Eli's Journey

Elijah and his lovely weekend nurse Melody enjoy playing on the stairs (Eli's favorite activity right now).

Elijah's head doc says the bump we were concered over is literally, just a bump. Nothing to get excited over. Good news! We are just a week away from his next surgery. Love you all, Melissa

I wanted to post a photograph of Elijah from Feb. 2007 to Feb. 2009. The difference is amazing! The 2009 photograph is him sitting in a high chair at Cafe USA playing with the condiments. Great Grammie Edna is doing fine. She remains in ICU for initial recovery then on to a regular room. Keep praying for her. Elijah is scheduled with Dr. El Amm this Thursday for an initial re-evaluation. Dr. El Amm is great at getting Eli an appointment no matter the short notice. I am thankful for that. It does mean he'll miss a day of school and YES, I am sure he will notice. Love you all, Melissa

Great Grammie Edna (my mom's mom) will have open heart surgery tomorrow to replace a valve in her heart. Please say special prayers for her. The surgery will be at Medical City hospital in Dallas by experts in the field. Elijah continues to amaze us. Now he is working at "standing" up on his knees. He's nearly mastered his scoot on his rear and then he discovered he can pop up on his knees to see further and get higher. I envision Elijah walking around on those knees before too long. I hope to need some great knee pads. We are gearing up for Elijah's next wrist surgery in Shreveport. His corrected wrist serves him very well. He by far favors using that hand for his activities. Soon, he'll have two hands that function the same way and this will help him further advance. We are setting an appointment with the great Dr. El Amm in OKC to look at Elijah's head. His surgery to open the suture was 13 months ago and it is time for El Amm to reevaluate. Last we...

I am sad to report that Sophia's pet hamster died yesterday. And, even though the little gal was DOA (dead on arrival) the veterinarian charged us $55 to tell us it was likely an upper respiratory infection. I'm feeling ripped off. David performed hamster compressions on her as she drifted. It was a sad ordeal. The neighbor kids were all over at the start of it. I sent them all outside and they stood on the back porch crying. We will all survive. I'm not sure how long we'll go before we give it another try...likely not as long as I would like. Elijah is a gem. He uses his little fingers to manipulate objects with better accuracy these days. Yesterday evening we headed to a favorite restaurant , Cafe USA, for dinner with the Groves. Eli sat at the end of the table in a high chair and played with the little packets of creamer. He enjoyed stacking them into the little container. Getting them out and stacking them again. David would add an occasional new element, like swe...

Eli has completed his first four-day school week. He was pooped this evening. He went to spend a few hours playing with Grammie and Grandpa and fell asleep about 20 minutes before we arrived to bring him home for the night. He had a great first week. On the first day, another child took Clifford...for about 1 second before the adults in the room rescued Elijah's very best buddy back into his arms. It was so cute. The other child really didn't care one way or the other, but Elijah let us know that he will do a lot of things, but sharing Clifford is NOT one of them. I took a "spare" Clifford to school for his bin, just in case we arrive without the trusty companion. Yes, we found spare Cliffords . Actually Aunt Lesli found them and Granna stocked Eli up. Today was PJ day. The week's theme of "P" fit in nicely with their PJs and pancakes today. How fun. Collect your box tops for education for the Little Light House! Love you all, Melissa

During my time in New England eleven years ago, I became good friends with the most talented singer/songwriter I've ever met in person, and you'd be surprised which ones I've met. His name is Todd McDonald, and the songs he wrote and performed that year are chisled in my mind. More importantly, he is a man after God's own heart in the tradition of the Biblical heroes. He listens more than he talks, except when he plays his guitar and everyone stops to listen. http://www.myspace.com/toddmacdonald I found out this week that Todd has stomach cancer. He's in a lot of pain, and the prognosis is somewhat poor. I haven't spoken to Todd since I found out, but I received this e-mail from my mother and felt you needed to see it: February 2, 2009 There is a voice in the world that is clear and beautiful and speaks of God’s love, compassion, instruction and power. That instrument lives in Todd McDonald, the most unassuming and talented young man we’ve had the pleasure to ...

Eli had a great first day of school. He played in cool whip, played in the gym, sang lots of songs and learned about the letter P. Thank you Little Light House staff and supporters. More to come. Melissa