Things are calming down . . .

As you can tell from a couple of Craig's post last night that Matthew had another rough night. Dr. Geiss came by this morning and went over all the tests and they have determined that Matthew's pain is from his drainage tubes. They would like to pull them but he's not eating enough. They started back up with some narcotics to help with the pain which made me nervous since his stomach still has issues. Thanks to everybody's prayers he finally pooped today which means his stomach is waking up. The best thing was that he went 5 times!!! Seems crazy to be bragging about this but it was becoming a major problem. He ate a couple of crackers, part of a bag of pretzels, 4 slices of banana, 5 bites of rice and 4 bites of mashed potatoes today. He also drank a little. We are hoping to keep moving forward.

So many of you have asked for specific prayer requests so we would love to share those with you:

1. He starts eating and drinking regularly
2. He continues to have bowel movements
3. That they are able to pull the drainage tubes soon
4. He remains with no effusions after eating (fluid around the lungs)

Thanks for all of your prayers today. Look how well they worked.

On a fun note, Matthew was a character this afternoon and was talking up a storm. It was wonderful to see him happy. He was feeling better with the pain meds and being able to poop. He named all the fish on the ceiling (Grandma Fish, Grandpa Fish, Mommy Fish, Daddy Fish, Sissy Fish, Gracey Fish and Zavier Fish). We had a few visitors and some special honeymooners. I was in a wedding yesterday (Craig was suppose to be but somebody needed to stay with Matthew). The wedding couple, Heidi and Fred (by the way, we introduced them!!!) came by for a visit and brought a big doggy that Matthew loved.

A visit from Grandpa and Grandma Orwig. They brought him a book that has buttons which makes noise and Matthew decided to operate it with his foot.

Sissy came for a visit and he was excited to see her as she was him. They watched a movie together and it was so good for the both of them!

He kept an eye on her because he didn't want her to leave.

We would like to say a special thanks to our church family. All of your emails, phone calls, visits and prayers have meant so much. We love you and can't wait to be back to church with the whole family.

By the way, today was my Mom's birthday and I forgot until this afternoon. My mind isn't functioning too well these days. So if you see her tell her Happy Belated Birthday to make up for my forgetfulness!!