FINALLY!!!!!

I received my letter on Friday stating that I was finally accepted to Muhlenberg hospitals school of nursing program. It is an accelerated program that begins at the end of August and will finish next August. I am so relieved and now nervous. It will be a tough road ahead of me but I am looking forward to it.

The typical nursing program (RN) is a two year program. An accelerated program condenses that down into one year. Some programs won't allow you to work. Muhlenberg says they highly recommend you do not work. God has provided for me to get into school now I have to wait and see how He will provide for me to pay for it plus living expenses. My plan is to take a leave of absence for about a month and a half in order to get into the swing of things and evaluate if I will be able to work or not.

Blake goes home!

Blake got to go home this week. They were able to stabilize his infection and make it possible for him to go home to finish his recovery. Wow, what a past few weeks. He went from having open heart surgery, to a 5% chance of survival and then on to a successful surgery and recovery. Thank you God for such miracles!

Blake update!

Today the fever had subsided. However, the white blood cells are still high, indicating an infection. They are running tests on him to try to locate the source of the infection.

On the positive note, he got to have a visit from his four legged friend, Stacy, their dog.

Keep praying for Blake

Blake was doing so well that they were hoping to send him home today. However, beginning yesterday his white count began to rise and he began a temperature. They are concerned about this and are keeping him till they can figure this out. Please pray that the infection can be quickly controlled.

Also please pray for the family as it has been a lot of long hours at the hospital and little sleep.

I will keep you posted as I know more.

Letter of thanks!

Update From Nancy McCracken

We experienced a miracle of God's Grace and Power yesterday. Blake our grandson was in surgery for 14 hrs. - during that time the surgeon encountered a critical area and crucial timing after which he was able to recover and accomplish the intended procedures –then at the end bleeding which took 4 hours to stop took place. The tired but smiling surgeon then came out at 10:30 p.m. to tell us they had stabilized him and would be watchful and cautious through the night. Blake had a good night with no further complications. They took him off the ventilator this morning and Blake is breathing on his own and responsive. The doctors are truly amazed at how well Blake is doing after such long and extremely difficult surgery.

Our entire family has been blessed, prayed for and loved by all of you - thank you so much for your prayers – please continue to keep Blake in your prayers for an uncomplicated recovery. Thanks again.

Major storm!

NJHometown: "Nutley was hit expecially hard by last night's hurricane force winds and heavy rains by a series of violent thunderstorms passing over town, snapping trees, disrupting power and telephone service and bringing to an end four days of 100-degree temperatures."

Last night (Wednesday) we had a major storm roll through Northern NJ. It was thunder like you have never heard before and was very close. The winds were flying through at 60mph. Following the storm there were trees and powerlines down everywhere. Just for me to get home took 1hr rather than the usual 25min. I kept coming up to road blockades. At one point I came up to one so I turned and hit another. Then I turned around and hit another. By that point I went to turn back to where I had come from and there was one that way that was just put up. Now I was stuck in the blockade. It wasn't but a second when flashing lights came at me and the officer yelled at me because he thought I was trying to run the blockade. Once I explained to him what happened he took off the other direction in a hurry with his lights going.

There were cop cars running all over Nutley trying to put up road blocks for all the trees and downed lines. My brothers house had a tree come down in the yard. Houses and cars were smashed. 90% of our town was without power and they said it would last through Friday. Praise God though I came home tonight after midnight and the power had just come back on.

The biggest problem of not having power is all the food in the fridge that you face loosing. Today Sarah and I went and got lots of ice. I then took all my parishables and put them in the freezer with ice packing it. I think I managed to save every bit of it.

The best thing out of all of this though is the fact that our upper 90's and 100 degree weather plus humidity is behind us for the time being. Now we are in the upper 80's. 80's feels refreshing after this past week. I am a little nervous come August though. They say you get used to it but I just can't imagine that happening.

Update ...God is Good!

I apologize for the delay in the update however, we have been without power. I will explain that more in the next blog.

God is good!!!! Blake went into surgery Wed at 9am. They were unable to get through all the scar tissue and simply open him up until 2:30pm. That is a long time to work just to get into the heart. Then when I spoke with Nancy at 9pm PST Blake was still in surgery and they were having a very difficult time stopping the bleeding. I found out today that he was in surgery till 10:30pm and it was only one doctor who opened, performed the surgery and closed. Amazing.

The first update I received this morning was that the bleeding did not continue into the night which was a praise and that Blake was still on the Respirator. He was still unable to breath on his own.

The final update I received this evening was that Blake was able to not only be off the respirator but also sit up in a chair for a few minutes.

What an amazing story. Blake was diagnosed with this heart condition as an infant and was thought to have a life expectancy of 20 or 21. He is now 24. Then just 2 nights ago the doctors gave the family the grim prognosis of a mere 5% chance of survival. Now today he is sitting up in a chair. I work on a cardiac floor and for a major surgery to have them up that quick is absolutely amazing. Blake is an amazing kid that I which each of you could meet. He loves to make people smile and loves Jesus. Nancy was telling me how he was teasing the nurses before surgery. I don't know about you but if I had such a grim prognosis ahead of me, it would be difficult to joke or be light hearted.

Keep praying for Blake and the family and there is still a long recovery ahead. I will keep updating with any info I get.

Blessings and remember, God is good all the time and when there is pain or hurt He is always present.

Very serious prayer request!!!!

