Happy Birthday, Treasure!

Our sweet Treasure...

Happy Birthday!

Sixteen Pounds

Today Santi had his routine checkup at Shands and as always met new people...Santi thinks that's the best part!

Today Santi is at the sixteen pound mark that we were all aiming for, and Santi's doctors are really excited at his excellent progress. In just this past week he has straightened in his top curvature 10 degrees! Wow, that's a big plus for Santi. Dr. Woo wants him to continue with the weights as he's doing so well. We will be adding one pound every other day and doctors will be supervising him with weekly x-rays and checkups.

X-ray on the left is from today, and the one on the right taken last week

Here in this picture Santi is with Loren, a high school student shadowing Dr. Woo. Dr Woo is on Santi's left.

Today Santi met Dr. Chris Bugnitz

Santi with X-ray technician Mindy

Keep Santi in your prayers. Dr. Woo told us that after the ten pound mark, Santi would encounter the harder part of halo traction.

Art Lessons, Perhaps?

Little Artist: "Mom, this is for you!"

Mom: "Oh! Nice! And who is this?"

Little Artist: "It's you, Mom!"

We will keep the little artist's name hidden for now, but we told Mom to look on the bright side, she does look a little unhinged, but at least her portrait is smiling!

The Miracle of Normalcy

There is a degree of life called NORMAL. The degree intensifies or recedes as time passes; the length of time passed also varies. “Normal” differs for each of us….what is normal for me may be abnormal for you, and yet, God created us in His image. We all have the same basic needs, but when we feel we should have more of a basic need because of selfishness, or fear, or greed, or lust, our lives become…..abnormal. Jesus said that His grace was sufficient so I’m beginning to realize that having the mind of Christ is normal.

When something “out-of- the-ordinary” happens, I become fearful just like the disciples in the boat during their trip. Jesus said they were going across, but when the tempest rose up, everyone became intensely afraid and doubted the truth…..this was just not normal. And Jesus was asleep! Now sleeping sounds very normal to me.

Sleeping during a tempest is normal…..fearing during a tempest is not.

They forgot the verse in Psalm 118: 6: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” and the one is Proverbs 3: 24: “When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet.”

Normalcy becomes a miracle!

Pictures from this Week

Today Santi was so excited to go to church! He has been to the park down the road from our house and besides the short walks down our front side walk, this was his first outing.

Luke and Santi at the park Cilicia, Santi and Mr. Balogh
Ms. Sandy and Mr. Richard with Santi at church today

Santi with Steven at church

Good Day!

Today was Santi’s one week follow-up appointment and it was a good day! Santi was nervous and wouldn’t smile for me in the waiting room, which is very unusual, but considering what he’s been through, we do understand. He relaxed with x-rays as this is something familiar…..
The great news is that the x-rays showed an improvement in the curvature already! One curve that measured 99.8 degrees now measures 93.7 after only one week of traction. I thought it was pretty amazing and Dr. Hanff was also very pleased. Dr. Hanff is pictured below with Santi after a brief talk with us…he is assisting Dr. Woo on this case and we like him very much…….

Dr. Stephen Hanff and Santi

A surprise addition to our good day was being able to see an old friend….Gary. We grabbed a picture with him also after we needed to pick up a five-pound weight at the hospital. Gary constructed Santi’s Risser cast several years ago. We became immediate friends and he, one of Santi’s favorite people at Shands.

Santi and Mr. Gary (Cast Technician)

God is answering many prayers for Santi. Thank you for joining us!
~Ana~

Dwelling in Heaven

I recently studied patience. I even spoke about it in a talk to ladies at a Family Life Conference. I probably sounded very knowledgeable about it and maybe as if I was a very patient person….like I had it all together in the patience department. Shortly after that conference, I was tested and failed the test of patience.

The 3 main things I learned about patience were:

• Jesus loves me enough to allow the trial.
  


• The darker the trial, the brighter the testimony, and
  


• Hope is a key to understanding patience.

Hope……
Not “Oh, I hope this doesn’t last long.”
Not “Oh, I hope I’ll get married after all.”
Not “Oh, I hope this doesn’t leave a scar.”
Not, “Oh, I hope we don’t go bankrupt.”
Not, “Oh, I hope I’m completely healed.”
Not, “Oh, I hope I have a baby.”

Our hope is in heaven! Our hope is in the Lord! Our hope is eternal, not temporal….no matter what the physical outcome of the trial is, our hope is in heaven!

Santi is a picture of hopeful patience to me. I thought about how I would handle his situation: seven screws in my head and having to rely on the help of others just to go the bathroom….sitting all day long in one chair…..sleeping all night long without the luxury of turning over. Oh my.

Santi doesn’t talk about heaven, but he dwells there……………

Mom