J's Surgery Day 3 and 4- Joshua goes home!

Day 3 of J's hospital stay started out like this.  He only had his scalp IV. Not long after the day nurse came around we were able to get his IV converted to an INT so that he didn't have to be hooked up anymore.  This was a great relief as we were able to walk around the room and show him the window so that he could look outside.  J likes to walk around and go outside so spending three days literally in one bed or at the bedside was almost more than he (or his parents) could handle.  

Vitals are good but it was a challenge keeping the leads on a fussy wiggly baby!

Monday afternoon we got the news we'd all been waiting for.  J could go home!  Well, not exactly home, but across the street to the Ronald McDonald house where we'd been staying.  This was such a relief!  The IV was DC'd and we packed up and headed out the door!  We even went driving around just to get out a little!

Day 4 we went to visit an Opthamologist in San Diego who is on the Fresh Start board.  We were checking J's eyes to see if he had decreased vision or any eye problems.  A lot of times cleft palate babies have other problems as well and they were ruling out a specific syndrome.  

J's eyes were perfect.  As a matter of fact his eyes were advanced for a regular 8 month old!  Since his eyes were dilated he got to wear these cool shades for the rest of the day.  Thank goodness for the "no no's" (his arm bands that keep his arms and anything else out of his fragile mouth) or else he would not have kept those glasses on!  

This is Lupita.  She is the project coordinator at Fresh Start and the one who makes everything happen! She went with us to the Dr's office.  She and the entire Fresh Start team are simply amazing!  They do GREAT things for children!

Here is cool dude at the upscale San Diego mall that we went and walked around for a little while.  At this point he was refusing to eat at all!  I was getting worried that we'd have to go back to the hospital and get an IV b/c he was close to being dehydrated!  He was pretty pitiful!

Because of his not eating Dr. Gosman decided that we didn't need to get on a plane the next morning.  We decided to stay for two more days and make sure that he was well enough and strong enough to travel.  Here is cool dude with his shades and "no no's".  

J's surgery- day 1 and 2

J's cleft surgery went very well.  But as he was coming out of anesthesia his breathing problems started.  He was rushed to the PICU and we were brought up after a few minutes.  We had no idea how bad his breathing was until we saw our little guy.  He was retracting down to his spine and his O2 sats were pitiful.  We started praying and talking to him and rubbing his ears.  Within 15 minutes of our getting into the PICU he was noticeably better.  But he was still not out of the woods.  

Within a few hours J's breathing was much better and his O2 mask was able to be removed.  He still needed to keep his "trumpet" in his nose in case his breathing problems returned.  Once it was pulled it would not be able to be reinserted without damaging the cleft repair.  

The first night after surgery was incredibly hard.  Honestly it was one of the hardest nights EVER!  J was coming out of his anesthesia.  His tongue was tied away from his airway and his incision with a stitch.  He had a trumpet in his nose and an IV in his head. Oh, and his mouth had a huge incision with stitches in it.  He was miserable!  He couldn't eat and he was very hungry.  His mouth was dry from the O2.  He was so uncomfortable and just wouldn't settle down and sleep.  Jeremy and I literally just held him for two days!  We would have to stand and bounce him in order to calm him down.  He wasn't sleeping at all.  And neither were we.  He was very mad about his tongue being tied.  I would be too!  Poor guy, he just didn't understand.  

This was what we did for over 24 hours....Just hold him and try to keep him calm.

Day 2 one of the Dr's decided to increase his sedation.  This enabled him to sleep very well that day and it gave mom and dad a chance to take turns taking a couple of naps. That night however his breathing started to become labored again.  He was breathing very hard and his retractions were getting worse.  It was all upper respiratory because his lungs were clear and his sats were normal.  But he sounded horrible.  After a push from mom to get something done NOW they decided to try to suction the trumpet.  The respiratory therapist was unable to get the tube down the trumpet which made them think it may be occluded.  The risk now- do we pull the trumpet and risk having to reinsert it if his breathing worsens....or do we leave it when it's possibly the main problem with his breathing.  The decision was made to pull it.  And yes, it was occluded and was doing absolutely no good.  The second the trumpet was pulled J's breathing improved 500%.  He was completely back to normal and went right to sleep.  

