We Hope...an Update for Joe

Sorry this update has taken a couple of days…all of your email and posts letting me know how you have been praying have been very APPRECIATED! Shawn and I are back traveling, so email is again inconsistent at best. But we had it this morning and I wanted to let you know how things are going.

Joe is still in the hospital this morning…but thank God, he seems a lot more like himself. Mom said they played for 9 hours yesterday and he was doing all of his tricks (most famously, the monkey face*grin*) and remembering the games he likes. His speech is still not fully back, but it is getting better each day.

They did the EEG and the results were inconclusive….you have to be still and quiet for an EEG and did I mention Joe will only be 4 in a couple of weeks?!?! Yeah, not so simple with that whole ‘still and quiet’ thing….especially when he’s really scared. Joe spent a good deal of time in the hospital last January after the car accident and he’s not fond of the place. He kept saying to my dad “OME…peeeese!” (translation: home please!) They did a second EEG and ran into the same problem. So instead on November 4 Joe will wear a monitor all day that allows him to just be ‘normal’ all day and then they will try to get information from that. So be praying that shows what is going on.

They have yet to find any illegal substances in Joe’s blood or urine. It seems like he probably did have a seizure at some point… Tests have also shown that Joe has a dangerously high lead level. This is something we have known for…well, since Joe was less than a year old. The hospital and health department have told his Mom to move and even threatened her to move, and she has failed to do that. Joe’s levels are three times as high as they should be! The doctors also found that his bi-carb level is way too high. The doctor pulled My Mom aside and basically let on that they are keeping Joe at the hospital longer than they would normally because they are all scared to send him home with his Mom. I tell you, I want to hug that doctor just for understanding the situation.

It feels like for our family that we have been screaming from the rooftops- BEGGING anyone who can change Joe and Josh’s situation to see how bad it is and no one has listened. Of course, God has listened and we have felt a peace that these kids are His (He is a father to the fatherless), but in our dealings with people, it has been frustrating at best.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Joe’s Mom admitted to my aunt (who is a licensed counselor) that she shook Joe when he started spinning around and acting crazy because she thought he was being ‘bad’. She has since denied this to the hospital staff, but my aunt is required by law to report child abuse she witnesses or is told about. She spoke a couple of nights ago with the hospital social worker, who could not believe all of the things Joe and Josh have lived through. She was amazed they are still living in their home. She set up a meeting for the next morning with my aunt and the people at Children’s Services in Joe’s county. And (drum roll, please) it went GREAT.

The lady really listened to my aunt and gave her the opportunity to tell (as the lady was writing down every word) everything that Joe and Josh have experienced in their home…. Everything from watching their mom get strangled in her bed to playing with those long grill utensils on their front porch when we come to get them (their Mom is nowhere to be seen) She got to tell about the filth they live in and the awful people their mom has exposed them to. She told about how they are spending increasingly long periods of time with my parents because she will call and ‘can’t handle it’. The woman listened. She walked my aunt up to get Guardianship papers for my parents to fill out. They went to the Health Dept. and filed a statement about the dangerous lead levels and the fact they were ordered to move more than a year ago.

The infamous ball is rolling. Praise God.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY. We are still praying that they will be able to identify what happened with Joe…there is also the possibility that he was simply having a psychotic break because he just can’t handle his little life…they really don’t know. Pray for wisdom.

And please pray for their removal from that home. There is a possibility their mom might be going to jail for a year next month- please pray the court will follow through on the guidelines they have given her…Those little boys have been in danger (really, deathly danger) at least 4 times that we know of in only a couple of years. GOD HAS PROTECTED THEM. There is no other explanation. I don’t think things always work out the way we want them to- a good bit of the time, I really don’t get God. So don’t think I am one of those blindly optimistic people who lives off the belief that if you love God everything will work out in the way You deem ‘good’….However, I do sense the moving of God… yesterday was a big step toward those boys getting out of their mother’s home…we will praise God no matter what transpires. But why not ask for a miracle? Why not even go so far as to believe for it?

Thanks for praying with us,