Sunday, September 30, 2007
Why a blog?
We are amazed by the number of people who are praying for Delie and our family. We've been sending emails to people in our address book, and then many of those have forwarded it to others, who have forwarded it to others... We wanted a way to keep people updated without expecting everyone to continue forwarding every email we sent. We considered starting a caringbridge or caringpages site, but Delie wasn't too excited about that. A blog seemed like a good way for all of the children to feel involved - so there will be artwork and articles by the children occassionally. And a blog seems more fun, rather than just being focused on Delie's accident and health.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Delie's miracle
We praise God for answering the prayers of so many. We went to the hospital on Wednesday to repair the bones in Delie's cheek and around her eye. We were also planning to have her eye removed if she still didn't have any response to light. George's mother wrote this:
I just had to write to tell you of the miracle we experienced today. Before taking Delie for surgery, George and Beverly asked the doctor if he would check her eye once more to be sure there was no sign of response. He said he would and went to get his light. He had Delie cover her "bad" eye and she saw the light with her good eye. Then he told her to cover her "good" eye. She put her fingers over her eye and he said, "No, I mean cover it with your palm to really cover it." She did and when he shined the light, she said "I see the light." He said, "No, I mean you really have to cover your good eye." He then covered her eye with his hand. She said, "I see the light. It's on...It's off...It's on...It's off. He turned to George and Beverly and said, "We won't be taking this eye out today!!!"
Actually he didn't say it with that much emotion. He was obviously pleased, but he told us we still have a long way to go, and there is no way of knowing yet if her eye will continue to improve or not. I'm sure the doctors would explain that the excess blood had drained from her eye allowing her to see, but we believe that it is a miracle no matter how God accomplished it. We have seen six doctors so far, and they all said that since she didn't see light immediately after the accident that she probably never would.
We still had the surgery on the bones, and the doctor said everything is lined up correctly now and the bones look good. He also said all of her nerves are there and should heal in time. There may be a need for additional plastic surgery at some point, but everything looks really good so far.
We planned to be at the hospital overnight, but they sent us home about 2 hours after the surgery. Delie is feeling good this morning, and she hasn't even needed any pain medication yet. We will see a retina specialist next week, and they will do an ultrasound on her eye to decide what the next steps will be.
Thank you so much for praying for us and for asking others to pray. We will send another update late next week.
George and Beverly
Prayer for Delie
[originally written Sept 25]
"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes, into the midst of a peaceful family--without warning of gathered storm above or slightest tremble of earthquake beneath--will fall a terrible fact, and from that moment everything is changed. The air is thick with cloud, and cannot weep itself clear. There may come a gorgeous sunset, though."
A dear friend shared this quote from a 18th century Scottish preacher, George MacDonald, a few days after our daughter Delie's accident. Our life together as a family has felt like quite a storm over the past 12 days, and we certainly do feel the prayers of our friends and family along with many we have never met. We are so touched by the cards, gifts, and food and are overwhelmed by the number the people who have told us that they, their family, church, Sunday school, Bible study, homeschool co-op are praying for us. We ask you to continue to pray for Delie and our family. Wednesday at 1230pm we will go to Le Bonnheur in Memphis for a second surgery for Delie--for repair of the broken bones in her face and for the removal of her eye. Removing her eye eliminates the risk of sympathetic opthalmia--the body attacking the seeing eye, and we want to do all we can to protect this eye.
God has blessed our family so much and we praise Him for the miracle of Delie's life and her steadfast faith. She is such an encouragement to all of us and we await the "gorgeous sunset" that we will see through her life. We will try to update Thursday.
Much love,
George and Beverly
P.S. We've attached a picture of Delie taken this summer at ballet.
"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes, into the midst of a peaceful family--without warning of gathered storm above or slightest tremble of earthquake beneath--will fall a terrible fact, and from that moment everything is changed. The air is thick with cloud, and cannot weep itself clear. There may come a gorgeous sunset, though."
A dear friend shared this quote from a 18th century Scottish preacher, George MacDonald, a few days after our daughter Delie's accident. Our life together as a family has felt like quite a storm over the past 12 days, and we certainly do feel the prayers of our friends and family along with many we have never met. We are so touched by the cards, gifts, and food and are overwhelmed by the number the people who have told us that they, their family, church, Sunday school, Bible study, homeschool co-op are praying for us. We ask you to continue to pray for Delie and our family. Wednesday at 1230pm we will go to Le Bonnheur in Memphis for a second surgery for Delie--for repair of the broken bones in her face and for the removal of her eye. Removing her eye eliminates the risk of sympathetic opthalmia--the body attacking the seeing eye, and we want to do all we can to protect this eye.
