Pajama Jam

We had a Pajama Jam party at church today with all of the kids and UpStreet volunteers. It was a fun time of kids connecting with their small group leaders in a different way. Everyone came in their PJs, including our staff! It was lots of fun. Below are some pictures of our UpStreet Staff team early on a Sunday am getting ready for the morning!

 

Update on Jake

Here is an update — sent through Caring Bridges —

Surgery is Complete and Successful! Yesterday Jake was put on three different antibiotics to combat a wide range of potential pathogens that might have been causing a low-grade infection, possibly in his lungs. Just before midnight last night, his temperature dropped from 102 to 100, his blood count increased and his blood pressure stabilized, so surgery was scheduled and begun at 8:30 this morning. It concluded successfully at about 2:30 this afternoon, approximately 6 hours earlier than expected, because much of what needed to be done had been accomplished in Thursday’s surgery. Dr. T announced to Marcus and Laurie that everything went smoothly and Jake is now in recovery! Titanium rods, screws and cage are now in place! Praise be to God!!

However, Jake’s body has been through a lot this past week. In addition to the stress of the accident, itself, he has undergone two extensive and complex surgeries—one anterior and one posterior. His body now needs to recuperate from the trauma.

Thank you all so much for praying with us for Jake and his family.

Please continue to pray for him — as next week will be grueling and extremely painful. Dr. T explains that Jakes pain will peak about 1 week from today — and it will be intense all week.

Jake

Yesterday I learned news about a senior in high school on his way home from football practice this week that had a car accident. He started to run off the side of the road and overcompensated and hit a light pole. He was taken to the hospital and was told his back was broken, his spinal cord completely severed, and that he would never walk again. I don’t know this young man personally but have some friends who are close to the family. They were sharing the news with me. After lying in the hospital for 2 days, he had to go into a 10 hour surgery to see what could be done to stabilize him and keep him alive as his lungs were filling with fluid and he was running a fever. This student is a believer who has a heart for the Lord. We sat down to pray for him, his doctors, his family, and all that next day(s) would involve. Today I found that the doctors saw that things were better than they originally thought. He made it through surgery and will have to undergo another 10 hour surgery to try to reconstruct the spine. For some reason the news of this weighed heavy on my heart all day yesterday and is still on my mind today. I keep thinking of this high school senior, who one moment is at football practice, and many moments later is in a hospital being told by the doctor that he will never walk again. How life can change in an instant. Also, how BIG of a God we have that we could go to Him yesterday and make some of the requests we did for this guy…that a group of ladies here in GA could cry out for a young man in CA asleep under the hands of many doctors and know that our God was reaching out in love to this family across the miles as we asked for His power to made known in that hospital room. I was so glad to read the email this morning that in fact the doctors found that the covering around the spinal cord was still intact and that there was still fluid in the cord. Maybe you would like to join me in praying for this young man, Jacob, as he continues to “walk” with our Lord through these dark days and that God would shine bright even in the darkest places.

Family Vacation

We tried something for the 1st time this year…a beach vacation with all of the Knox Family. Steve’s parents treated us all to an awesome beach house right on the beach in Santa Rosa. We decided at the last minute to brave Hurricane Ike and go for it. We ended up having beautiful weather. The tide was pretty high the last 3 days we were there, but we enjoyed watching the guys try to body surf in them. It was quiet a sight watching them get taken under many times. We had a great restful week. It was fun to watch MP with her cousins, Lauren and Anna. It was also a treat to have extra hands to help out. Steve and I were even able to get out for a couple of meals on our own. The family all graciously put up with my “evening” sickness which still has not even begun to subside. Hopefully it will in another several weeks. MP loved the beach. She fearlessly wanted to walk out as far as she could into the ocean. It was fun watching her discover it for the first time. We also saw some of the most beautiful sunsets. We learned that when you have small children, whole family vacations are a GREAT idea! It makes for much more of a vacation. We were thankful for the time we got to spend with everyone. Unfortunately, we were chasing MP all over the place and didn’t get as many pictures of her as I would have liked. We also talked about taking one of those outside family beach pictures in white and khaki but had to go with an indoor shot due to the crazy winds of Ike. Here are a few of the shots we got. It’s always so sad to leave the beach when vacation is over. Oh well, we’ll look forward to next time!

Early morning before anyone else was even awake

swimming with Anna

Mommy, I'm ready to go swimming!

playing in some rough waves

froggy pool with Lauren

View from our back porch every night