Here is J after his trumpet was pulled. He was resting so peacefully for the first time in two days!

To be continued....

J's Surgery- PreOp

Our trip to San Diego for J's cleft palate surgery is nothing more than a miracle from God!  All of the pieces were in place in only a way that God could have orchestrated.  Gidgi's heart attack and previous medical issues from our parents led us to feel the need to come home for a few weeks to check on (and love on) our family.  Less than 24 hours after we landed we received an email from J's plastic surgeon in San Diego asking if we were interested in coming to CA for his surgery while we were home.  Two days later we got the word that we needed to be in San Diego by Thursday morning (it was Monday) and we jumped on a plane!  The Lord provided a surgeon, an organization that provides free surgeries on their surgery weekends, a surgery weekend that just "happened" to be the very weekend that we arrived in America, plane tickets, a car to use while we were here, and the Ronald McDonald house to stay in.  EVERY detail was taken care of!  

Here we are at the Ronald McDonald house at Rady Children's Hospital.  Rady's is one of the best children's hospitals in the country.  And the Ronald McDonald house is so very very nice!!!  

The day before the surgery we headed to Coronado Island to let J see the Pacific for the first time.  

Here is a view of Rady's and the Ronald McDonald house from the freeway.

Surgery morning!  Saturday morning very early we walked across the street for J's surgery.

All ready and waiting on the Dr's!

Surgery time.  

To be continued.....

Miracles for Baby J!

Our family has been completely blown away by the blessings that the Lord has poured out upon us over the past couple of weeks.  As you know, two weeks ago today my (Jill's) mom had a massive heart attack that nearly took her life.  God saw her through it and she was in the exact right spot at the exact right time.  Praise God.  She's doing well and she's "trying" to rest and recover but if any of you know my mom you know how hard it is for her to stay put!  Because of the multiple health issues with our family we felt that the Lord was leading us to come home for a little family time to check on everyone.  Little did we know HIS plans were so much more than that!  

Less than 24 hours after our long two day flight back to the States we received an email from Dr. Amanda Gosman from ConnectMed.  Dr. Gosman is J's dr. (that we've only met over skype) who is bringing a team to Malawi in February to do cleft lip/cleft palate repairs on the children of Malawi.  These are some of the best surgeons in our country and it's such an honor for them to be coming to our country and helping to change the lives of the children who need help in Malawi.  Anyway, Dr. Gosman found out that we were in the States and emailed us asking if we were interested in having J's surgery while we were home. We immediately called her back and explained that our missionary health insurance wouldn't cover J here in the States.  She assured us that this was a gift from a program called Fresh Start that seeks to help children with physical disabilities and birth defects. If we were going to do this we'd need to have J in San Diego by the next Wednesday (4 days away).  Wow!  Can you see our Lord at work??  Dr. Gosman and her team only have these free surgery weekends 6 times a year.  And the Lord saw fit that our family would just "happen" to be in the States the very week of the surgery weekend.  

We sent out an urgent prayer letter to family and within 2 minutes one of my amazing childhood friends emailed back and said that she and her husband would take care of our airline tickets to San Diego!  Are you seeing how the Lord uses HIS body to accomplish HIS purposes???  We were speechless.  Everything was happening so fast.  So we took my mother and our other three children to Montgomery so that they could be with Jeremy's parents for rest and recovery of mom.  Then the next day Jeremy, J, and I jumped on a plane for San Diego.  We were picked up at the airport by Fresh Start and went directly to get J's blood drawn.  We were then taken to the Ronald McDonald house at Rady Children's Hospital.  What a beautiful blessing!  

Thursday was a day filled with Dr's appointments and waiting in Dr.'s waiting rooms.  We were able to finally meet Dr. Gosman face to face and the amazing Julie Breuninger (who has facilitated this entire endeavor).  I started crying as I finally met these amazing ladies who have been such a part of our life since J was 3 weeks old.  They've watched him and tracked his progress every step of the way.  They told us that they were in our lives for many years to come and for that we're so thankful!!!!  They wanted us to see an ENT to see if J would need tubes as well during his surgery.  After meeting with Dr. Madgit it was decided that yes, J would have tubes inserted on Saturday as part of his cleft palate repair. Praise God for his provisions in this as well!!!  

