Healthy Bodies

That's what we need.

First of all, if you haven't read the post below, you should. Such a great time with my son.

And secondly, those of you who are on Facebook may have already heard the news about Cass. But, for those of you who aren't on Facebook or haven't heard, I wanted to give you some things to be praying about for us. Here's the scoop...

Last Thursday night, Cass fell. It was a pretty good fall and bruised her cheek bone, but she seemed fine after some snuggling...no biggie. Friday she started complaining of her neck hurting when we picked her up. I didn't even think of the fall because I had also seen her sleeping pretty cockeyed, so just thought it was that...she'd slept on it wrong. We just watched it though. On Saturday it seemed to be better, but then on Sunday night she complained again when I picked her up. I put her back down and she amazingly stayed still enough for me to get a good look at her neck/shoulder area, standing in front of her, looking straight on. I noticed that her left collar bone was different than the right. Her left collar bone, at the end nearest her neck, had a knot, or a bulge. I actually thought that maybe that fall had caused it to become dislocated or something...

So, we happened to be at church. It was our first weekend here in Campinas, so it was our first time to visit this church. But, we have friends from Asas who are members there and they just happen to be in town right now on their furlough. So, I found them and asked if they knew a doctor in that church. After service, they brought one to check Cass out. He called us the next morning and said that he'd arranged for us to go have an x-ray. God's provision through this whole thing has been amazing.

So, we go and get the x-ray. "Our" doctor is a dermatologist, so he took it to one of his friends who is a pediatrician. The pediatrician said that it looked like an osteochondroma ('bone spur' or abnormal growth on the end of a long bone), but that this wasn't his specialty...so our doctor took it to another friend of his, an orthopedic doctor. That doctor said that the only speculation he could have by the x-ray is the same thing...osteochondroma. The only thing they could think of to explain the pain was that with the fall, maybe it was cracked a bit, but nothing really showed up on the x-ray. So...we were asked to get an ultrasound today to hopefully have some more answers as to what it is. She is totally fine...as long as you don't lift her up under her left arm or push on that bulge, so that's good. But, of course we definitely want to find out what this is and what we can do about it...what is causing her pain and how to remedy that. So, please pray for this ultrasound to be conclusive for us. Thanks.

This has been an interesting week. Grady and Hadley have also been puny. Hadley threw up just once during the night a couple of nights ago...was fine after that. But, Grady threw up last night and his puniness seems to be lasting...he's still asleep and it's almost 11am here. Not like him at all. So, just pray for them.

And...then there's me. I have been 'down in my back' this week. It started hurting about 3 days ago, but I decided that I was just going to push through it. Well yesterday, after 2 days of pushing, I could barely walk. Joel drove me to class (it's about a 10-15 minute walk from our house, so I always just walk) and after I'd sat in class for 2.5 hours, I literally almost had to ask to be carried to the car. :( Came home and laid down in bed and have been there ever since. One of my Portuguese teachers gave me the info for her chiropractor...I have an appointment with him/her this afternoon. Pray! I can't do anything...and there is lots I need to be doing. Poor Joel.

So, it's been a rough week. But, at the same time, God is really taking care of us. The ultrasound? Our doctor said that the church wanted to pay for it...they had already written a check for it. Wow...we've been to that church once. They don't know us. Amazing. Love God's family!

Not sure when we'll know the results of the ultrasound. Might have to wait until sometime next week since today is Friday...and the ultrasound is scheduled for 4pm. But, we'll keep you posted for sure. Thanks for the prayers!!

A couple of posts ago I mentioned the Arnold family...the brother who gave his other brother part of his liver and then passed away. Well, the family just shared this clip on Facebook and I wanted to pass it along. So sad, but so inspiring too.

Again, thanks for your prayers. We'll keep you updated on our bodies! And don't forget to scroll down to read about Grady. Thanks.