AVA JOELLE!!!!!!

Ava Joelle was born October 7th @ 11:17 am. She weighed 7 lbs 13 ozs and was 20.5 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great they will come home this afternoon. And Praise the Lord she is pooping. After Isaac I think we were more anxious about that then anything. Here are a few pics.

We made it home...finally. Yesterday, the surgeon talked to the nutritionist and she recommended switching formulas to one that's for kids over 1 yr. So, Isaac had to consume and tolerate 5 oz. of this new stuff before we could go home. We finally left the hospital around 4pm. It's so nice to be home again! Thank you to everyone who is and has prayed for Isaac.

WE'RE GOING HOME!!!!

Isaac is still continuing to do well. He is drinking his normal amount of formula today. He even ate half a scoop of ice cream this afternoon. Doc was in this morning and said he wants to monitor his eating for today and his night feedings (which he's hooked up to a pump). He will have some lab work done in the morning and if his electrolytes check out ok, then we're checking out of here. Isaac seems to be feeling fine. He's walking all over his crib and being his usual goofy self. His incision is healing really well. When he's all healed up, he will have 2 parallel scars, one above his belly button and one below. We'll take pics of it when the steri strips fall off.

Good Night!

This is a day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. The doctor was just in and they are going to remove the IV. Isaac is also taking formula at full strength and tolerating very well. These pics were taken this morning. His shirt is very appropriate now. It says, "Poops! I did it again."

Isaac has been doing better and better each day. Yesterday he was playing, smiling and acting more like himself without the pain medicine. This video is from this morning. It shows just how well he is acting. He was making funny faces with his mouth because he is teething.

They took the bandages off of his stomach and left them off. Later they will take the central line out and hook up a regular IV because they think that the central line is causing a little bit of an infection, which in turn may be affecting his appetite. Thanks again for all your prayers and keep in touch.

On Wednesday, James and I took the girls to the zoo for being such good girls while brother was in surgery. Here's a couple from that trip.

This is Isaac the morning of his surgery. He was having a great time jumping in his bed.

Grace took this picture the afternoon after his surgery.

First of all...sorry about not posting anything sooner, but we've had some technical difficulties. Isaac is doing great. He got the NG tube out of his nose today. He then starting pooping like a pro. He's still struggling with a low fever, so the surgeon ordered a chest x-ray, urine culture and a blood culture. He just had that done tonight, so we won't know anything until morning. He is feeling pretty good, but needs an occational dose of morphine. He had his dressings changed today on his central line and his surgery site, which looks great. When he is on the morphine, we can get a smile out of him and he tries to talk a little bit. Hopefully tomorrow he can start drinking a little Pedialyte.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for Isaac and the rest of our family. They are felt and appreciated. We couldn't make it through this without them.

With much love...Alisha

Sorry it's been a while since the last entry. I (James) came back Wednesday night and worked Thursday so I haven't been able to update as soon as I would have liked. That being said, we have a huge PRAISE THE LORD!!! This one is kinda weird, but I'm amazed at that things we take for granted. OUR SON POOPED HIS PANTS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!! After potty training two other kids, it feels weird to say that with this much excitement. God is good. Again Isaac's digestive system starts up very quickly. He also got to have the tube in his nose taken out today, and Lisha said that they changed the dressing on his stomach and where they made the incision looks really good. Continue praying for him because God is answering them. I will try to get some pics of him on as soon as possible. Thanks again and I pray that God will bless each of you who are praying for our son.

Isaac is now out of surgery. He did great and is resting comfortably. The doctor said that where he reattatched the small intestine was a little ways up from the rectum. So he still has just a small amount of his colon. He said that little bit of colon should slow down the flow of stool and help absorb some water. We are not for sure at this point how long Isaac will have to be in the hospital, we are hoping no more than a week. Thank you again for all your prayers.

To Brooke who wrote a comment, I'm sorry I have not responded sooner but I just saw your comment today. We would love to converse about treatments and what we have gone through.

Isaac is in surgery right now. I just talked with the nurse and she said that they had the results from the pathologist and they came back negative for the cells. So they are continuing on with the total colectomy. He has been in for 2.5 to 3 hours and is still doing great. Thanks for all your prayers.

God is good all the time. This last week has been tough for us, mainly Alisha, because Isaac has been sick. He started throwing up last Friday and did only once a day on a off the rest of the week. After a week of him not getting better and the doctors here not being able to help with his special condition, hirschprung's disease, we took him to the ER in Tulsa Saturday morning. He was dehydrated from the vomiting and dumping, which is having as much output as input. They gave him an IV, drew blood and took stool samples for testing. We stayed down over night and Isaac and Lish are still there tonight. We don't know what caused him to be sick, but he is doing much better. Over the last couple of weeks he had lost 2 lbs. and this last week we knew he was not feeling good because no matter what you did, hold him, rock him, let him play, etc. he just whined, which he never does. After being on the IV just a few hours, he was beginning to act more like himself. And all day today, Sunday, you could not tell that anything was wrong. He even got to start taking formula again and he was keeping it down. Praise the Lord!!!!