My Pastor from back home and his family are in for a long and very difficult day. Blake, their nephew, son, and grandson is going in for open heart surgery number 4 at 9am PST. He is in his early 20's and is in need of having his valves replaced again. He had them done once but has outgrown them. Monday the family went to OHSU to consult with the doctors and found out some devastating news. Blake's doctors are giving him a 5% chance of survival. The problem is that he is having a 4th surgery and they have to get through a lot of scar tissue. Just getting into the valves is going to be a few hours from what I understand. Without the surgery his outcome is no better.

Please pray for the doctors, for Blake, for the entire McCracken family and for God's will to be done. God has a purpose in all of this and is working around the clock to meet each need. Sweet Blake loves Jesus and has found his hope in Him.

Paul in Philippians says that "To live is Christ and to die is gain!" As believers on earth we have the opportunity to walk as Jesus walked and when our time is up He gives us the glorious reward of being with Him in Heaven. The McCracken family are a testament to the Love and Grace of Christ, and are an example to me every day of an amazing faith. They stood by me in the toughest of times and I praise God for the encouragement and support. Now I pray God's favor and grace as they face this trial head on.

You know it's bad when...

...84 degrees feels cool. Well it is currently 12am here and the weather is 84 degrees and with the humidity the heat index is 87. That is an improvement over the high of 100 degrees. Tomorrow or should I say today (Tuesday) is suppose to be 100 degrees again. Wednesday was suppose to bring some relief but I see it is suppose to be 97 degrees. That will be day 5 of this heat wave.

It is June for goodness sakes. What was I thinking when I moved out here :-). Today I went in at 6am for a double shift just to get out of the heat. It was well worth it. Tomorrow I am hoping to pick up an AC before I go to work. Faith has really had a hard time with it. She lays around panting like she just finished playing ball. She has really dropped off on the eating and we are having to watch to make sure she is eating. As much as she hates it we are giving her cold baths to cool her off. That is just being inside and not out in the heat.

Well, off to try to sleep...ha ha that was funny...sleep in this weather. Maybe with ice packs.

Nursing school

Well, I am still waiting! I had to send in some last minute stuff for Muhlenberg so hoping and praying it gets there in time. I think they are holding a spot for me so that sounds promising...at least the Director has hinted at it. I also got an email this week from Jersey city, another accelerated program, and they want me to come in for round two which is a test. This will be test number 3. They all look for the same thing but each school seems to require a different test. Oh, how I love tests :-).

I will keep you posted. I hope to know in the next two weeks but I have been saying that a lot. Though the start is coming soon, so they can't wait much longer. Thanks for all your prayer's and encouragement.

Dog days of summer!!!!

Well this weekend I am getting a taste of the East coast summer that is waiting for me. Yesterday we hit the high 90's and today it was 97 degrees plus humidity. When you walk outside the air is very heavy. It is the kind of weather that you don't feel hungry. It doesn't cool down at night either. Tonight I think the low is like 77. The next two days are around 98 degrees. This should be fun.

The crazy thing is every night with this hot weather we get thunder storms. I love thunderstorms. Yesterday I went to dinner with Sean and the kids. Afterward we went to Barnes and Nobles. On the way home we got a beautiful lightning storm. The lightning was bright and you can see the lines streaking the sky. The crazy thing is for the first 10 or 20 min there was no thunder and no rain.

Today we got a thunderstorm with pouring down rain. It was the kind of rain that poured for 5 min, drenching everything and causing a river to flow through the streets. Now we are sitting here listening to the crashing of thunder. Faith is amazingly not scared of it. She just sits there and cocks her head trying to understand it. Again, now I can here the rain pouring down. Your portlander's have not seen rain till you come here for the rain we have. Hopefully this will wash away the mugginess but I doubt it.

Summer is here!

Well, I guess I get to finally find out what a true East coast summer is like. We are expecting 96 degrees tomorrow and 90's for 4 days in a row. I usually love hot weather but it is the humidity that gets me. And unlike Oregon, you don't get the nice cool mornings. Some mornings even when it is only going to be in the 70's I will wake up at 5 am for a run and it will be muggy and sticky. Yuck!

Good dogs!

I was doing some work with the dogs and the kids love to be involved. Today they decided it was fun to get down and pretend like they were the dogs. They love to play with Faith.

Finally I am a PCA2

This last week I spent a long two days sitting in a class learning how to draw blood, and do all the other fun things that PCA 2's get to do. This will make my life at work much easier. Working on a cardiac floor and not being able to do EKG's and blood draws makes it quite difficult. Now I just have to draw blood on 50 people with the nurses and it is official.

I am still waiting to hear back on nursing school. I had a few glitches on the way but when I talk to the director of the program it sounds hopeful. So keep praying. I will let you know as soon as I hear.

Slave labor

On Sunday Sean put me to work :-). We all went into the city and went to his office to do some work. He is remodeling his office. I spent the day staining and helping put up trim. It was quite a day and lots of fun to work with my big brother.

A day in the city!

On Saturday afternoon I spent the day in the City with my family. We drove into the city and picked up some lunch for a picnic in Central park. We hung out on the great lawn which is a gigantic lawn with lots of baseball fields. It also has a great view of the towering city skyline.

It is fun to sit there and watch all the different people walking by. There were people playing baseball while others were sitting in outfield having a picnic. It was kind of a controlled chaos.



My niece and I ran around the entire lawn dodging people and flying baseballs. It was quite the scene. We enjoyed listening to two girls play their violin and guitar singing many popular songs.

In a few weeks I am going to be joining a group there who runs daily on Saturdays. This should be fun. There is a street that goes through central park that cyclist, people on rollerblades, and runners fly through. I can't wait!