"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
--Jeremiah 29:11

Friday, September 26, 2008

Please Pray For. . .

. . .a local boy named Luke who is having surgery on Tuesday, 9/30, with Dr. Bove. We met the family when we were in Michigan last fall. Luke was having surgery then too, but this one is expected to be 6.5 hours and the most involved yet for him. Please ask God to guide his doctors and nurses and to help his body adjust to the new pulmonary artery and valve that will be placed and that the repair to his AV canal is successful. Please also ask for safe travels for the family and a speedy recovery for Luke.

Connie still has a cough and has been put on azythromycin as well. Hopefully it's gone soon. He's been so funny lately. When his speech therapist came Thursday, I told her that when he's excited he tends to verbalize more and so we tried to get him all riled up. It was a hoot watching him go from one thing to the next. Tackling Mookie, pushing the exercise ball, rolling over the peanut ball, "sliding" on the floor. He was definitely showing off for her! She agrees that he's probably in a big gross motor spurt right now. He's focusing all his learning on that portion of development (which is totally normal!) and after awhile, he'll go in a different direction. We're hoping it's speech!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I-Team Investigation-Connie's in the News (indirectly)

Newschannel 5 (St. Louis, KSDK-TV) has been conducting one of their I-Team investigations for the past two months and will begin airing that investigation tonight on the 10pm (CST) news. Why is this being advertised on Connie's website, you might ask? The investigation is related to the money that the City of St. Louis paid two IT employees that it contracted from United Forensics, Greg's former employer. United Forensics, due to it's extreme mishandling of funds, terminated Connie's health care with only a couple of week's notice back in April of this year. They're really a first-rate outfit (hint of sarcasm in my voice). They told Greg on April 10 of this year that they were filing bankruptcy and starting a new company, paying hourly wages only and offering no benefits. They told Greg that our benefits would be terminated on April 30. In reality, they are still open and employees do have benefits. They just wanted to get Greg's family off the health insurance because Connie's heart condition raised the premiums of everyone in the company. The decisions made by the owners of the company hurt many people, including taxpayers and citizens of the city. Our family was affected too. If you don't live here locally, you can watch live newscasts on www.ksdk.com. Here's the article.