home again

Just a quick note to let you know that we're back home again. Delie did great today, and the doctor said the surgery went just like he expected it to. He said Delie should sleep a lot the next couple of days, but she should be doing good by next week. He even said she could go to ballet as soon as she feels like it. I don't think Delie knows that yet, but I know it will make her happy. She's really missed dance the past several weeks.

Our next appointment is a follow-up on the surgery in two weeks. And in about 6 weeks she'll be fitted with a prosthetic eye.

Thank you for praying for us. I don't think today was as hard as we expected. Please continue to pray for Delie the next few days. She's been dizzy and nauseous since the surgery. She also says it hurts to open her eye so we've been mostly leading her around as she got ready for bed. These are normal side effects of the anesthesia and surgery, so it's nothing to worry about, but we pray she feels better tomorrow.

surgery tomorrow

Hello, family and friends. I just wanted to ask you to pray again for us as Delie has surgery tomorrow (Wednesday) at LeBonheur in Memphis. The doctors in Tennessee agreed with the doctors in Birmingham that there was nothing they could do to restore her vision, so they'll be removing her eye tomorrow. This is the first step towards having a prosthetic eye. We think she'll have to wait 4-6 weeks to heal from this surgery before they can fit her for the prosthesis.

Delie's still doing great. She stayed up later tonight to eat "breakfast" (a bowl of cereal) since she can't eat after midnight until after the surgery tomorrow. I asked her when she went to bed if she was nervous about tomorrow. She thought for a while and said, "Ummm...not really. I've been there before so I know what to expect." I guess this may be harder on Beverly and me than it is for Delie - I hope so for her sake.

Thank you again for praying for us.

Delie's appointment

The appointment went pretty well today. In some ways it was anticlimactic because we knew what to expect. The doctor was pleased with the way her bones have healed and said she won't need any more surgery to correct that. There may be additional cosmetic surgery in the future, but that will wait until after her prosthetic eye is in place.

The big news is that we have surgery scheduled for next Wednesday to either remove the eye (enucleation) or the damaged tissue in the eye (evisceration). The doctor says there's not much difference either way. The prosthesis will move with the other eye and look natural.

We wish Delie could see, and we still pray for a miracle, but we are comfortable with removing the eye now. We're really glad that we didn't have it removed 4 weeks ago (when we were expecting to) because it was so soon after the accident that I think we would have always wondered if there was something we could have done to have her vision restored. Now we know that there is nothing the doctors can do, so we are at peace and ready to move forward.

This will also be outpatient surgery at LeBonheur in Memphis.

We also went to a local optometrist (in Brownsville) today to look at frames for glasses and sports goggles. It's really important to protect her good eye, so she'll need to wear protective eyewear whenever there's a danger of her being hit, poked, etc. The optometrist recommended that she wear glasses all the time for protection even though her left eye has perfect vision. We didn't get any today, but we probably will soon. Delie found some pink frames that she liked a lot.

Delie continues to handle everything really well. And the rest of us are doing good also. We continue to appreciate your prayers.

Beach Pictures

We wanted to post some pictures of the children for those who haven't seen them in a while - or ever. These were taken at the Moss reunion in Gulf Shores last June.


Anna (7), Joy (10), and Delie (8).


Samuel (2), George (5), and Thomas (2 months then, 6 months now).

Delie's next appointment

Thank you for the comments, emails, and cards that you have sent to encourage us. It is amazing how many people are praying for us - we truly appreciate it.

We go back to Dr. Fleming in Memphis on Thursday. We don't expect anything big to happen on Thursday other than making plans for the future. Dr. Fleming's office finally got the results from Birmingham, so we'll get to discuss that on Thursday. We also had the results sent to Dr. Priester (family friend and retina specialist in Jackson, TN), and we hope to talk to him on the phone sometime before Thursday.

We'll let you know what happens. Thanks again for your prayers.