Just a quick note Saturday morning....David's opening night was last evening and it was a great show.  I did however wonder where he was at one point when he would have normally been on the stage.  I found out afterwards that he was on the verge of vomiting and felt terrible.  Larry took him straight home (there was an opening night party) and he went to bed.  He's not a wimp about sickness at all, and in fact is rarely ill, so when he said he couldn't do the shows today, we knew he was sick.  Anyway, this throws a major challenge at the artistic team since much of David's role is partner dancing with Janelle (love the name) and I'm not sure how you swing dance by yourself (but we're about to find out).  Please pray for those affected by the change today including family that was traveling from out of town this weekend to see David....and for a speedy recovery.  We're praying for protection too for the family (Benjamin!) as well as the rest of the cast that he's been around.  Benjamin continues to be pretty quiet...we think he's having some pain and are trying to keep him covered with Tylenol, Motrin, etc. I'm on my way out the door for a mandatory Pocahontas meeting for the girls before I run up to Washougal to do refreshments for the 2 shows later today.  Larry will hold down the fort here and Cindy is coming so he can have a break to get to church.  Us girls will get there in the morning. 

What a ride....we keep holding on to Him who is in control. 

Love Janelle

Just a short post tonight to let you know Benjamin came home today.  He's a bit subdued, maybe some pain (he can't tell us).  I think I need to get to bed...it's been a long day, but Molly and I got Krissy up to Washougal tonight to enjoy David's show (the final dress rehearsal).  She did pretty well, but Molly and I agree we wouldn't try taking her to the real thing.  I think Benjamin is tucked in for the night.  Tomorrow is a big day.  Thanks again for your caring, demonstrated in many ways this week as well as your many prayers for our little boy (and Kris too)

Love janelle

I  just couldn't resist posting just a couple more pictures.  I showed Benjamin his Converse High Tops and he just lit up....probably thought "All right, mom and I are outta here".  He was alittle guarded but went for quite a walk (ok, maybe 25 feet, but this is the first walk with a big 'ol incision).  As you can see he wanted a ride back. 

The resident came around and I told him that things were going well enough that I thought we could probably go tomorrow.  They are very short of beds here, and in fact are having to divert patients to other hospitals.  He said he'd get the paperwork started, so just maybe it won't even take most of the day to be set free.  

The girls and I would love to make a short visit to the Harvest Moon Bazaar at church as it may be our only opportunity.  Then Molly and I are on tomorow evening for taking Krissy to see big brother in High School Musical 2.  It's actually his last dress rehearsal before opening on Friday, but taking her to a rehearsal is far more relaxing than going to a show.  The girl hasn't yet met a stage she can resist. 

Maybe our next post will be from home....Mom is doing night duty tonight, so hopefully Krissy will be settled.  I plan to sleep in a little longer than today, maybe heading to Gresham at 6am to get Kris up and on her bus.  She, as of the bus safety meeting yesterday, was approved for a bus buddy, so she'll always have an adult with her, which we believe will significantly reduce the risks to her and the rest of the world. 

Take care and thanks for praying us thru this recent, somewhat wearing leg of our journey. 

Love, janelle

It's a happy day...As you can see from Benjamin enjoying playtime with Jamie, he's feeling so much better! I'm really looking forward to taking him home soon. I asked the nurse to call me at 4:30 this morning so I could get up and drive to Gresham.. Cindy graciously agreed to sleep over at our house last night, but needed to leave for work at 5:30. I really enjoyed the outing. I was able to get a number of things together for the responsibilities I have for David's show (refreshment committee :o) as well as a couple loads of laundry and watching Kristin for several hours. I got her up about 7am. She looked pleasantly surprised to see me and said, with enthusism "Janelle!!! " as though she wanted to add "welcome home, where have you been?" She was so calm and just was enjoying entertaining herself and having me push the swing with her in it (indoor!). Molly was able to come over late mornng and so I was able to return here to the hospital. I was so encouraged to have Benjamin take over 5 oz., his first real feeding. He tried yesterday, but it was only equivalent to a tablespoon for the day...he just wasn't quite up for it. But now I feel like he likely will be ready to head out of here tomorrow. That will be so wonderful. Thanks for continued prayers for us....It feels like maybe we're getting our noses out of the water.Love Janelle

Tuesday afternoon...

Sorry for the late post today...somehow the hours have gotten away from me.  First, thank you for your prayers.  Kristin seems to be doing better (this is not a firsthand account, nor have I heard from school today about her behavior).  Aside from one escape at school yesterday with a fairly quick apprehending  just outside the doors, it wasn't a bad Monday.  She definitely was markedly improved at home yesterday afternoon, evening and this morning.  Benjamin has slept much of the day.  He's not very happy when he's awake....I'm sure he must be uncomfortable with a 5 inch incision.  He did sleep pretty well.  They woke me about 3am when he  decided the nose hose had to go...so it did.  Thankfully he doesn't have to have it anymore.  We won't know for a while yet how long this hospitalization will go.  He really doesn't want to drink today, so the surgeon told me not to push it (fear not!).  

Keep up the prayers...Love, Janelle

4:15 Monday

All is well here....Above, Benjamin after he returned from the recovery room...preferring the security of his buggy over the unfamiliar hospital crib.  He was in the OR for about 2 hours and it ended up being a very good decision. He had a large section of bowel that had herniated and definitely needed to be set free. The surgeon reports that all of his bowel still looked healthy, so there wasn't a need to remove any....we're very thankful for that.  The portion that was trapped will take some time to recover so I don't know what we're looking at in terms of the hospital stay.  Didn't occur to me to ask that for now. Unfortunately the nose tube stays down until we start seeing some 'evidence' on the other end that things have resumed function.  There is also a possibility that he may need another surgery 'in a few days', but I sure hope not.  Thanks to all of you who've sent encouraging notes and offered to help in different ways. We're very blessed.  Love, janelle

PS:  I haven't heard from Krissy's school today and have decided to embrace the notion that 'no news has got to be good news'.  Maybe we should ask Jorie, Kristin's teacher to be our guest blogger.

I would just like to say at the onset that I am not the one being flaky here....Shortly after attending surgeon #1 left with his team, attending surgeon #2 showed up. He's the one who has done most of Benjamin's surgical care.  He was very definite that we needed to take care of this today and within the hour, we were on the way to the OR where he is now.  He said if everything goes perfect, it will be about 1 1/2 hours.  Thanks for praying that the problem will be quickly identified and easily fixed.  Also a very rapid recovery would be nice as life at home was pretty challenging already with 2 parents there.  Now Larry is having to cope with alot there during the day/evening and work at night.  We really want him to stay well too.  Thankfully Molly had Krissy all ready for school when Larry arrived home from work, so they took right off with her, dropping Jamie off on the way.  Larry said there was absolutely no problem with her going to her class (thank you God) and her TA will ride the bus home with her this afternoon.  Jamie will then watch her until Larry gets up.  We're very thankful for our friend Malana who is able to take David back and forth to rehearsals this week....these are up in Washougal, so it's quite a drive and I'm not sure how we would be able to manage that.

I'll let you all know later what they've found and how Benjamin is doing.  Thanks for your prayers for our family.

Love janelle