A little ear infection...

Asking for prayers...Josie came down with a bit of an ear infection, please pray that she recovers fast! And the Doctor does believe that she is good to go!

Thank you!

Help Along the way....

My Cousin, Melissa sent out this e-mail this week...Thank you Mel for putting our needs in words....

Thought I would post it here for those of you who did not receive it...Thank you! 

Dear friends and family of Andrew, Sarah, and Josie Sobel,

As Josie's surgery date is quickly approaching (Friday June 21), there have been many people who have requested ways to help/serve this wonderful family. Prayer is always coveted and would be greatly appreciated, especially on the day of surgery, but if you would like to help in a more tangible way, here are a few options that we would love for you to help with. 

1. The family will be heading out to Ann Arbor (University of Michigan CS Mott Children's Hospital) on Thursday June 20 in preparation for the surgery. They will be staying at the Med Inn (located on the UM Hospital campus) for almost a week and will need to buy meals. To help make their stay a little more comfortable, a care basket is being put together. Here are a few ideas for items to be included in the basket:

 - Cookies

 - Breads/muffins

 - Trail mix

 - Dark chocolate

 - Other snacks

 - Gift cards to area restaurants with delivery

 - Prepaid credit cards for groceries and UM hospital cafeteria food

 - Notes of love and support

Any of these items can be sent/brought to either:

Lois Bolman

Attn: Team Josie

1002 E. 10th St. 
Holland, MI 49423

*Please call or e-mail if you are going to drop something off (616-392-1084 or glbolman@gmail.com)

-or-

Sara Rose

Attn: Team Josie

4571 Ciderwood Dr.

Walker, MI 49534

*Please call or e-mail if you are going to drop something off (616-453-6235 or rosejs1@sbcglobal.net)

2. If you would like to provide the family with a meal before or after they return from the hospital, there has been a website set up to help coordinate all those who want to help. The link to the website is:

http://www.mealtrain.com/view/?id=hAOXIZ3uW9M%3d

Please sign in and select a date on which you would like to provide a meal! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me (melissabebej@gmail.com) and I can try to help.

3. Again, prayers would be greatly appreciated. Sarah will continue to update Josie's blog with as much up-to-date information as possible to provide specific prayer needs as she continues her journey:

http://enlargingourhearts.blogspot.com/

Thank you again for all your help and support during this time of trials. This is a great opportunity for God's grace and love to be shown through his people, and I really hope you will be able to help in some way.

Blessings,

Melissa Bebej (Sarah's cousin)

Trying to sleep....

I can't sleep tonight...not really a big surprise for me! Since the calendar turned to June, sleep has been difficult for me.  I am glad that J has no idea what is going on.

Not sure what to write as we wait...Josie continues to love life...laughing and smiling most of the time! I am so thankful for the gift she is to me and Andrew and so many others!

Prayers will be appreciated for us this week, as we seem to countdown the long days. J is just getting over a bit of a cold. But otherwise she is doing great!

A date has been set ...Friday- June 21

Last week went fairly well, many of our prayers were answered...

1. We felt comfortable with the surgeon...Dr. Ohye  ( I have included his bio here so that you can all get a peak into him)...http://med.umich.edu/cardiac-surgery/patient/team/ohye.shtml

2. Josie travelled quite well...

3. We have decided to move forward with open heart surgery, and as of this morning, we have decided the date of Friday, June 21, 2013...

We appreciate your prayers, as we move forward in our month of waiting...

Love,

Sarah

Headed to Ann Arbor...

I will try to write more later, but as for write now, I am just writing for prayers for a clear direction for our family. When we met with U of M, for a second opinion they do not believe that a heart cath is the way to go, they believe open heart surgery is the best for Josie. To get a better feel for the team at U of M, we are headed to Ann Arbor today to meet with the surgeon.

I ask ( rather I beg of you) to please pray for the following as we start today...

1. May it be black and white to all of us what path we should take...(ie: what procedure and when?)
2. May it be very clear to us when we should be doing this procedure.
3. Safe Travels
4. That Josie is a great traveler today, she did well on our trip to Chicago a couple of weeks ago, but I pray that she can be that great traveler again.
5. And please just pray for peace of our hearts....

Thank you advanced from all of us, including our little feisty Josie!

And we are ....cautiously optimistic

We spent a few hours again at DeVos on Tuesday. This time we took Grandpa and Grandma Sobel along. There is another new doctor at Spectrum that is also from England, this new doctor, Dr. Joseph specializes with Interventional Cardiac Catheterizations, (it is a procedure to treat the heart defect with using a catheter (small plastic tube) that goes to the heart from blood vessels in the legs or the neck.) Dr. Joseph reviewed Josie's pictures, and believes that quite possibly her defect might be able to be fixed through this procedure! Which would be excellent, recovery time is just 1 night in the hospital, and that would be about it! Which would be amazing. The only situation is that they will not know for sure if the they will be able to work using the heart catharization until they are actually performing the procedure...And because this Doctor is new to DeVos, he needs some time for his team to be up and running. Which means that we would have to wait until June or July for the procedure...So it would be a lot more waiting, but the waiting would be all worth it, if this would fix Josie.

As I posted we are cautiously optimistic, but because of this sudden turn in direction, we have been thinking we would for sure be facing open heart surgery since Feb. 27, we feel that it would be in our best interest to get a second opinion, we are heading to meet with a U of M doctor (Dr. Ron Grifka), in a GR clinic, on Wednesday, April 24th

Please pray for us that it is clear decision about the direction we should go...I am thankful for this hopeful news, and I beg for prayers in advance that the Interventional  Heart Catheterization wherever we have it performed is successful!

In the mean time, since we are not sure of the exact procedure date, I am no longer house bound :)! AMEN!  We are just enjoying the joys of Josie being almost 6 months old! She is just a joy, and as her little personality is growing, we are just loving the smiles that she brings us daily!

Newer equipment...

Josie will NOT be having her the heart catharization on Wednesday, it has once again been moved to a date that has not been determined yet....We are still meeting with the doctor that is going to be preforming the heart catharization on Tuesday to hear about his plan for the heart cath...but, he wants to wait to schedule the appt until the new equipment is in...

I think our robust Josie is moving the powers at DeVos to get the most up to date equipment :) Way to go Jose!

So please continue to pray for the team of surgeons, doctors, and nurses as they continue to study J's case, and make the best plan for her..