Saturday Night - A Josiah Update

Yikes! Has it been that long?! My oh my [deep sigh].

Apologizes for giving 'zero' indication on how Josiah has been this week. I think that was the longest dry spell of communication we've ever had. Tsk tsk. Well, it has been a very busy week for me. Like I've said before, we have no internet access in the TCU and the Easter Seal wireless has been kind of poor. But further, I spent Tuesday to Thursday in Abbotsford filling in long work days (gearing up for our church's VBS week) and so a blog hasn't been able to be a priority. I'm sorry :(

So, what's new with our guy? Weeeeeeeelllllllll ... HE'S A DRINKIN' MONSTER! Yesterday Marie had him drink 35 ml from a bottle! WooHoo! The nurses and OT can't believe it, but man that guy is loving the bottle. He still can't figure the breast out (and tries sooooooooooo hard!), but he ends up being so frustrated that he can't concentrate.

We (all three of us) are loving the TCU. Josiah has been having an amazing week (I don't think he's had a severe dying spell for a couple of weeks, and he only needed oxygen once I think this week). In fact, the last two times we thought he might go into a spell (got extremely upset over something and went into some intense crying/screaming) he didn't d-sat AT ALL (stayed mid-90's) and just had a higher heart rate. That really encourages me, because it used to be that as soon as he started screaming like that a d-sat was almost immediate. God's good!

Josiah gets to go for walks it seems at least every second day, which is so awesome. For the first time he felt rain on his face this week :) He's also just loving moving his head around when he can, and he's getting really good at tracking objects and trying to follow sounds. His head is still quite long out the back and so he can't roll his head in bed (as much as he tries) but as soon as his head is resting on our arm or there is a pillow under his shoulder, he's whipping that thing back 'n forth so fast - so cute!

Oh, and Josiah has been responding very well to his new 'button' g-tube. If you wonder what it looks like, picture an air valve on a air mattress and you have the basic idea. Unfortunately, it's become Josiah's most favourite toy so we're trying to find ways to keep his hand off it :)

For the last couple of days we've had a Christian family with us in the TCU who are from Willow Park (Kelowna, BC). I love how it is such a small world. Any Kelowna'ers want to send greetings? (I won't post the family's name for privacy, but if you know the family that had their infant son come down for heart surgery that would them!)

Visitors this week: ummmmm, this could be difficult to remember ... Jen P., Cory & Corinne B. (I recognize you guys! - Tyler's older bro, right?) ... that might be it, but I am often wrong these days :)

Prayer request for Josiah: Marie's noticed all along that something was different with Josiah's spine (I thought something was wrong, but I always figured it was that Josiah just had bad posture or didn't have the core muscles developed) and we have finally remembered to ask someone about it (you'd be amazed at the things you forget to ask or say to people, even potentially big things like this). No concern over Josiah's spine had ever been noted by the doctors, but the nurses and a doc did briefly examine his back and agree that something is odd: it's like he has a humpback as well as a crooked/curved spine. I think the team is waiting for the main doctor to come back from his holidays to do anything further, and so we're praying that whatever is wrong with Josiah's back can be corrected. Please pray that Josiah's back would develop properly and be structurely sound; that his quality of life would not be limited by a bad spine.

Thanks for thinking of us! I hope to post some more pics soon, but right now VBS is taking a priority (it runs second week in July, so this week will be a doozy for me).

May God richly bless your lives.
- Andrew, Marie & Josiah