If you read the Malone Family blog on a reader, be sure and stop by to see the new header. You can take a look here...

Silas Loux (Derek & Renee's son) was rushed to the hospital yesterday with very serious pneumonia and possible other problems. He is in isolation and will be in the hospital for at least several days.

Please pray for his healing and for Derek & Renee as they juggle everything they do while he's in the hospital.

Our first video since my parents have been home:

Our schedule was different today for church.  For one thing, I have fed the boys their breakfast and gotten them dressed every day since we came home.  Today, we decided that Matthew & Micah would not go to the nursery at all but would stay with us the whole time and that we would not be giving hugs to every living person...only high fives.  So Mary decided that she would get them their breakfast and get a later start to church than me.  Ummm...also we moved them to a different room last night. 
Micah doesn't deal with change the same may normal mortals do.  So we hit him with all that change in 12 hours time.  He hasn't done too well with it today.  There has been LOTS of correction and scolding today.  I hate for every word to come out of my mouth to be NO.  (I always back it up with "Papa loves Micah" and he hugs and kisses me, but it still wears me out). 

Mary has had to be on him ALL DAY.  Totally our fault, but now that we're in it, we can't let him tip the scales to his side and get away with the things that he knows are not okay.  Hitting, spitting, etc...

So why did we pull them out of nursery/sunday school/childcare?  We originally decided that it would be best to keep them out for at least a month or MORE so they could totally attach to us and prefer us over anyone else.  For some reason, the second week we were home, we thought it would be okay to go ahead and put them in classes here at church.  We realized on Friday that that was not in their (or our) best interest so we are reversing that.  It'll be a bit difficult on them and us to make the change but it's what we need to do.

We have also decided that Micah must NOT go around hugging and kissing everyone that comes near him.  We're limiting him to high fives only for non-immediate family.  We need to be SURE that they know that we are papa and mama and more importantly what that means.  They need to know that our hugs and kisses are different than a "strangers" hug and kiss.

We got some wacky looks at church today, but their welfare is so much more important than that...

SO...if any of you reading this post are attenders at FBC...just bear with us as we do the best we can!  :-)

Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Oh...having them in church with us this morning worked pretty well (after taking Micah out once to remind him who is in charge).  They snuggled in and were quiet.  The only thing was that when people clapped, Matthew thought it was hysterical so every time they stopped, you heard this loud, high pitched laughter.  Pretty cute!  :-)

Here's where we are right now medically...

ELI

• His blood counts remain high which indicate that he is, indeed, producing his own blood cells. PTL!
• His thyroid checks out good and operational
• His heart still sounds good
• He can have his feeding tube removed whenever we want (it'll be soon)
• He's back to his old self -- a HUGE blessing!!!
• Still waiting on ENT appointment to see how his tubes are holding up
• His tonsuls need to come out
  

• His heart is in great condition...no problems
• His vision is within normal ranges
• He needs to have minor eye surgery to fix his tear ducts on both sides and to remove the viral spots on his face and arms (yes, I know arms are not eye surgery...but it'll be the same procedure)
• Needs tubes (the ENT doc said his ear canals were the smallest he had ever seen). His hearing is compromised due to the fluid and improper movement of the drums (which should be corrected with the tubes)
  

• Very poor vision but corrected with glasses
• Needs his tonsuls out
• Needs his adnoids out
• Needs tubes
• His heart is in good condition except some possible hypertension (but may have been an anomaly on the test. We'll just wait and see.
• He has some definite mental/emotional/behavior issues we are working through but they are VERY MINOR and are corrected with proper discipline. He's just a little boy acting out because of his past. We're gonna love it all out of him! :-)

I'm finally posting about last Saturday!