It’s been a wild few days but thank you for everyone asking for an update! 

After 8 days in the hospital, we found out we might be able to go home early on Saturday! We just had to pass physical therapy and occupational therapy checks. And surprise! We got to go home on Saturday, 4 days early!! 

We were so happy to be able to be home for Easter and to celebrate Maverick’s 5th birthday! All things considered, Radley is doing well. 

We head back to the hospital tomorrow (Tuesday) and will likely be there all day. They will sedate him to fully change his bandages for the first time since surgery a week ago. They will then put long term bandages on (for 7-10 days) and we will come back a week later. 

For everyone asking: he is doing well. Every few days you can tell his pain is getting a little lower. He’s still on pain medicine around the clock but I am hoping that will lesson over the next week. 

He is in considerably less pain that 5-6 days ago and I am so thankful for that!! We have to do physical therapy with him 5 times a day and it’s very painful for him (and painful for me to have to do)! 

Prayer requests: 

1) That sedation and bandage change would go well tomorrow and that the team would be happy with his progress. 

2) Pray for his daily physical therapy. It should get easier soon, but for now, it’s so painful! 

3) I am jumping into long term burn research. It takes a full year for the burns to heal fully and this summer especially will be a lot of work. So I’m busy reaching anything we can do to help! 

4) Radley is taking pretty much full time care still. This obviously is hard and takes a lot of time for the whole family. Prayers are appreciated as we navigate normal life and caring for him still! 

5) Prayers are appreciated for finances! We found out our deductible will be $12,000. While we are so thankful it’s not more, it’s still a hefty financial burden coming off of a tough year. Jason has also had to take off a considerable amount of work the past 2 weeks in an incredibly busy time for work. Being self-employed is such a blessing in terms of flexibility, but also very hard when no one is giving you a paycheck during an emergency! We trust that the Lord will work out all things and we also are so incredibly thankful for every single person who has contributed to our Give Send Go! You have given us so much encouragement!! 

I will update tomorrow after sedation and bandage changes! 

Hey friends! 

I'm finally getting on here to do an update about surgery. Extended hospital stays have a way of bending time in weird ways where you don't know what day or time it is. 

Radley had surgery on Tuesday morning. Praise the Lord the surgery was successful and we had no unexpected complications. 

But the surgery was a lot more invasive than the team anticipated. Originally, they thought, based on the photos taken when he was first admitted, that the burns would just need to be deeply cleaned and then bandaged. However, once they got into surgery and really got a good look, several of the burns were in fact 3rd degree. So unfortunately, it needed skin grafts. 

We are so so thankful to be at one of the leading burn units in the country! But skin grafting adds a lot of pain and a much longer recovery. We would likely be going home today otherwise. But as it is, we are looking at 7 more days in the hospital at a minimum. 

Next Tuesday they will do a full undressing of all his burns and see how it's going. Assuming everything looks good and his mobility and pain is doing well, we should hopefully be going home Wednesday, April 23rd. But as with most hospital stays, we are taking it one day at a time as you never know how things will change! 

All of Tuesday after surgery was really hard. We upped his pain medicine but it was still a really rough day. Yesterday was a lot better and we were able to take him off IV and constant monitoring. 

Today (Thursday) has been much better. He's wanting to move around (limited though that is) and he has long stretches of awake time where he is happy and NOT screaming in pain (this is huge)!! This is the first time he has really smiled since the accident and we are so thankful. 

At this point, we are just waiting for Tuesday the 22nd for them to completely redo his bandages and get a good assessment of how they are healing. Here's what you can be praying for: 

1) Continued pain management. Anyone who has had even a small burn knows how painful and long lasting burns can be. Sadly, they said the donor site where they pulled the healthy skin from for the skin graft will be even more painful and take longer to heal than the burn itself. Please pray we can manage his pain well! 

2) He is running a low grade fever, has a little bit of a cough and a runny nose. If he gets over 100, they will take him to get a chest Xray to rule out bronchitis or Pneumonia. It's common in these cases to get one of those, please pray it's not the case! 

3) Infection! He has a high risk of infection with so much skin that's healing. This could significantly delay getting home and imfact healing. Pray for not infection! 

4) And finally, just pray for our joy and attitudes while in the hospital. It's hard to take care of my own physical needs on top of Radley's and the long hospital days can feel discouraging. Please pray that we can stay encouraged and joyful despite the circumstances. 

We are so sad to be missing Easter at home! But Lord willing, Jason will be going home Sat night to the take the kids to church on Sunday and do a big Sunday meal with this whole family. I'll watch the pictures from afar, glad that they get to still meet and celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord! 

Thank you for everyone's prayers and support during this time! It's simply awful to see your little baby go through so much pain, but we are also SO encouraged by his progress. Each day should get a tiny bit easier! 

Hey there. I’m finally finding some time to post an update. It’s amazing how days in the hospital can blend together and feel so slow and also, like you don’t even have an extra second to do anything. 

We made it through the long weekend. When we got to the burn unit at 5am on Saturday morning after having spent all of Friday night in the ER, the admitting doctor simply told us “we’ll be here for a while”. But the surgeons are off on the weekend so we really wouldn’t know much else until Monday AM. 

We made it through the hard first 48 hours. And met with the surgeon team this morning. Overall his trajectory is good and he’s managing as best he can. But they really won’t know more until we get into surgery tomorrow. They have left his burns completely covered over the weekend to cause him the least pain. So they don’t totally know what they will do until they get all the bandages off in surgery tomorrow. 

There are 3 possible levels of care they could do during surgery. The easiest and least invasive would be a deep clean and an artificial covering on the wounds. The most invasive would be a full skin graft. The middle of the 3 options is the most likely. 

Surgery is scheduled for 7:30am Tuesday. It will last around 2 hours and we will know more as he comes out of it. Post surgery hospital stay could be 2 days up to another week and a half depending on what they do during surgery. 

Main prayer requests: 

1. Just for surgery overall and that he would tolerate going under well and coming out of it. Pray for the surgeons and God’s grace and wisdom throughout it all. 

2. We are praying for the least invasive intervention needed. But also trusting God that he will get the care he needs! 

3. Pray for mama’s heart (and dad too!). We have to do OT and PT exercises 5 times per day on his arm and fingers and it’s excruciating. He screams through the entire 30 minutes and it gets so fatiguing to have to do (but so good and important for him)! 

4. Pray for Jason as he jumps between being here in the hospital with me and home with the other 7 kids giving them love and attention too! He’s struggling a bit to find some time to work. As a self employed person, it’s a hard balance because some work HAS to get done at some point and he’s already been under some really tight timelines that have felt a tad stressful. 

We are so thankful to have a strong extended family here in NC with us and also family across the country offering help! Our support system is strong and we feel every single prayer. We are leaning into all the things we can be thankful for and looking for the joy in each moment that we can! 

Thank you for walking this path with us! It’s humbling and hard, but we pray that God is glorified through it all! 🙌