BPD affects Chew and show from Jer! Now he will drink Shakeolegy too.

            

BPD creates eating struggles in kids sometimes.
They have to manage secretions and know how to swallow with the food and the mucus that naturally comes to help make it all slide through the throat area. So when Jer feels really great and has no congestion he is a somewhat willing eater within certain limits. Chocolate is his stand by and and he likes it on pretty much anything. He can identify a cocoa container out of all the ones sitting on a shelf and he likes chocolate milk or pretty much anything that has that protein structure.
He will even eat dark dark chocolate the kind that most people have to acquired a taste for.
Its salve to a mothers soul when nutritionists and psychologists at NICU follow up clinics tell you to go for it, let him eat whatever, as long as he is willing to try, get crazy, because with kids that have issues about eating there is no limit of tricks that some days must be tried.
Believe me I try alot of them that are crazy.

Nutella chocolate put on celery, he would not touch it. Next I tried it on the yellow cheese. Score, he did consume and ate all of the five little chunks with the nutella on it that I cut for him. Well that was on 2/25/11 and here we are today posting and the little stink wont try it again so he hasn't eaten any cheese for awhile but he has had a spoonful of chocolate about three different days. Viewable is the chicken nuggets, he only ate one that day without chocolate on it.

See I really am eating it he says. I couldn't believe it when I walked into the room a bit later to find him also licking the chocolate off the celery stick and then eating a part of that stick.

 Finally the Little Guy has branched out and tried something green at least for one day. It may take us another 3 or 4 months but at least he is trying to like a few new tastes, as long as its got a crunch to it that's the key. Eating puddings, or jelly, or runny looking stuff for him that's a big no no rule, it looks to much like a booger with food coloring to disguise it.

Eating is such a chore for him, we say things like do you want to grow big?

"NO I never want to be big like the other boys so I am not hungry"

If you eat then we won't have to give you hungry medicine!

" I already ate at school" The Mom knows this means he only ate the bread or the cracker and not another thing on the plate.

In about 15 min after the above conversation he will ask for a bottle of pedisure because drinking is lots easier then chewing and faster too.

I am going to put a plug in right here for a new shake drink that I have found that helps him get some hidden veggies and he actually likes it alot. If you ever want to try it I can get you some and if you ever want to order it please hit this hate veggies link and get some for yourself. It truly is a life saver at our house now because Jer has no idea he is getting spinach and other good stuff.

Eat your veggies, it is so important.

Baptism Successes for our African Missionary.

1. Well I haven't had a chance to cook the cake yet because we only have time on p-day's and our spare time on p-days have been full of trying to get our broken bikes fixed and our stolen tubes replaced so we can get to our appointments on time.

Man it sounds like a lot has happened since the summer has started. Don't forget to show my Photos in the fair and put the money in my savings. That is if I win. That was pretty sweet to hear about C dying himself. Did you help him with that Mom? or what is the story behind that?

Well I've just got to say that this week has been an event full week. It started normal from Mon to Wed and then on Thursday we had interviews For Kgomotso Lkuanyane, Bro. Simon Masetle, and Linet Moyo. Each one made it through the interview and Elder Green the one interviewing said they were all ready except that Linet needed to visit with President Poulsen to clear some things up. So we waited for a phone call from President to set up an appointment and when we didn't receive one on Friday, We called him Saturday. He said he was going to be a little busy but that he had some time at about 1:00 and it was fortunate that we did to. He did say however that he couldn't come to us so he gave us permission to bring her to him... Which was weird because that is against the white handbook rules. She isn't a member and she is a girl. Anyway we planned for that and then went to our first appointment before picking her up. During the lesson our phone rang with an unknown number, but I felt impressed to answer it. We were outside so I walked a little bit away from where we were and I answered the phone and Linet was on the other line. I asked how she was doing and she said she was not ok. Her husband had gotten angry with her and told her she couldn't go to church anymore and that she was not going to be coming with us. There wasn't much I could do at that point so I said some encouraging things and told her we would still visit next Thursday. I went back and finished the appointment and then we got in the car (yes we had the car at that time) I told Elder Bakker what she had said and after a minute of thinking about it we decided to go over to see if there was anything we could help resolve or what not. When we got there Linet was gone but we met her husband. We asked if there was any reason why things were happening and if we could help. He just got very angry clapped his hands, said "that's enough" and wouldn't talk to us anymore. Elder Bakker shook hands with everyone and we walked away. We met Linet on the way back from her house. and she was really upset. She was scared for the little girl that is currently staying with them because her husband had also said that Linet had to send the girl back to her uncle who does not have the means of taking care of her at all. We didn't know really what to do so we just offered a prayer that things would work out alright. and then we said goodbye and left. Man I was so frustrated and event's that occurred through out the day didn't make things better. Anyway when Sunday came we prepared for the baptism and after that we were surprised to see Linet in the chapel. When we asked her about it she said that when she got home her husband had apologized and said she could attend, but there are still going to be some things that challenge Linet I can feel it. So we will just keep working through things.

After church we had an awesome baptism and I really felt like I had accomplished something, because I have been with Bro Simon and Kgomotso from the beginning. I will send some pictures some time but my card is being dumb. So I 'll have to fix it. I'm glad to be on a mission it's a blast and one heck of an experience I can tell you that.

Anyway, It's good to hear from everyone including K. and to answer the question to say cool in Afrikans You say "Lekker" and I'm not really sure with any of the other languages.

Love Elder Jones

P.S. Thanks for the addresses please send more.

Dear Young Man

1. OOPS 1 ? the kids want to know if you could cook your cake and do you like that we sent all the John Bythway cds, did they break or were they ok?

