Seriously, we are going through end of the year activities for the kids, with Open House next week and finals for both me and Dan. The end of the school year isn't coming soon enough for us this year!
On top of all the studying and work we are doing, we are also preparing for two important events. Saturday May 24 Eric will be baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ as Latter Day Saints by Dan. For those interested, here is the official website of our church: www.lds.org . I am grateful for this great blessing in our lives. There has never been a time in my life that I haven't known that I am a daughter of a kind and loving God who wants to bless us more than we can imagine. This truth has blessed my life immensely and anything good or positive about me is owed to it. I am so grateful to raise my children in the same knowledge.
In our church we baptize children at the age of 8 because that is what we believe to be the age of accountability. To quote the 2nd Article of Faith "We believe that all men shall be judged for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression." Before the age of 8 children are innocent and pure, unable to choose between right and wrong. Once they reach the age of accountability however, they are able to understand that they can and will be held accountable for their actions. Just a brief history in case anyone was wondering :)
The second major event in our lives lately will happen on May 29th. Our beautiful and perfect child Benjamin James Brogger will undergo a major surgery. Ben was born with a neural tube defect called Spina Bifida and was given a pretty rotten prognosis. Doctors told us he probably wouldn't walk and that he might have mental delays. I never believed it. After all, my God is the same God who parted the Red Sea, delivered Daniel from the Lion's Den and fed multitudes with only a handful. Surely this miracle of our Ben was within his power right? Absolutely! Ben continues to defy his medical team at every visit to Shriners. He walks, runs, jumps and I know I am 100% biased here, but he is unequivocally the most brilliant 4 year old on the planet. ;)
Well at any rate, it's time for us to go back in to Shriners and this time we'll be there for a week as Ben will have what is called the ACE procedure. The following explanation of an ACE procedure is taken from a father of a child with SB, Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss in an article in a SB newsletter:
"What is brilliant about this procedure is that Dr. Joseph
uses only the body’s parts. No hardware or plastic.
Not even a skin flap. So here’s how it works – Dr
Joseph takes the appendix, attaches it to the abdomen
wall at a predetermined spot and then re-enforces the
other end of the appendix into the secum (the top of
the colon). What this does is make it possible to place
a catheter into the appendix through which you insert
water, which thus causes the entire colon to flush. We
use a bag for the water, connect the tube at the end of the bag into the
wide end of the catheter and let the water flow.
At this point, you have to ask yourself how many people
with no bowel paralysis spend at least a half an
hour a day on the toilet. Probably more than you care
to think about."
And so it is a major surgery and we would appreciate any prayers that you might send up on our Ben's behalf. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as we prepare and recover from this event. Okay, I think I've written enough tonight... here are some pictures of Ben though, just so you can see for yourself how lovely he is.