God has blessed our family so much and we praise Him for the miracle of Delie's life and her steadfast faith. She is such an encouragement to all of us and we await the "gorgeous sunset" that we will see through her life. We will try to update Thursday.
Much love,
George and Beverly
P.S. We've attached a picture of Delie taken this summer at ballet.
Delie's accident
[I wrote this in an email on Sept 19 about Delie's accident on Sept 13. -George]
We have been boarding about 10 horses in our pasture for the past couple of months. Last Thursday, we were going out to catch one of the horses that we like to ride. Beverly, Joy, Delie, and George IV were in the pasture and had caught the horse we wanted when some of the other horses started running and bucking around. One of the horses accidentally kicked Delie (age 8) in her right eye. Anna, Samuel, Thomas, and I were watching this from the yard, and I immediately jumped the fence and ran to get her. I didn't see any big cuts, but she was covered in blood and her right eye was shut and could not open.
We loaded all the family into the van and rushed to the emergency room in Brownsville - the closest one. Delie wanted to go to sleep, but Beverly talked to her the whole way (about 15 minutes). We were encouraged that Delie made sense in her talking and had short-term memory. The Brownsville hospital is small, so they just did a CT scan and some x-rays and called for a helicopter to take her to Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis. The ER doctor said her eye was ruptured, but there wasn't any evidence of brain or spinal injury. We praised God that her injuries were not as bad as they could have been.
Beverly called her sister, Alison, who lives in Brownsville, to come get the children, and she was there within minutes. Alison and her husband, Jerry, took the children back to our house to pack some clothes for them to stay with her and for Beverly, baby Thomas, and me to stay at the hospital. Joy also had to go home to find her shoe - one of her flip-flops came off while running to the van, so she made it to the hospital with only one shoe. And we had left the crock-pot on, so Alison kept our house from burning down also.
So Delie was airlifted to Memphis while Beverly, Thomas, and I followed in the car. When we got to Le Bonheur they told us that the CD that Brownsville had sent with the images from the scan was either blank or incompatible, so they had to repeat the scan. An eye surgeon looked at the scan and checked to see if Delie could see a bright light shone into her eye. She could not see the light. He told us that there would be many surgeries (Delie also had several fractures around her eye), but there was a very good chance that she would not regain sight in that eye. The first step was to try to put the eye back together as good as possible, so they did that right away.
We stayed in the hospital all day Friday and talked to a couple of doctors from the UT Medical Center in Memphis - one an opthalmologist and one specializing in plastic surgery around the eye. They both checked for light response and didn't get positive results. They were encouraging about fixing the bones, etc so that she would look like the old Delie again, but they said we would probably need to consider a prosthetic eye.
We got to go home Friday night but had to go back to the doctor's office on Saturday. They were mostly checking for infection in the eye since it was a "dirty wound," but there was no sign of infection. Again they checked for a light response. It looked to Beverly and me like Delie could see some light occassionally, but it may be that she was just guessing when the light was on. The doctor did not seem impressed by her response to the light.
On Monday we went back to Memphis to check for infection and to talk to another plastics doctor. Again, no sign of infection and no (or questionable) response to light. Delie has fractures above, to the outside, and below her eye, and she is scheduled for surgery to repair that on Wed, Sept 26. They don't anticipate any problems or difficulties with that procedure.
They also asked us to consider removing her eye while they are doing that surgery. They say that usually if a patient cannot see light before the first surgery, that they will not regain sight. Because she still has not seen light and because of the severity of the injury, they don't believe that she ever will. The danger in leaving a non-seeing eye in place is that very rarely the body will attack the good eye. Obviously we don't want to do anything to put the good eye in jeopardy, but we haven't decided if we're ready to take that step yet.
We still hope and pray for a miracle, but we are very content with whatever God chooses to do. There are many things that we don't understand, but we know that God has a purpose for all things, and we gladly trust in Him.
We praise God that the injury was not more serious. As life-changing as this may be, at least it is not life-threatening. Delie is already smiling and laughing some (although it sometimes hurts). She seems very much like her old self in many ways.
We thank God for the tremendous support that we have received. Countless people are praying for Delie, and many people have brought us meals or plan to do so. One of the women in our church has organized meals for the next week, the girls' ballet teacher is organizing meals for us from her church, and we've had family, friends, and even neighbors we don't know bring us food and/or offer to watch the children whenever we need them.
We thank God that Delie has recovered so well already. She has a long way to go - many months - but she is doing very well. She is emotionally and spiritually very strong. She is a perfect example of "child-like faith."