I can not believe how the time is flying these days. I just got to see your cousin Jenni, Uncle Johnny's daughter. She is looking so good and clean from drugs and has a baby too. It was fun and she even admitted that her life was so much better now. C is taking her down now to find a turkey since she has a tag this year and they are very plentiful here. Last night we went to Andrews goodbye party he entered into the military also and will be leaving Mon. Chad is already gone a week now. Rhett is done in two weeks and will be back home until orders to be placed come. Some days I wonder if I am going to survive the energy that these boys have. You were so good at helping me keep our house clean these boys only seem good at messing it up. I guess they will all grow up and it will stay clean someday. Here it is almost June and still very cool. The kids finally couldn't stand it and went and took all sleeping bags and have slept on the tramp no matter what it was like. Two nights the wind blew like crazy and they just hunkered down into the bags and took it anyway. We finally have a garden to a point. Papa is an angel and got me tomato starts since Amber's were all destroyed by the wind or the frost. We put plastic so that the weeds would not take over and planted the tomatoes. Hopefully it stays warmer. Last week it froze every-ones gardens even Amber's while she was at Primaries with little K. They still can not figure out what caused the problem to little K except that she had the Swain flu in Jan. and it must have damaged her lungs this winter and now with the viruses that are in the air and the allergy's the lungs had never fully healed and she just crashed along with the red 40 allergy in med's. Her lungs from birth had the same thing as Jer's just not as bad with BPD but now there is one of those lovely machines like at our house (concentrator) and tubing reaching from both ends of the house and she has to have maintenance breathing treatments along with going back up to Primaries again. She sees the lung doctors that we have to see and I am going to make sure that they keep a closer look on Jer because she was supposedly out grown the problem and in the free and clear having never had to be above a liter of oxygen. She hit a 4 liter here and then they sent her north to Primaries. Amber said she couldn't believe there was a concentrator in her house again. I didn't realize that Taylor had to have one when he was tiny. I guess that was just one of the many equipment pieces I didn't ever have to deal with because Dad knew how when we would take care of Taylor. Dad had a surprise birthday dinner out with me. The kids all went to a barbecue at Brock and Jamie's so that I could take him out. I can't believe I almost forgot it was the big day with all the new fields that we are doing at Whites farm. C is going to be going to Timberline leadership camp hopefully he can get all the last of his merit badges done soon since once school starts it's so hard to smash in the time to finish that stuff. J is the only one doing sheep this year. C has a steer but it won't be ready till next year and Mc. didn't want to do it again and be walked on. Well my brain is super tired tonight and I can't think up a single question, mostly we hope that the Deisko family got a confirmation. I fasted for them today with J. and next week when it really is fast Sunday give us another assignment of someone to fast for ok. We love you and I am sure that you have lots of kids to write since they all wrote to you today so that's another reason for no questions. Oh Jacoy came yesterday to do a sales pitch practice for her job she sells really cool but way to expensive knifes. She was shocked when she saw me all she could say was "Wow you are so skinny and you cut your hair so short. So as soon as things settle down for Amber I will have a photo shoot done. Keep up the good work By the way we love seeing your pic on the mission website that they take at zone conferences. You are looking very good and more grown up. Sometimes you have a look about you that reminds me of Papa's mission pictures. Keep smiling and stay happy. Please write in your journal Dad says because it will help you so much later in your life and get you through the rough return home that can sometimes happen.

Love the Mom of all these crazy kids.

This is K my teacher Mrs. Peterson is retiring so she won't be there anymore. She was your second grade teacher long time ago. I am doing peewee horse showing and I am going to win this summer. I am going to ride Arab to show with in the peewee shows. I am doing scouts and I got a medal for school for doing a play in school. How do you say cool in Afrikaans? I love you and miss you Tyrell. Love K

Truly THANKFUL

No feeding tube just the oxygen left Sept 2007.Jan. 2007 to Junes Cowboy still watching his sats with the Monitor even while in the car.


Faith and Gratitude We are where they said we would never be.
So maybe I am going back in time a few years but today as I put Jer. on the bus and we had no tubing attached to his little neck, I had a moment of WOW. My memory shot back in time to 3&half years ago sitting in a New Born Intensive Care Unit around this time of year pinning to just go home and be a complete family and be free from the struggle we were facing and remembering that they told me that he would never go to school with out a ventilator and the trach. It was an incredible WOW. So FAITH and GRATITUDE just over took me as he waved goodbye and I went home to write this. I am so blessed by the Lord and realize that. These scripture are so true 3 Ne. 17: 8 , D&C 42: 48, D&C 29: 6 , Heb. 11: 1. I received the most profound promise in a blessing before he was born but I still had to go the whole challenge to see it come to a realization. My Dad had stated in that blessing that everything would be all right after the challenges were over. They are not all over but we don’t have to drag that machine to school that’s for sure. So check out some of the photo progress that we made through the last three years. Notice how we gain kinds of tubing and then slowly lose those kinds of tubing. It took us from Aug 2006 to June 2007 to get rid of all those different kinds of tubing’s and we still to this day at night have the nasal tubing when he sleeps


The size he grew while we lived in the hospital was much bigger then a 10 dollar bill! But he went from having to have a tracheotomy, ventilator, and feeding tubes to freedom.
June 2006, 1lbs 14oz Breathing on his own! He was as big as a 10 dollar bill. Jer.'s starting Story was that he didn't need any help breathing for 24 hours and then assistance with blow by air for a month. Then what they call the NICU rollercoster ride hit and we just hung on tight!