Friday Noon - A Josiah Update

I know, I know ... finally a post :)

There really hasn't been anything new to report since our last post on Tuesday. We're in one of those 'maintain' phases where we're Josiah's cheerleaders, cheering him on to sleep and growth. Josiah has been able to adjust more or less to his large breathing tube and does have long stretches of rest, but he still has the problem with lots of secretions and obvious irritation. Just this morning from 9:30 - 10:30 he had to be suctioned 4-5 times because he kept on coughing up more spit and mucus and had some irregular breathing/body language - basically wasn't crying but couldn't settle down at all. It was very sad and hard to watch and it left me praying a lot, but I think he's been resting since 11:00.

Continue to pray for us, for wisdom to make the right decisions in all of this. Mostly, pray for Josiah's healing: God says with faith He will heal, right? So get your faith on and keep praying for healing! God creates, sustains, and restores and I'm convinced he wants to heal everyone, including our Josiah. Pray for patience on our behalf: God has been doing many amazing things during this period - challenging people's faith, revealing himself to those who don't know him, allowing us to be an encouragement to others, having Josiah's story told around the world (and I'm not exagerrating) - but we are at that point where we are saying "Enough God! Fix this! We can't take anymore!" Perfectly normal feelings I know, and it's right: WE can't take it any more, but God grants us just enough strength, courage, and faith to make it through our days. Sometimes just barely enough, but enough.

So yes, patience :) Patience to wait on God's planning and timing, patience in not trying to guess God's miracle or to hastily act in carelessness. God has demostrated over and over again his 'perfect timing' in Josiah's life and we are waiting anxiously for this next big 'perfect timing' when God will enable Josiah to breathe on his own.

My church has bought me a laptop to continue in my job here while I'm at the hospital, probably the largest reason why I haven't been updating the blog as much. I've still been in Abbotsford 3-4 days a week working. Marie has been able to leave to Abbotsford on two occasions recently, the latest on Wednesday when we were able to share with our elders and have the pray for us. I say this a lot and I'll say it again: we have an amazing church family :) Marie's doing better at pacing herself, setting up workable boundaries to maintain a healthy balance of self and child, which has been really encouraging to see.

Again, sorry that there hasn't been any recent pictures posted. I don't have my camera with me our else I would have put some up with this entry. There will be some coming this weekend, I'm sure of it!

Thanks again to our steady stream of visitors: both sets of our parents have been out this week, as well as our friend Leanne K. Thanks to our random 'scrapbooking followers' who have been keeping up with our Josiah, sending notes and dropping in. Kimberly - sorry we missed you the other day! Thanks for the gifts SSLC!

In God's grace & peace, our lifeline and our sustanance.
- Andrew, Marie & Josiah