Good News Again!

Well, Beniah had some very happy parents and grandparents and aunt and uncle today. He is breathing on his own with the ventilator standing by for back up. If his respirations fall below 28 per minute then the ventilator kicks in but he's been doing very well. He opened his eyes a little and responded to Tim when he talked to him. Tim said Beniah cried (obviously not making any sounds) but had tears when he said he was going to go away but then stopped when Tim reassured him that Mommy would stay and that he would send Grandpa. Tim sounded so encouraged when he answered the phone that I almost thought I had the wrong number! He has a machine that vibrates his chest on and off to keep the mucus loose and I guess it really bugs Beniah. He gets all agitated and moves his hands around a lot when it starts up. So exciting! Keep praying. He's still got a long road ahead of him with a lot of downs on it but I guess every good day is just that...a good day and we take them as they come! Prasie the Lord! Tim's brother and sister-in-law arrived there today too so that will be a wonderful encouragement to the Crisco's as well. Tim said to make sure to mention that they are humbled and so encouraged by all of the prayers of brothers and sisters in Christ. He said that it's amazing to see how God is working different things in different people's lives through this whole situation. Tim said the verse that keeps coming to his mind is John 3:27, "John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.""

New Update on Beniah

I just got off the phone with Tim. He said the Dr's are expecting Beniah to pull through but that it will be a long hard journey. His white blood cell count, blood pressure and blood oxygen levels are all good. He had a lot of acid in his blood earlier today but they treated him for that and I guess it's stabilized now. They had him a little less sedated for awhile this evening while changing tubes or something and I guess he had responded with his vitals to Tim's voice. Please pray for Tim and Teresa that God will comfort them and show them his goodness and mercy in all of this. Their other kids are also sick with sinus colds. The baby, Talia, is vomiting from all of the post nasal drainage and not eating well and Timmy is coughing a lot. All around they're not doing so well. Tim's parents drove down from Canada to be with them so that's a big help. Tim said he'd send me an email daily to forward on to a list of people with updates so that should cut down on the amount of phone calls he has to take during the day. Please keep praying.

God is Good!

An update on Beniah. Tim called this evening and said the Dr's are surprised by his progress. His temperature never went above 103 F and they expected it to go a lot higher. His lungs sound clearer than they expected at this point as well. They're feeling hopeful. The Dr's would like to take Beniah off of the ventilator tomorrow and see if he can breathe on his own. Keep praying...I know that the prayers of all of you make such a big difference! Praise the Lord!

Encouragement in the Midst of the Darkness

I've been feeling really discouraged since I heard about Beniah. A friend who went through some terrible loss in her life gave me this song as an encouragement. What a wonderful change of perspective!

Blessed Be Your Name
by Matt Redman- - -

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

Pray for Beniah Crisco

Please pray for this little boy. He fell in a septic hole yesterday and is in the hospital on life support. He has an awful bacterial infection in his lungs from all of the bacteria in the septic. We don't know yet whether he will live and the Dr's don't know either. Only God knows what he has in store for little Beniah. I will try to keep updating my blog as we get more info.

Getting Warmer Out...

Well, the snow is all melted and things are starting to get warmer...wetter but definately warmer. The girls love to play outside and usually come in all muddy along with their dogs as well. I had to convince Naomi that she couldn't pick my crocuses outside. She wanted to pick them and give them to Grandma. Sweet, but you know... I really have no updates on our paperwork or when we'll be heading to the Camp but I figured I'd at least show that we're still alive out here in Racine. Here's some pics...

Spring Finally!

We've been having some beautiful spring weather lately. With all of the construction that went on at the church last fall, there is plenty of black soil that hasn't yet been landscaped. Well, Ryan had practice for music at church on Saturday morning and after practice, with permission from Pastor Dave, Ryan and the teenage boys decided to go 4-wheeling with the Chevy Luv in all of the mud! They had a great time and managed to get the truck nice and muddy. Here's a picture for you! Ministry related...our missions committee wants to meet with us again to put some plans for support and church involvement in place. Please pray.

Paperwork Kerfuffle

Well, I tried to get everything together to send out the girls' applications for proof of Canadian Citizenship. It just never works out as smoothly as we hope right? It turns out the proof of person documents that they had listed as required on the forms I printed off of the web, are not the same ones they really want. So when I was double checking by calling the consulate, they told me a complete different list of forms. So that will hold us up for a little while as I try to round up the correct documents. Please pray that I will be patient with this whole process because I have already experienced the ins and outs of the government paperwork processes. Well, that's all for right now. As the love of Christ sustains us...