to Quest for blood work. Due to the diet he is on the doctor needs to run a lot of tests - about 13, which means about 13 vials needed filled. The phlebotomists were having a hard time finding a vein. They stuck him once and didn't get a vein. The second time they got it, but only got enough for 8 of the tests. They stuck him again, and did not get a vein. On Monday we went back with Dillon very well hydrated. They stuck him and DUG for quite a while (when asked they told me this doesn't hurt. Robin had to leave the room because it made her mad since she knows it does hurt!) They were not able to get any blood so they tried the other arm and got a tiny little bit - enough for one of the remaining 5 tests. They stuck him once again and didn't get anything. Needless to say his arms are quite bruised! We are working at making him appointment with the children's hospital of Philadelphia in King of Prussia to let them try to draw it. These were taken today, Thursday and the blood was drawn Monday and last Friday

Extra Special blessing: Today when Mrs B came to help with Dillon she told me a friend of hers wanted Dillon to be able to get a proper pattern table that he will fit on. So she gave us enough money, anonymously, that we will be able to get a very nice table for him! Thank you so much, this is such a blessing to me! I can't believe how nice people are, and how generous they are. Thank you whoever you are!!

This about covers Dillon's updates!

Nurse Robin giving Dillon some "me time" as she calls it. He LOVES when she rubs his head he coos! It is great!

Protest tax dollars funding abortion

Obama lifts ban, will use your tax dollars to pay for abortions around the world


January 23, 2009
Dear Josiah,
President Obama has lifted a ban on federal funding for international groups that promote or perform abortions, reversing a policy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.Obama's actions mean that hundreds of millions of your tax dollars will go to help groups like Planned Parenthood perform abortions around the world.
His actions came one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states.


Please take the action suggested below. It will not cause Obama to reverse his decision, but it will send a notice to him that unborn babies are human and deserve the same rights as the born.
Take Action!

Send an e-mail to Obama asking him to stop funding the killing of unborn children.

After you send the e-mail, please make a phone call (202-456-1414) and leave a message that you strongly disagree with Obama's using tax dollars to fund abortion. ***I just made the call. It was VERY easy. After calling that number choose opt 1 then opt 1 again. Then wait till they answer you. They take NO personal info they just count how many negative vs positive comments. If you have other family in the room tell them how many people are there and agree with you. They counted two for me (me and my nurse).PLEASE CALL! It is worth 2 minutes to show the President that we do not agree with his actions! Tiffany****


Thank you for taking a few minutes to help with this!

Modern Convenience?

I am so thankful for the modern conveniences we have today. They usually make life so much easier...usually. Right before we got married Josiah bought a new washing machine for his new bride. It worked great - saved me hours of doing laundry by hand. However, in about three years it broke and was going to cost about $400 to fix! So he decided to buy his wife a new one instead that was reduced in price because of dents. So he did. And 6 months later it is broken!

AHHHH!!! Why do my washing machines break so soon when other people tell me they have had their for 10-20 years?? I mean I know I do a LOT of laundry but common!

Ready for the blessing though - this one is still covered under the warranty so it will all be free to get it fixed. I just have to wait for that to happen and let my laundry build, build, build. Thankfully I was almost all caught up when it broke so it isn't like I have a mountain already.

Laundry mat you and I are about to meet!

With Broken Hearts....

A lot has been happening the last few weeks in our lives, most of which I will not go into. But the result was we have resigned membership at our church. Josiah has been there for around 19 years and I have been there 6 years. I got saved during Bro Edminston's preaching and Bro. Reeder's testimony there. I met my husband there. We were married there. Dillon was born there. We wept with friends and survived the NICU while there. JayDonn was born there and we rejoiced with everyone there. I have met so many good friends there. I love the people there so much. Unfortunately, we saw some sin going on and after many attempts to have this sin dealt with - it was not. Therefore, after spending much time in prayer, reading our Bibles, fasting, and seeking Godly counsel, we have decided it was time for us to move on and serve God in another church.

God has become more real to me in the last few weeks than He ever was before. I was praying for Him to intervene so that things could be made right with everyone and God, I was searching the scriptures to see if there was wickedness in my heart. I saw my husband, my friend, and myself all repent of sins to the person we hurt. God brought a revival to our hearts! Even though it had to come because of a hard time. I think true revival does come in hard times, because it is THEN that we see how dependant we are on God and we turn to Him for the answers. A friend wrote a song with these words (almost exact not sure if 100% exact though); “If I never faced a rain storm, I would never seek for shelter. If I never had a problem, Lord, I would never seek you for an answer.” Praise the Lord His Word holds the answer! Praise the Lord He hears our prayers! Praise the Lord He never left me even when I felt so sad and cried at the friendships I might lose. He is faithful, He is just, and if we will take the step of faith and obey what He has told us to do – He will take care of us.


We love the people there and will miss them all greatly. For all you at church who are so faithful to read about Dillon and JayDonn, please do not stop. I still want to hear from you, I still want to know about how your families are doing. God has clearly directed us away at this time, but we hold no anger, bitterness, or hard feelings against anyone there. We are leaving with broken hearts, but we are trusting God as we take this next step. We are excited to see how God is going to use us from here.

(I also wanted to Praise the Lord for this- Our night nurse's daughter did NOT die! She had surgery and isn't doing great but is slowly getting better from what I understand! Pray we can be a witness to him at this time.)

Nurse update

I want to Praise the Lord for bringing our night nurse back. We just found out that he is back from Africa and can start on Monday night. So we don't have a nurse till then but then we will have all our nights covered again. The lady from the agency said that in talking with him she thinks his sick daughter may have died so please pray for him. I am not sure if this is true or not, but please be praying for him just in case.

Once again, I also want to thank the Lord for our day nurse Robin! I can't thank God enough for her. She is so great to us! She goes far above and beyond what she is required to do to help me care for the boys and my house. She always helps me with my laundry, dishes, and cleaning. I am so thankful to her. Her husband teases her sometimes and asks "where are you going today? To your girlfriend's house?" heehee but it is like having a friend here. It isn't like having a "nurse" in my house, she is like a friend.
So...just in case your computer is finally working Robin -

THANK YOU ROBIN FOR ALL YOU DO FOR US!!