12/25 - late afternoon

This certainly has been an incredible day.  After this morning's huge news, the day has been a little anticlimactic, but exceptional nonetheless. Sam was never as alert as he was earlier in the morning, but he did do a couple of hand squeezes, and I did get to see his eyes.  His gaze was so intense, that the only way I can describe it is that is was like he was looking into my soul. The nurse also touched his shoulder and he turned toward that. Although they are still not calling these purposeful movements, we are choosing to believe that at the very least, those will be showing up soon. After all, we were also told that he could be knocked out for several days or even weeks more. This child has always been ahead of schedule. Why should that change now? 

As for being anticlimactic, we are well aware that every step of this journey will have moments of excitement tempered with plateaus and maybe even steps backwards.  We don't view that he wasn't as active the rest of the day as negative. He wasn't even supposed to be awake yet. This is HUGE, no matter how you stack it.  There are still blood pressure concerns, and the nurse practitioner said she was concerned, because the area of swelling was "hard" indicating high ICP.  He is scheduled for another CT scan tomorrow morning, and it is our hope that the swelling will show signs of receding, and that his brain stem is still in good shape.  Regardless of what may come, we can very clearly feel God's hand at work in all of this. We appreciate your continued prayers as this epic battle continues.  

Specific prayer concerns:

• that the swelling and pressure in the brain are reduced, and that there is no damage to the brain stem
• that Sam continues to make small improvements and shows us purposeful movement as he continues to get the pentobarb out of his system.  
• that his blood pressure and heart rate can stay in an acceptable range
• for Kyle and Lily's continued recovery, and for a couple of additional people.  One is the man in the corner room next to Sam.  I don't know his name, but he has been having setbacks along with his baby steps toward recovery.  His family has been here for about as long as we have, and they are from Oklahoma.  Also for the woman that was brought in yesterday and is in the room on the other side of Sam.  I believe she was hit by a car, but she is in incredibly bad shape.  Her family has also been here, including some pre-teenaged kids.  Also, continued prayers for Albert Harris and his family.  We have not seen them since the night I'd initially written about them, and we pray that he is doing well in recovery from heart surgery.

We are so grateful for all of you, and we got so many messages of you sharing in our excitement earlier today. Thank you for all of the love and support.  You are amazing gifts from God!