The Loux Family Blog » 2009 » May

Sasha’s Wheels!

Renee Loux — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:48:20 +0000

Several weeks ago we took Sasha to Children’s Mercy Hospital for his “seating” clinic. Multiple professionals examined Sasha and consulted with one another regarding what type of wheelchair would be best for him. When the session ended they announced their recommendation …. A $25,000 Permobil K450! (permobli.com). After they rushed me to the sidelines for oxygen and a pep talk I began to recover from the sticker shock. This chair will enable Sasha to lower himself to ground level, exit the chair, combat crawl around, re-enter the chair, raise himself to any height in a range of 5ft, and be completely independent in his movement. A company brought out a demo chair last week for Sasha to test drive, and boy did he love it. It was so amazing to see this little 6 yr old boy who has never been able to decide his own movement, suddenly have independence and mobility. He caught on to the concept of driving quite quickly and it wasn’t long before he was telling us to follow him! Few things have made his eyes as bright as they were that day. As I’ve thought about the cost of this chair, I’m convinced that this is exactly the kind of thing God would do … Take a little boy from a hopeless situation where he would be sedated and tethered and forgotten in some cold institution, rescue him, give him a family, and then give him the hottest set of wheels on the block! Our Papa in heaven is so extravagant …. and He’s not on a budget! We are believing God for the full provision for Sasha’s chair. Our insurance will cover $5,000 of the cost, and Southgate church in St. Louis (one of the best churches on the planet!) took up a $6000 offering for the chair (Thank you Southgate!). This leaves $14,000 to go. I promise you, in the next two months I will be blogging about how the Lord provided for this …. He never fails! Check out the video of Sasha preparing for his “NASCAR” debut and look at how excited he is. If the Lord stirs your heart regarding this, pass it around to people you know who may want to get in on making this precious boy’s dreams come true. Blessings!

Derek

Click here to view Sasha in his demo wheelchair

Sophia's first walk with her brother! This was such a precious moment!

What a machine!

The representative from the Seating Clinic couldn't believe how quickly Sasha figured out cause and effect! He was driving around like he'd had the wheel chair forever. It was amazing!

The representative from the Seating Clinic showing Sasha how to drive the demo wheel chair. Sasha has decided that when he gets his chair, he would like his to be blue!

Look at me go!!!

The Lord Has Done Great Things!

Renee Loux — Sat, 16 May 2009 19:35:33 +0000

So many Christians are prone to look on the dark side of life and to dwell more on what they have gone through, more than on what God has done for them. When asking them about how things are going, many times they will describe their continual conflicts, their deep afflictions, the sinfulness of their hearts and yet with scarcely any allusion to the mercy and help that God has given them daily. I’m not trying to condemn those who have struggles. We all have them! Just trying to remind all of us of God’s faithfulness, in the midst of real hardships and hurt.

I was reading today in Psalms 40:1-3 where it says this:
I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feel on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

It’s true that we all have our trials to endure, but it’s just as true that we are delivered out of them. It’s true that we have our depravity, but it’s also true that we have an all-sufficient Savior, who overcomes our sin and delivers us from it’s grip. It would be wrong to deny the fact that we have gone through really hard, really trying, really sinful times in our lives and still continue to struggle through life, trying our best to be like Jesus. It would also be equally wrong to forget that we were never alone, unforgotten and unloved by Jesus through any of these times. He truly is our only hope. We haven’t remained in our sin and hardship, but only because we have a redeemer who loves us, walks with us, strengthens us and is our biggest cheer leader! “You can do it,” I hear His voice often saying to me! The deeper our troubles, the louder our thanks to God, who has led us through everything and preserved us. Now our grief can’t overwhelm us to the point where we have no hope. Our praise and our song of thanks to the Lord is louder than our circumstances. The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy (Psalm 126:3).

God bless you today, strengthen you with his might and lift up your face to the hope of your coming King!

Silas Is Home!!

Renee Loux — Tue, 12 May 2009 02:18:48 +0000

We would like to thank all of you who have been praying for Silas! He is home from the hospital and much happier and healthier now. His pneumonia, strep throat and flu (yes he had the flu too!) are all clearing up with his meds. He is so happy to be home and we’re all happy that he’s home! He got back at the tail end of MIchaela’s (our 9 year old) birthday. She was thrilled to see his sweet face.

