Meeting Bethany

Meeting Bethany @ Fellowship Church 8-19-2011

Hanna, Sofia, Natalie, Bethany, Nicholas, Alisha, Sherri, Oliver

We had a wonderful time at Fellowship Church in Grapevine meeting Bethany Hamilton. She is a beautiful person with an inspiring testimony. She has a message of hope and faith that touches so many people. When she talked about God being bigger than her fears it really touched me. I know Nicholas will return to the water and to wade fishing. It will get easier with each time he leaves to go fishing but I know I will worry each time he and his dad leave for the water. It will be hard to return to Sunday Beach and go back in the water, I can feel the anxiety swell up in me as I am typing this, I can't imagine what I will feel when we actually go. I am certain that Nicholas will not return to the water without his ray guards on, and as for Natalie we will see what she decides.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid... Psalm 56:3-4

Home

We are so happy to be home. It has been a very busy 3 weeks. We have already made one trip back to Houston to see doctors. Nicholas had great check-ups. He continues to heal. We have 2 back to back trips in the next two weeks. One to have his hardware taken out of his leg. I am sure that will make things easier in getting around. No more hitting his other leg on his hardware, which makes me (mom) cringe but does not seem to bother him.

We started school on the 17th. It has been an adjustment getting Nicholas from class to class but we are getting a system down. Nicholas is so happy to be back with his friends and teachers.

Nicholas received a  huge surprise this week from Roger DeGregori of The Fish Gallery. Roger sent out a 125 gallon beautifully decorated fish tank. It was very hard for me to keep the secret all day. When he discovered it in his room he was speechless. It has been along time since I have seen that big smile on his face, and I have never seen him speechless. We thank Roger for his generous gift.

Yesterday we found out that Soul Surfer, Bethany Hamilton, will be in Grapevine. We happened to be at the grocery store when an employee asked Nicholas what happened to his foot. A lady next to me overheard and told me that Bethany was going to be visiting her church this weekend. I know that God has been with us through this journey we have been on. I was planning on going to another store that was across town and Nicholas wanted to just go home. We went to the store that was on the way home instead. I am so thankful that God put us in that exact spot. The kids and I are all excited to see Bethany and hear her story. We hope we can meet her in person.

Lunch time at school.

Awesome!!! fish tank from The Fish Gallery

Night on the town with the DeGregori Family.

Jack escorting Nicholas around The Fish Gallery.

Roger, Natalie, Abby, and Nicholas at the petting tank.

Nicholas petting a horn shark.

Nicholas, Mom, Natalie, and Memaw.

We get to go home!

Nicholas had his appointment with the plastic surgeon yesterday and he said we can travel, which means we can go back to Ft. Worth! Nicholas continues to improve every day, the surgeon actually said that he was 2 weeks ahead of schedule, and we can add 1 minute a day (up to 15) to the time he can put his foot down every hour.  Houston has been great to us as our "temporary" home, everywhere we go people are so kind and gracious. The owner of The Fish Gallery, and his beautiful family, took time out of their busy schedules to take  Nicholas and our family to their Houston location. Nicholas had a really good time touring the facility and talking to Roger about tropical fish, and just swapping fish tales! After the tour,  we were treated to supper @ Cheddars, were Roger's business built and maintains the huge aquariums that are in every restaurant throughout the country! OH, the food was good too! Thanks Roger, Staci, Abby, and Jack for fabulous evening.

Shark Bite Hotel

We are finally settled in our temporary home in Houston. We have an orthopedic visit next Tuesday and a appointment with the plastic surgeon next Friday, hopefully we will get the OK to travel to POC or Fort Worth for 2 weeks before our next doctor visits.  We almost had an uneventful day yesterday. I (mom) changed Nicholas' dressing on his foot. I started taking off the layers of gauze (cleaning in stages) starting with the pin care, gently swabbing around each pin. Under the gauze is a strip of xeroform that I was about to remove when my poor mother FAINTED. As she laid across Nicholas I was trying to get her to wake up and Nicholas was telling me to call 911. I was on my way to the phone when she awoke claiming to be OK. Her explanation for passing out was, she was thinking about the shark and Nicholas' foot in its mouth. All is good now and we are laughing about it. My very best friend, Callie (who is a labor and delivery nurse), is here now and she will help me with dressing changes and Memaw will hide her face under the covers with Nicholas. He still has not looked at his foot, it is a lot for him to take in and it looks very scary. He has seen the picture of the reconstruction. We have been working on his physical therapy exercises to keep him from getting stiff since he is in the bed most of the time.  He was up 6 times yesterday. We are happy that Memaw, Natalie, and Callie are here with us to keep us company. We are missing Dad and looking forward to him returning for our doctor visit next Friday and hopefully help us move to our next destination. Thank you for all of your prayers.

Alisha Vossler

Were getting out of the hospital today!

Nicholas has continued to improve. He got up for the first time yesterday afternoon since his surgery on friday, this is a great accomplishment and gives him more freedom. So far, he has been managing his pain with 3 pills a day, today we will go down to 2. He had a "play date" with one his neighbors, Prince, yesterday. The wonderful staff here with child life took Nicholas and Prince, beds and all, up to a playroom were they played wii on a big screen! That lifted both boys spirits. Also they had a special visitor from NASA, Mark, who gave them allot of goodies from the present and past shuttle missions. His uncle Mike has been here with us for a couple of days, and he brought Nicholas a Nerf dart gun. His mother and I have  had to take it away from them several times! 

Thanks again for all your prayers and support,

Cecil and Alisha Vossler

His cousins, Jennifer, and Ashley, some cool big toe scars!