We pray that God will heal her and restore her sight, but more importantly we pray that His will would be done. Please pray with us for her continued health and recovery.
We have been boarding about 10 horses in our pasture for the past couple of months. Last Thursday, we were going out to catch one of the horses that we like to ride. Beverly, Joy, Delie, and George IV were in the pasture and had caught the horse we wanted when some of the other horses started running and bucking around. One of the horses accidentally kicked Delie (age 8) in her right eye. Anna, Samuel, Thomas, and I were watching this from the yard, and I immediately jumped the fence and ran to get her. I didn't see any big cuts, but she was covered in blood and her right eye was shut and could not open.
We loaded all the family into the van and rushed to the emergency room in Brownsville - the closest one. Delie wanted to go to sleep, but Beverly talked to her the whole way (about 15 minutes). We were encouraged that Delie made sense in her talking and had short-term memory. The Brownsville hospital is small, so they just did a CT scan and some x-rays and called for a helicopter to take her to Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis. The ER doctor said her eye was ruptured, but there wasn't any evidence of brain or spinal injury. We praised God that her injuries were not as bad as they could have been.
Beverly called her sister, Alison, who lives in Brownsville, to come get the children, and she was there within minutes. Alison and her husband, Jerry, took the children back to our house to pack some clothes for them to stay with her and for Beverly, baby Thomas, and me to stay at the hospital. Joy also had to go home to find her shoe - one of her flip-flops came off while running to the van, so she made it to the hospital with only one shoe. And we had left the crock-pot on, so Alison kept our house from burning down also.
So Delie was airlifted to Memphis while Beverly, Thomas, and I followed in the car. When we got to Le Bonheur they told us that the CD that Brownsville had sent with the images from the scan was either blank or incompatible, so they had to repeat the scan. An eye surgeon looked at the scan and checked to see if Delie could see a bright light shone into her eye. She could not see the light. He told us that there would be many surgeries (Delie also had several fractures around her eye), but there was a very good chance that she would not regain sight in that eye. The first step was to try to put the eye back together as good as possible, so they did that right away.
We stayed in the hospital all day Friday and talked to a couple of doctors from the UT Medical Center in Memphis - one an opthalmologist and one specializing in plastic surgery around the eye. They both checked for light response and didn't get positive results. They were encouraging about fixing the bones, etc so that she would look like the old Delie again, but they said we would probably need to consider a prosthetic eye.
We got to go home Friday night but had to go back to the doctor's office on Saturday. They were mostly checking for infection in the eye since it was a "dirty wound," but there was no sign of infection. Again they checked for a light response. It looked to Beverly and me like Delie could see some light occassionally, but it may be that she was just guessing when the light was on. The doctor did not seem impressed by her response to the light.
On Monday we went back to Memphis to check for infection and to talk to another plastics doctor. Again, no sign of infection and no (or questionable) response to light. Delie has fractures above, to the outside, and below her eye, and she is scheduled for surgery to repair that on Wed, Sept 26. They don't anticipate any problems or difficulties with that procedure.
They also asked us to consider removing her eye while they are doing that surgery. They say that usually if a patient cannot see light before the first surgery, that they will not regain sight. Because she still has not seen light and because of the severity of the injury, they don't believe that she ever will. The danger in leaving a non-seeing eye in place is that very rarely the body will attack the good eye. Obviously we don't want to do anything to put the good eye in jeopardy, but we haven't decided if we're ready to take that step yet.
We still hope and pray for a miracle, but we are very content with whatever God chooses to do. There are many things that we don't understand, but we know that God has a purpose for all things, and we gladly trust in Him.
We praise God that the injury was not more serious. As life-changing as this may be, at least it is not life-threatening. Delie is already smiling and laughing some (although it sometimes hurts). She seems very much like her old self in many ways.
We thank God for the tremendous support that we have received. Countless people are praying for Delie, and many people have brought us meals or plan to do so. One of the women in our church has organized meals for the next week, the girls' ballet teacher is organizing meals for us from her church, and we've had family, friends, and even neighbors we don't know bring us food and/or offer to watch the children whenever we need them.
We thank God that Delie has recovered so well already. She has a long way to go - many months - but she is doing very well. She is emotionally and spiritually very strong. She is a perfect example of "child-like faith."
We pray that God will heal her and restore her sight, but more importantly we pray that His will would be done. Please pray with us for her continued health and recovery.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Anna's artwork
Anna (7) created this. This is a picture of a flower bed with an "L" in it for Lambuth University.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Georgie's artwork
George (5) and the girls have been creating pictures using the Paint program on our computer. Here's one George calls "Bear Country." There's a deer stand at the bottom and two other buildings that you can shoot out of.
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