Surgey Thursday

James and Josiah at the Zoo

"People who don't have a special needs brother or sister, doesn't know what they are missing."
         This is what my oldest daughter mentioned last night when Josiah was going around giving goodnight kisses to everyone.  It does a mothers heart good to know that his siblings love him so much. Truly, if you know him he is very lovable. He is a little person who isn't perfect but he is probably the most caring, joyful and loving person in our family.  I guess the Lord has given us many opportunities to realize how blessed we are. Every time we are reminded of his earthly fate we thank the Lord for putting him in our family and so thankful for him.

So, here we are on the eve of another surgery, thanking the Lord for every minute we have with him and it puts it in perspective how short our lives are... our lives are as a vapor (as in James 4:14). The Lord keeps putting this before me to help me realize that our time is precious, not just with Josiah but with each of my children and everyone around us.  I know that the Lord is in control of our days and am so thankful for the peace that passes all understanding to get us through the next few days.

In a nutshell, Josiah will be having surgery on Thursday morning at Vanderbilt in Nashville. This is not going to include the back surgery because the Doctors decided both the surgeries are so crucial that putting them together would be to much. So for this one they are going to be fusing the top two vertebrae at the top of his spine with screws. This will help with the underdeveloped or "Broken" bone in his neck. They will also be taking bone from his hip and using that to graph them together. Then they will take what Jim calls a Dremel tool :) to clean around his spinal cord to make extra room since the swelling is so severe. This is all going to be done under sedation obviously and will take several hours. We should only be in the hospital for about 2 days (but it falls on a weekend so it probably won't be till Monday). He will be discharged with a neck brace (if all goes well) and will have to wear it for at least 6 weeks.

We are so thankful that you check in on our little guy and for your prayers. Over the years, the prayers of family, friends and even strangers has been the most comforting to our family. I will try to keep an update posted when I get a chance.

James 4:14 

whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.