Ethan's Progress

Ethan is doing well so far. They took out his vent last night & today they are taking out his foley IV whatever that is, and they've taken out a couple more of the many IV's that he had. He's feeling a little perkier and his mom said the Dr. said he could try solid food today!!!

Still has a little fever, but the Dr. said that's normal for a heart surgery patient. He's still on a couple of antibiotics, but his blood is clean and no more bacteria has surfaced. He's being closely monitored and they are still testing him for things, but thanks be to God our Father that he's doing so well. We all thought he was not going to make it.

Again, thank you all for your prayers. If anything changes, I'll let you know. You don't know how much it means to me to have kindred spirits out there who care and love and support. Man, whoever is not a part of this "sisterhood" of bloggers doesn't know what they're missing!

Update on Ethan

God is good - the Doctors are amazed and encouraged. Ethan is awake and talking to his parents. He is calm and not anxious and fighting his tubes. He is not out of the woods yet, but everyone is encouraged. He was going to have to have an adult sized valve put in at some point, so he's had that done. He was going to have to have his pacemaker put into his chest instead of his abdomen (like they do children) and they did that. There were about 20 friends from church that went to the hospital to pray for Ethan and be with his parents and sister for the surgery and they prayed for very specific things during the long hours while they waited. When they later talked to the doctors, it was amazing how many specific things the Drs. talked about happening during surgery and results were exactly things that had been prayed.

The Lord still performs miracles. Of course, we should not be surprised. God is not through with this little guy yet. He still has some wonderful impact that He needs Ethan to make on someone or many someones. His whole little life has been this way. We give praise to the Lord for the progress he's made. We will keep lifting him up and see what God will do next.

Thank you for all of your prayers. I know that yours as well as all the other friends, families, and strangers' prayers have fallen on God's ears and heart and He is listening. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Keep Praying for Ethan

Latest update on Ethan 2:00 p.m. CST.

The valve has been replaced and they are working on the pacemaker. The surgeon said there was infection on the chest wall but that Ethan's heart was beating strong going into the surgery. After the valve replacement, they had to give some medicines to help his heart function because it had weakened. The surgeon also said that it was the worst case of endocarditis that he'd ever seen. It's been a long day for little Ethan. It's going to be a long road to recovery for him as they are still trying to fight infection and get him stabilized. The next few days are critical.

Please continue to keep him in your prayers as well as his family. We pray that God will allow him to recover and rejoin his family and friends and all those that love him. He's touched many lives and continues to do so. Thank you all so much for your prayers.

Please Pray for Ethan

Ethan is a smallish 14 year old boy with blond hair and blue eyes. He's Russian by birth. Our friends from church Cherisse and Brian went to Russia and adopted him when he was 3. His birth mother abandoned him at a hospital there because he had many health problems. Ethan had a hole in his heart, a leaky valve and rythym problems since birth. He used to turn blue. When he came to America with his new family, he had a new valve put in, the hole repaired, and a pacemaker implanted in his tiny chest.

Ethan has grown up at our church and our Christian school. He's smart, funny, cute, and still very small and frail. He's been asking my daughter, who is 20, out since he was a little kid. He loved the teenage girls and never could decide which one he liked the best and which one he was going to marry when he grew up. His health has been very guarded all through his little life.

Ethan got sick right after Christmas with some kind of bug. After a couple of weeks, his mom took him to the doctor where they determined that due to some kind of infection his kidneys were trying to shut down. They airlifted him to the children's ICU at Medical City in Dallas. He's almost died a couple of times since being there. The doctors said that he has a staph infection in the artificial valve in his heart and he has sepsis in his system.

The doctors have been pumping him full of 3 different antibiotics for the last couple of weeks fearing that the infection could break off and travel to another part of his body. They have to keep him sedated to allow his heart to rest because when he's awake, he's fighting the many tubes in his body. They have him untubated, and the battery that was in his pacemaker was supposed to last for 2 more years is down to a few weeks because his heart has been working so hard.

This morning, as I post, he is in surgery. He is on a heart/lung bipass machine, they are replacing the valve in his heart, and are inserting an outside temporary pacemaker to be replaced by a permanent one in about 3 weeks after the infection is hopefully gone.

I believe in the power of God and the power of prayer. I believe that God is merciful and that He can do anything if it is His will. Ethan has many people, known and unknown, our church and many other churches in the brotherhood, praying for him. But I have a whole 'nuther LEGION of people out there in blogland that I know I can depend on to lift little Ethan up in prayer. Thank you for your prayers. I'll keep you posted on his progress.

Wooden Nickels

Ever see one of these babies? I'm sure some of you have, but I hadn't. I'd heard of 'em, but hadn't run into one before a couple of weeks ago...
My daddy used to tell me when I was little up until this day "don't take any wooden nickels" and grin real big.

He was referring to "kisses" - don't know if any of ya'll heard that line, but he loved to tease me like that - same thing with "yankee dimes". He'd get home from work and he'd call me "come and give me a big ole yankee dime!" and I'd oblige with a big bear hug around his neck and plant kisses all over his cheeks which would get rather scratchy by the end of the day! My daddy was tall at least 6'3", and he hung the moon for me. Still does to this day. I was his little shadow whenever he was home.
Anyway, when he held me when I was young I felt SOOO tall and he'd swing me around and around until we were both dizzy and fell down laughing. He'd be sitting by me in church or at home and lean over and whisper, "Know how a cow bites?" which would send me into gales of laughter when he squeezed my knee and I would grab his huge hand and try to pry it off. It sure was hard to stifle the giggles in church! My kids, upon introducing their Pop to their friends, always get around to getting Dad to hold up and spread his hand out - it's as big as a dinner plate with fingers extended, and I used to compare my small one to his growing up to see how I was growing. My kids do that today - especially the boys. Adam's hand is almost as large, Josh's is a little smaller.

My dad was very handsome when he was young, and my 13-14 yr old friends would all gush over him when they came to my house and say "your daddy is so cute!" and of course I had to agree, and smile because he was MY dad.

Daddy had some architectural training and he and I would sit for hours and he'd draw horses with me. His horses were, of course, more architectural looking and angular, but I thought they were wonderful! Actually, my mom can draw, too - guess I get it from both of them. Mom took some art training by mail when she was young and she saved her scetchbooks for me - they're really quite good!

Daddy has helped me with my art shows, he's built display stands for me, easels, you name it. He learned how to cut mats for my watercolors and since he was always a handyman, he bought trim and made my frames for me. Saved me a ton of money. We've hunted and fished and vacationed and done all those wonderful things that have made so many good memories. Time spent together with family is the most perfect and wonderful possession that I have. I can never repay him for all the things he's done for me over the years. Now he does all those things with my kids, too. My mother is wonderful, too, I'm not leaving her out. Today's post I was just thinking about Daddy - cuz I was (and still am) a Daddy's girl.

I found these wooden nickels at a sale and thought of Dad immediately. I gave him one the other day and told him "now you can't say you never accepted any wooden nickels, dad". He just grinned.