It Wiggles and Jiggles - Pictures are grafic!!

Today Rebekah got her bandage off her arm and got a look at the balloon inserted under the skin on the underneath side of her forearm. She was appalled at how it looked :) It looks nothing like the last time we took the big bandages off, but she can't remember all that. I am glad God allows her to forget those rough moments in life. Anyway, the dressing is off and the stitches are out. The only stitch left is the one that shows us where to insert more water solution into the balloon. The purpose...stretch her skin so that he can cut out the big scar and close it over with her nice skin. When she touches the inflated area it send a ripple affect through the forearm. Kind of cool! There are pictures but warning...they aren't really pretty. We are thankful that it was not painful having the balloon inflated more today. It has a total of 50 ml (cc) of fluid it in now and will hold 155 ml. Over the next 6 weeks we hope to add 15-20 cc per week to reach the full point. Her arm should be pretty odd looking by then.

Beautiful!!

Barn next to the house.

Front of our house

I love evergreens with snow on them

Here are some great pictures of our house in the snow. We are staying in a country home that is owned by our church. We are enjoying God's creation all around. We love the cardinals, bluejays, nuthatch, woodpeckers, deer and other animal tracts. Today the contrast of the bright red cardinals on the white snow is just breathtaking. Thank you, God, for giving us snow this furlough.

Pictures of Eagles and Icebergs

I was able to get a few distant shots of the bald eagles. We must have seen well over 50 of them feeding and flying on the Mississippi. What a privilege!! Thanks to the Photo Shop program I got for Christmas I was able to zoom some of them in and actually have fairly good quality.

Eagles and Ice bergs

Tonight we are in Grafton, IL reporting tomorrow to the church here that has supported us since our early years of ministry. The children love to come here since we are only a few yards away from the mighy Mississippi. We have always been here in the summer but this year we are privileged to see the river in the winter. Since this winter has been so cold the river is just about all frozen in jagged, mean looking ice. One huge, cool thing is seeing lots and lots of bald eagles today, flying over us and sitting on the ice. Pastor told us that they were here but I never guessed it would be so many. It is totally awesome. I doubt we will get any pictures since they are so far away from us but they are beautiful birds. We have seen many barges just sitting in the middle of the frozen river, some tug boats trying to push their way through.

Rebekah is doing well. She sits with her arm propped up most of the time. She does request an occassional pain pill but overall is doing well. No swelling in her fingers at all.

Doing Great!

After a rough night with lots of pain and some issues this morning, Rebekah is doing great. You wouldn't even know she had surgery except for the big bandage on her arm. Thanks for your prayers.

Surgery Update

Rebekah's surgery went well today. She is now in quite a bit of pain since the nerve block has worn off. The incision is quite large but follows the scar line for the lower part of the graft donor site on her forearm. It was fantastic having daddy with us this time. We will see the surgeon again in 10 days when he will inflate the balloon with 30 ml of saline. From that time I, at home, will insert 15-20 ml more depending on her tolerance until about 150 ml has been added (should take about 6 weeks). Her arm will really look large by then, like a balloon is hanging off of it! We praise God for many things: clear roads, our wonderful surgeon, the great staff at St. Vincents, our pastoral staff (2 of them called to pray with Rebekah), the Knolhoffs and Boyers who took care of our children after school, having David with me in surgery waiting this time around, etc. We are back on the hunt for warm shirts that she can get a large dressing through.

Surgery #4 since the accident last February

Daddy takes care of his girl. It was so wonderful having him with us this time.

Surgery Tomorrow

For all of our followers, just wanted to let you know that Rebekah has surgery tomorrow in Indianapolis at 12:30 for surgery on her forearm. They will be inserting balloon like things to stretch her forearm skin. Over a period of about 6 weeks they will slowly inflate those balloons to stretch her natural skin. They will then be able to cut out the big scar and close it over with the stretched skin giving her arm a better appearance. Here are some pictures of her arm and hand right now...oh how far we have come. She still has little movement of the index finger that was crushed. We really expect that it will never improve. She is fine with all that.

Spirit Week - Day 3 Cinema Day

Princess Leah
Bob the Builder

John Wayne

Popcorn Vendor at the cinema

Spirit Week - Day Two Medieval Day

Peasant
She was actually a part of a 2 headed dragon. This isn't her real costume.

Soldier/Knight

Spirit Week...Day One

Today is history day at Faith Christian School.

Guess who...yep, I am Johnny Appleseed

Look out, I am Annie Oakley

Buenos Días, I am an Inca Indian woman

I am a Vietnamese

Ice Skating

We enjoyed going to the ice skating rink here in West Lafayette a few weeks ago. Too bad there were hundreds of people also ice skating. It was a perfect night for it. I am not sure why I don't have a pic of Benjamin ice skating.

Good byes

Today Steve and Molly and their family left to return to Peru. We will miss them. We did enjoy checking out the new Indy airport. It is really nice. We will see Steve and Molly again when we return to Peru at the end of July. We have enjoyed seeing them frequently these past 6 months. In Peru we usually only see them once a month since they live about 2 hours away.

Caleb says good bye to one of his favorite people, Uncle David. They will miss each other. Notice the matching hair color?

The girls.

Jacob and Caleb

Funny Comment

Today while watching some football, one of our daughters commented, "someone lost their yellow hanky on the field." Ha!! Guess she needs to watch more football.