We were discharged from Children's at noon on Monday.  We got home at 1:30 and were so excited to be there. We had just started to relax when at 3pm, Jude started vomiting blood. We ran him to the ER close to home and they transferred us to Children's.

They kept us at Children's overnight for observation. He didn't throw up again but did end up with blood in his stool and hives all over his body. He also acted like he wanted to eat but then wouldn't (or couldn't ?). Poor baby was miserable!

After x-rays of his belly, blood work and observation, it was decided that he has received too many NSAIDS (ibuprofen and such which they give after his surgeries for pain) over the past month of 3 surgeries. They think it has eaten away his stomach lining causing bleeding. The hives may have come from the stomach acid and blood being on his skin.

They discharged us this morning. He is back to eating normally again (he only nurses) and is acting better too. The swelling in his head has continued to go down and we are able to get a better picture of how he will look with his new head shape-definitely super cute!

He will need to stay off all NSAIDS for a month to allow his tummy to heal. Please pray for continued healing!

Jude is scheduled to have his craniosynostosis surgery on Friday morning. If you could please pray that it goes smoothly and his recovery is quick.

Also, I will be staying with him the 3-7 days he's in the hospital (David will be with me on surgery day but will be home with our other 6 during the rest of the time). So if you could pray that I would get enough sleep to be able to function and take care of him. And for peace as I'm with him as it could be difficult with him in pain and all the other factors that come into play during a hospitalization.

And for David and the others. That things would run smoothly at home and that they would have a chance to have some fun during this stressful time. And for things to work out for David to drop the kids off with a good friend for a day to come down and see Jude and I.

Thanks, Rebecca

I've found that often my plan for the day is not God's plan. Today was a perfect example!

I had a normal "stay at home, homeschooling mom of 7 day planned"-schooling, cooking, laundry, time with the kids, putting up the last of the apples. By 10 am, I KNEW that was not God's plan for the day.

Jesse fell out of Jared's bunkbed and came out screaming. After checking him over, I was pretty sure there was no concussion. BUT it did appear that he had broken his left wrist.

So phone calls to Daddy, the Dr and a trip to urgent care to have it looked at and x-rayed were next. Sure enough, it's broken!

He is now in a splint and a sling. On Monday, we'll go back to the Dr to have it casted (they wait that long to make sure the swelling has gone down). Amazingly, Jesse is doing fairly well. We do have him on Ibuprofen for pain. The most irritating thing to him is having to keep the splint and sling on. He keeps telling me it's better and we need to take it off.

We were pleased to celebrate two birthdays last week. Sam turned 12 on the 3rd and John turned 13 on the 4th. I can't believe that many years have passed already!

Sam got the extra special celebration this year (just like John did last year). On their 12th birthday, David takes them out for some talking and object lessons about becoming a man of God. They also get to choose a restaurant and go out with David and I for their first "adult" meal (they order off the children's menu before this). They also receive 7 special presents relating to Scripture and becoming a man of God.

Although they have been learning about taking care of a house, car, etc and relating to siblings and others in a Godly fashion, the training steps up at this point. They are with David for any work he does around the house so that they can learn how to do it. They are also expected to take on more work on their own around the house to help out. As we have always told them, responsibility and priviledge go together. So their priviledges go up at this point also. Later bedtimes and a few extra freedoms have been recently gained priviledges.

It is wonderful to have two "young men" (not teenagers : ) around the house now!

Jude had a VERY fussy week following his last surgery (to put the shunt in). He finally settled down last Thursday. He is now doing wonderfully. Sleeping great. Very happy. VERY alert. Watching everything. Reaching out to grab whatever comes his way. Smiling and laughing.

We are very glad to have our happy baby back!!

His next surgery is scheduled for November 20th. This one is for the craniosynostosis.

Jude had a pre-op appointment last Wednesday (October 7). It was tough going back to that office as that is where everything began. I had to fight some horrible flashbacks while there!

While there, we got some good news though. I was able to meet with Jude's Neuro-oncologist. He said that he thinks the "mark" we see on Jude's MRI is NOT tumor. Evidently, once you've had brain cancer, you will always have a "mark" on your brain. The Dr. is pretty sure that that is the "mark" we see. It should change into into a cyst as we monitor him with further MRI's. I was also able to see just how much different his scan was since the first one. The Dr. copied off  a picture of the first scan and the last scan so I could take them home for David too. He was very happy to have the "proof" in his hands also.

The bad and the ugly: Jude's hydrocephaly has not been fully resolved. He is going to have another surgery on Friday October 23 to hopefully address that issue. The surgery will be endoscopic so not as "involved" as the first one. They will be "poking" a hole in the septum (kind of like a piece of skin) between the two ventricles so that the right one (that is filling up again) can drain into the left one. We are hoping this will resolve the issue.

We also learned that do to his advanced age (the normal age is 3-6 months and he will be almost 9 months), Jude's craniosynostosis surgery will be more involved. They will have to reshape his forhead and the back of his head (usually it's just one or the other). This will probably result in a longer hospital stay. We were expecting 3-5 days and have now been told it could be as long as 7. This means we will possibly be in over Thanksgiving. My older children were especially upset over this news. Everything has been very hard on all of us!!!

Please pray: for Jude's new surgery-that he would be healthy for it, that it would go well, that he would have a quick recovery, and that it would resolve the hydrocephaly issue. For Jude's cranio surgery (on Nov 20)-that Jude would be healthly, that I would be healthy so I can donate blood for him, that it would go well and with a fast recovery. General-that our family would experience peace during this time.

