Here is the latest about Joseph from my facebook page.  As usual, it is Kourtney that writes these updates. Thanks for praying for him and continue to pray.  Our journey continues with his asthma.

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement of our family this season. We have officially passed the halfway mark of our time in Denver and are beginning to think through preparations for our return to Orlando. Here is an update on the last leg of our journey.

Get out your Kleenex…

Joseph is thriving. It’s like we have a new child in our home. I don’t know any other way to say it, but each day we see more and more of who God made him to be. Probably the most enjoyable part for us is that he cracks well-timed jokes with a precious little grin on his face. His abdominal pain is gone. He doesn’t have bowel issues anymore unless he is exposed to gluten (Mom’s fault twice). He’s gained weight for the first time in over a year. He’s continued to grow taller. He is on the lowest possible dose of asthma medicine.

The Celiac Disease experiment turned out to be very fruitful. With our lead doctor’s blessing, we chose to omit the small intestine biopsy and remove gluten from his diet (no easy feat, we assure you). We began in January and almost immediately saw relief from his abdominal pain and bowel issues. We are still addressing his GERD symptoms, but we have been encouraged by our nutritionist that there is a huge chance that those will cease eventually. His asthma has continued to be much less severe here in Denver. We are hopeful that as his immune system continues to heal (CD is an auto-immune disease) that he will grow stronger and healthier. We met with the top endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital, and he said that Joseph absolutely does not need to be on growth hormones.

Our weeks ahead include more testing to ascertain his overall lung function at this juncture, 2 trips to the nutritionist, a gastroenterologist, our endocrinologist and our last few visits with our lead doctor. We are still uncertain exactly how much his asthma is impacted by his Celiac Disease or if they are separate issues altogether.

There are a few questions that many of you have asked:

1. What happens if Joseph eats gluten?

He has an immediate and violent bowel reaction + abdominal pain. Gluten hides in the most unlikely places (i.e. Powerade as we learned the hard way at the top of a mountain a few weeks ago. It wasn’t pretty, but he handled it with such humor and courage that I wanted to weep, giggle at his jokes, and worship God simultaneously).

2. What about our other family members?
We are all eating gluten-free at this point as it is frankly just easier than doing it the other way. Because Rich’s Dad has the same gluten-issues and CD doesn’t always present as dramatically as it has in Joseph, we will eventually explore David and Rich’s situations. Right now, they are being INCREDIBLY good sports and are eating G-free and donning the same supplements as Joseph.

3. FUTURE? What about our geographic future?
Our lead doctor said last week that she believes that we will know within 3 months of returning to Orlando if Joseph will be o.k. in the Florida humidity long-term. This is definitely the hardest part of journey right now for us. We have always wanted to be in Colorado long-term. We love our friends here and have made new friends, too, who have become very special in a short time; however, being here has showed us how much we LOVE/ADORE/MISS our roots in Orlando with our ministry teams, our home, our church, and the friends that God has given us. Feeling up in the air about the permanence of our return is unsettling. We are thankful that we work for such an incredible organization that is willing to allow us to serve from here as it has completely changed our lives. We are trusting that God will continue to lead and provide in this part of the story.

Please don’t stop praying. We have miles to go before we sleep, but we are definitely celebrating at this leg of the race!

With Love and Thankful Hearts,

Kourtney + the boys
www.hearditonthestreet.com/kourtney

I read this quote today and feel like it captures my heart for this journey to help Joseph!

“It is not enough to put your heart and soul into something..

The really important things require much more than that.”

img_5164.jpg