J is doing very well and he's just the happiest baby we've ever seen!  We took him to Coronado Island to the beach today and then out for some yummy Mexican (well, Mommy and Daddy enjoyed the Mexican)!  At 5:45am Pacific we will walk across the street to the surgery center at Rady's and J's surgery will be at 7:30am.  He will stay overnight for observation and then we will have a few days of recovery before we return to Montgomery hopefully on Wednesday.  Please pray for J's surgery, for the Dr's and nurses, for J's strength and health, and for Jeremy and I as we try to help him to remain comfortable in the next few days to come.  But most of all please help us to give all of the praise and glory to our Heavenly Father who has worked this puzzle and plan out in ways that we could never fathom!  We pray that everyone who hears this story sees that ONLY GOD could have done this miracle!  Only God knew that when Mom had her life threatening heart attack that we would jump on a plane and that would enable our son to have the surgery that he needs in one of the best children's medical centers in the US!  GOD is good!!!!  

We will keep you posted as we learn more and I will email when J is out of the hospital.  Thank you in advance for your prayers and praise to our Lord!  It is through HIM that all things are done!  Praise HIM for His mercies, grace, and blessings!

In humble gratitude and amazement,

The Kyser Family

Maula Prison Ministry

The Maula state prison is located here in Lilongwe.  Nearly everyday we pass by it.  Many of the ABC staff and graduates have felt led to minister at the prison.  One current student, Charles, feels a special calling to ministry at Maula.  He was saved while in prison here himself.  He now is a Senior and he knows that when he graduates he wants to form his own non-profit ministry designed especially for Maula prison ministry.  Our family loves Charles.  When Gidgi left in February she left most of her clothes here in order for them to be given away to people who needed them.  We felt that the women of Maula prison could benefit most.  We contacted Charles and he was thrilled to set up a time that we could go out and minister to the people and hand out the clothes.  I can't believe we have been here for an entire year and haven't been to the prison yet.  It was amazing and we can't wait to go back!

The women in the Maula prison are there for various reasons but mostly for minor offenses like stealing food.  They serve anywhere from a few months to a few years for these minor offenses.  If their children are nursing the babies are allowed to keep them with them.  

After passing out clothes to the women's side we went to the men's side where many were waiting in the chapel for church service.  Pastor Bruce Hanlon from ABC delivered a great message after which the men broke out in joyous song and dance.  

The men were handed Christian tracts and soap that was made in a local village.  The women of that village are being taught by another missionary to make soap in order to sell it and create a living for their family.  

Jeremy preaches at Rainbow

We are blessed to attend a traditional Malawian church that is associated with Rainbow CDC/ orphanage.  The church is called Rainbow Community Church.  The pastor is an ABC graduate and he has asked Jeremy to preach a few times over the last three months.  These are photos of last Sunday's service at Rainbow.  

The younger Rainbow kids shared a couple of songs at the beginning of the service.  

This is the ladies choir.  They share a few songs each Sunday morning.  The great thing is they start singing sitting in their seats in the congregation.  Then they slowly rise and start marching/dancing towards the front all while singing.  Then when they are all in place they start their next couple of songs.  There is no music except an African drum that one of the kids plays from his seat in the back.  The ladies sing acapella and they keep rhythm with their dancing/movements.  Each song has a slightly different dance that goes with it.  They are amazing!

And speaking of amazing....here is the Rainbow praise team!  These are some of the older Rainbow kids and a couple of staff members.  They lead our worship and choruses each Sunday.  They are simply amazing. And as you can see they sing directly from the heart, lifting their voices to our Lord in a glorious song!  

Prayer time

The sermon this Sunday was delivered by Jeremy and Pastor Nasson (he is the head pastor and an ABC graduate) translated the sermon into Chichewa.  When Jeremy is not preaching Pastor Nasson still delivers the sermon in English (for our family) and Martin (a current ABC student and the girls house parent) translates into Chichewa.  

We have a great church where there is much work to do and many opportunities for spreading the Word!  Praise God!