Jacob's Upcoming Surgery

Jacobs first few weeks of life were spent on a ventilator. Tubes were placed in his mouth that went down into his lungs to help him breathe. After he was a few weeks old the doctors tried removing the tubes to see if he could breathe on his own. Three times they tried and three times they had to re-intubate him. The problem was that his throat kept collapsing and closing his airway. They decided that they needed to perform a tracheostomy where they would cut a hole in this throat to let him breathe.

Obviously the thought of our little boy having to go through such an ordeal was very distressing. Literally people around the world began fasting and praying for him that he would somehow not need the surgery.

The day before the surgery we came to hospital and Jacob was breathing with no tubes! The nurse told us how during the night Jacob's little hands (he was probably still under 3 lbs.) had grabbed the tubes that were attached to his face with tape and literally pulled them out of his mouth and throat. The nurses were shocked but decided to wait and see what he would do. He just started breathing and never had to have the tracheostomy.

Years later when Jacob was eight and still not walking we were told by one of his physical therapists that he would probably never walk. Studies showed that if a child didn't walk by the time he was eight then he probably never would. After many prayers and much fasting by many people Jacob all of the sudden began to walk. He now walks everywhere, usually with the assistance of crutches, but around the house he just walks on his own.

That brings us to now. Even though Jacob is walking very well he still has a lot of tightness in his muscles due to his cerebral palsy. This tightness is causing problems as he grows and is walking more. His feet don't quite function correctly either which results with him basically walking almost completely on the insides of his feet, not the bottoms.

To fix this we have surgery scheduled for October 14th where his tendons will be lengthened and several bones will be rotated. Sound painful? From all accounts it is. It will involve a very lengthy and painful recovery period as well. We know that barring some miracle this is what Jacob needs to have done. But we also know that Jacob has seen miracles before in his life, oftentimes at what seems to be the eleventh hour.

I am assuming that if you are reading this, you are a friend of Jacob. We would just ask you to keep him in your prayers and your fasting in the upcoming weeks. Please pray that, if possible, he can avoid having to have this surgery, and if not so that he will be calmed, comforted and strengthened in his recovery.

Thank you so much,
Greg & Holly