Silas’ heart surgery has now been moved up to July 27th at 7AM. The surgeon will be going in to close the hole in his heart.
Once this hole is closed, Silas will be feeling on top of the world.
We are excited that this is going to be taken care of. Of course we still have great faith that the Lord can heal him, whether through his own hand or through the surgeons.

When my husband Derek, and his brother John, brought Silas and my mom home from the hospital, they walked in the door and Sasha (our other Ukrainian son) who had been saying, “Silas all gone,” had a big smile on his face and a look of confusion all at the same time! Sasha was so happy to see Silas!
When I put them to bed last night, Sasha pointed over to Silas’ bed and said, “Silas sleeping, Silas sleeping, shhhhhh.” It was so precious. I know Sasha is still confused because all he’d ever known at the orphanage he was in, was that children disappeared but never returned. This was definitely new to him to see Silas returning home. We’ll keep you posted on his progress and again, thanks so much to all of you for praying.
Hugs and blessings to you all!

Click here to view video of Silas thanking you all (with Keyolla\’s help) for your prayers!

Our Little Silas Is In The Hospital

Renee Loux — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:41:19 +0000

Yesterday was a very eventful day! Two nights ago our son Silas, began coughing very badly and he had a high fever. He was up several times that night, crying and very restless. At around 8:30 in the morning he began crying uncontrollably. We couldn’t console him and I began to get very concerned so I took him in to the doctor’s office to get checked out. We were there for over 3 hours. To make a very long story short, Silas was diagnosed with pneumonia, strep throat and dehydration and was put on oxygen right away. An ambulance came from Children’s Mercy Hospital to pick Silas up to admit him into the hospital. He was put on IV’s right away and seemed to be much more perky a few hours later. It was quite a day and night, with several of us taking shifts to be with our little angel, so he was never alone. When I was with Silas today, he was much more full of life, smiling that beautiful little smile of his and laughing gently while I played peek-a-boo with him through the bars of his crib. On top of all of this, they are doing tests to be sure Silas doesn’t have the Swine Flu. Silas’ doctor walked in the door with a full hazmat suit on…. seriously…. the full mask and all! Silas looked at him, smiled and waved. I was wondering what was going on in his little head. The doctor apologized for having to wear the suit and then went to work examining Silas. It was just a crazy day. Everyone who went in to Silas’ room all had to wear not only masks to cover their mouths, but masks to cover their faces too! All that along with full gowns and gloves.

So, our little buddy is having quite the adventure right now. He has a room at the top of the roof, that overlooks the landing ramp where the hospital’s life flight helicopter takes off and lands. He thinks that’s pretty cool!

After my mom came to relieve me at the hospital tonight, I came home and Sasha had a very worried look on his face. He kept saying, “Silas, all gone…. Silas all gone!” I told him that Silas was getting medicine from the doctor, at the hospital, and then we would bring him home. He didn’t seem to understand at first. I showed him pictures I had taken of Silas in the hospital and he looked very worried. I tried to explain to Sasha again, that Silas would be home soon. All of a sudden I realized what was going on in Sasha’s little mind. Sasha was the oldest child at the orphanage we adopted him from. He saw his friends disappearing from the orphanage one by one, probably not really understanding where they went. Now, even though he has a family and a new life, he seemed confused and fearful, probably thinking that it was little Silas’ turn to “disappear.” I held Sasha and rocked him and tried to keep explaining what was going on with Silas until I think he might have finally understood. Our daughter Sophia was so sad that Sasha was probably thinking Silas’ had disappeared, that she started crying. It really upset her because she wanted him to feel safe and not worry that someday maybe he would just disappear too! What an emotional day! Wow!

We are so thankful that we know the Lord and we can rest in the fact that He is in control, not our circumstances! Thank you to those of you who have been praying for our little one! We are blessed to have so many precious friends and family members, standing in faith with us, for the healing of our three new angels, as well as Telma and Leeann! We love you! God bless you with his sweet presence and with a peace that passes all understanding!

Silas' view from his hospital room (the children's Life Flight helicopter)

Sleeping Angel

Silas moved around so much that his cords were a tangled mess!

Peek A Boo!

Silas' favorite hospital toy

Just a chillin

Welcome!

Renee Loux — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:38:20 +0000

Hello Everyone! Welcome to our new blog site. We will continue to post family and Orphan Justice Center updates. Thank you for your interest, prayers and support. Together as a community we can significantly impact the issue of fatherlessness in our day. Many Blessings! The Loux Tribe!