David started his new job on Wednesday. He is enjoying it. The first day, he ran into 3 people that he knew from our previous church and Cisco classes. We are so happy that it is a good fit for him!

The kids and I are keeping ourselves busy. It does help with the adjustment of Daddy going back to work. We miss him!

We've gotten back to school after taking a week off for a term break (9 weeks of school done). Today after school, we made salsa and applesauce with some produce that friends passed on to us. YUM!!! All the kids helped with the applesauce and I even received comments like "This is so much fun" and "I'd rather do this than be watching cartoons or playing". They are pretty proud of the finished product!!!

John and Sam have started a dog walking business and are enjoying getting out with the dogs every day. They walk them every day but Sunday. It's neat to see them take the initiative in starting a business. They also started back to their church catechism class yesterday. Our Pastor is so good with them. They love going even though it is a lot of work. Actually, I think the work is part of the reason they enjoy it. They are learning something important and feel good when they do well.

Jude gain 5.4 ounces last week. Much better than his previous two weeks of 3 ounces total. The Doctors have us watching his weight again for awhile to make sure he starts going up again. He has been so sick this time that he hasn't eaten as much and has been throwing up what he has eaten. The throwing up has mostly subsided (only once in the past week) so that will help with the weight gain also. He has his first pre-op appt for the craniosynostosis next week.

That's about all that's new for now!

God says in Matt 17:20 "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move, Nothing will be impossible for you".

I've found this week that my Faith IS smaller than a mustard seed. Have you ever seen one? I actually did in the gift store at Children's Hospital when Jude was an inpatient in May. They are the tiniest seeds you've ever seen! And that's saying a lot for seeds! Yet my faith is smaller than that. But I have something better. I have God and He grants me Faith since I don't have it. Then nothing is impossible for me because nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). And I have Him!

This week has been so tough for my faith. First, Jude's MRI didn't come back as hoped. Then David accepted a job that paid less and will require extreme frugality on our parts and still faith that the numbers will work out. I fell into doubt and worry, wondering how this would work, how would the numbers match up.

Yet, God was there all along. AND so I wouldn't doubt but would KNOW that He was, He provided before we really got to the need. A $100 gift card and since even that didn't totally break down my disbelief more money in an envelope today!

How can I doubt my God who created the world with His Word alone, who split the sea for the Israelites to cross and escape the Eqyptians chasing them, who closed the lions mouths when Daniel was placed in their den, who broke down Jerico's walls with just marching, trumpet sounds and shouting, who gave His very own Son to die for me! "Nothing is Impossible with God" Luke 1:37

Oh, I am so thankful for His patience with me and my unbelief! And I will thank Him for this trial because it is testing my faith and will develop perseverance so that I will be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:2-4).

And I will use it to train my children's faith so that they will know Who their God is and will be able to trust Him when their trials come!

David accepted a job on Wednesday. It is a 6 month contract position with HP. While it is a job, it is bringing with it new challenges. The first is a decent commute, meaning more time away and more car expenses.  We've done decent commutes before so we know we can deal with that part.

The hardest part is the pay. It is less than his previous job. So we are scrambling to make our bills fit our new income.

While we have always been fairly frugal, we are now going to need to go more "extreme". We would love to hear from anyone who has ideas on how to cut costs further. You can comment below this post (click on post a comment) or you can email me at damohrs@msn.com. We are looking for those things beyond the normal frugal.

So far we: Hang all laundry (our winter lines went up in our basement yesterday), grind our own wheat and make all our own bread/tortillas/breakfast foods, cook from scratch, combine trips to save gas, shop at garage sales/thrift stores, keep the thermostat set low (65 at this point for the winter), borrow movies from friends/library for entertainment, make our own cleaning supplies/laundry soap/liquid hand soap.

We will be: using cloth diapers, making a price book for grocery shopping, eliminating non-nutrious foods, going to just drinking water/milk/occasional juice, looking at selling David's car and getting something with better gas mileage (although we also still need to get a car that will hold all of us and sell the suburban).

We plan on gardening next summer. We tried this summer but the hail/excessive rain got all our plants and our time and energy was so limited with Jude so we didn't plant more. So no harvest/canning for this year.

If you have any other ideas, we would love to hear them! For those that live near us, are there any other inexpensive places to buy food (we know about Esh's and the 1st street shop-can't remember the name)?  We would also appreciate prayer as we make this adjustment and look for more ways to cut our bills.

I've been having a hard time putting into words what happened yesterday. Sorry for the delay in writing.

The news was not all we had hoped. We were of course hoping the the tumor was completely gone. It is not. It has shrunk from what it was in July but there is still some "mass" there. The cyst that had replaced the tumor in July has shrunk but some is still present also.

Unfortunately, our regular Neuro-oncologist  was not in yesterday so we talked with another Dr. The Dr we did talk to didn't describe it well to us and the pictures we received were not very good and it was hard to see an improvement. We left feeling quite frustrated and down.

We did talk to our Neuro-oncologist by phone later in the day. He told us that he was very satisfied and hopeful with what he saw. He would also like to see us to show us the MRI pics on the computer next time we are in clinic.

What this all means: Jude is still done with chemo. His little body cannot take any more at this point. He has just had two days of no vomiting (although he occasionally acts like he will). We will probably be having another MRI in 2 months instead of the planned 3 to check what is happening. The craniosynostosis surgery is still planned for November 20.