Barbara, James' mom, came over and watched Grace and Faith Saturday and took them home with her Saturday night. She told us that at supper Faith prayed for the meal, but then Grace said that she wanted to say a special prayer which went something like this, "Dear God, please help Isaac feel better. We don't know what is wrong with him, but You do. So please make him better. Amen." WOW!!!! Jesus said in Matthew 18:3-4, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." And in 19:14, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." You know I have heard adults say a prayer just like that and in fact I have said that very prayer, but how many of us stop and think about the principle of it. It's faith. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see," Hebrews 11:1. A 5 year old is sure of her hope in God and certain that He is there. She has never seen Him but she has faith. None of us have seen God, nor have we seen a single story recorded in the Bible take place. But the principles that underline each and every book, story, parable, page and verse can be and for Christians should be visible in our lives today. How is your faith? Over the last eight months God has taught me something about my faith. In dealing with Isaac's first two weeks and observing other people, Christian or not, I have discovered a few things. 1) Being a Christian does not exempt me from tough times i.e trials and tribulations. Jesus said in John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." Just because I follow the God of creation does not mean that my life will be smooth sailing. Take Job for example. God bragged about his boy Job, yet his life went through the ringer. Joesph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. The disciples encountered a storm while physically with Jesus. And even Jesus himself suffered a gruelling, painful death. Every person of the Bible, regardless of their decision to follow God or not, encountered tough times. 2) These tough times are what define, test or reveal our true faith. After the bottom fell out of Job's life his own wife told him to curse God and die and then three of the friends accused him of bringing it all upon himself. However, Job continued to give praise to God and kept his faith sure. I just saw a process of melting down steal for making pipe. Once it was all melted down all of the impurities would rise to the surface to be skimmed off. The fire revealed the true metal. It does not matter what we say our faith is like, when the storm comes our true faith is seen in how we react and how we respond to God. Peter's faith was revealed when he began to sink while walking on the water, Jesus said ,"You of little faith." When Abraham was taking his son Isaac to sacrifice him, Isaac asked, "Where is the lamb?," Abraham responded, "The Lord will provide." Abraham believed (had faith) and it is seen not is the easy times but in the tough and it was credited to him as righteousness. It is from those who follow God that I discover something else. 3) Our survival from the storms in life depends on how we prepare during the calm times. I recently heard a story of a pilot of one plane who was coming into land and encountered another plane taking off from the same runway. In an instance the pilot who was landing pulled up to avoid collision and the sure death of all passengers. After circling around and landing safely, one passenger asked the pilot how did you make such a quick decision to pull up? The pilot responded and said, "I made that decision 19 years ago." Pilots are prepared to make every decision before the situation ever occurs. Had the pilot waited until that moment to decide what he should do it would have been to late to decide and then react. We have to prepare during the calm times so that we will respond correctly during the storm. We must realize during the calm times that not only is God real and there is good in this world, but there is also the opposite, evil and Satan. Since God is good and does good, how can we logically blame Him for the evil and bad things that happen in life. Romans 8:28 says that God works for the good of those who love him and are called to his purpose. Again Jesus said to take heart for He has over come the world. So, when the tough times, the trials, tribulations, sickness, death, uncertainty etc happen how do you respond? Do you cling to God's hand trusting by faith that He will take care of you? Or do you blame Him for the bad things? I want to encourage you to develop your faith in the calm times so that when the storms come you will give praise to God and have the peace that passes all understanding.

Grace and Faith like to play dress-up. Aunt Joy gave them some beautiful prom type dresses for Christmas. When I ask them if I can take their picture, their first response is, let me go get dressed up. Grace also has to put on her kid make-up.

Isaac is sure happy wearing his daddy's old A-Team shirt. It's so cute on him!!!

Grace's school asked if she could get her picture taken for the new billboard that will be up for 2 months. I think it'll be up in Feb. and Mar. She's the cute one on the far right.

Isaac's name sure does fit him...Laughter.

Faith loves to sing with the Shuffle. I think she was singing Amazing Grace by Chris Tomlin.

The A.D.D. in Faith lets her multi-task...She can kiss her brother and watch kid shows at the same time!

This was taken at Grace's Christmas program for school.

BUBBA!!!