Good Thursday Morning

Hope everyone is having a good week. We certainly cannot complain.
We buried my niece, DaShelle, on Mon. It was a beautiful day, as you know, and Rev. Joe Hurst did a very good job bringing the message for the funeral.We got to meet the man that pulled the girls from the building. Ken Shepherd is his name. He is our hero of the year, along with DaShelle, who put Rashelle's life before her own.
Amber was operated on the same day- they did the grafting on her left arm. All went well but, she will be pretty much out of it for a few days.
Rashelle had an operation on her leg. It went very deep. She will need a lot of support, too.
Life just keeps happening. My niece's bro-in-law was killed Tues. morn. This is not making us feel any relief- it makes you a bit uneasy.
On the brighter side, we are all doing ok. The garden is producing well and we're looking ahead to brighter days!
Until next post-have a bright, bright, sunshiny day!

Sad News

I wanted to update on DaShelle and Amber. DaShelle passed away today, Tues., around 2:10 pm. Several of us family members were with her. Thanks for all the prayers and support-it was/is greatly appreciated.
Amber is coming along. She is being treated for a yeast infection- I'm sure it's probably due to all the meds. They have begun getting her up to walk. It is so very painful but, it has to be done. She isn't asking questions like you would expect- that is a bit bothersome. Hopefully in another 2 weeks or so they will be able to do grafting on her left arm. We still do not know if she will keep both feet -almost positive she will lose at least some toes.
RaShelle, DaShelles friend that was also burned, is coming along well.
Thanks again for all the prayers!

Update

Just an update for any who might wonder how the girls are doing. DaShelle is on dialysis and will continue to be on it until the respiratort is taken off. As of Tues. it was at 80%. They did some surgery on her Tues. They removed the burned skin from her right leg and put cadaver skin on it for now. They were running out of time to do something and even though she is so sick it was a must to get something going. The burnt skin is toxic to her so without doing anything she would most certainly reach a point of no return- so to speak. She came through it well and was resting last night.
Amber is coming along. They did harvest skin from her for the grafting on her legs and most of it took well. There are a few places that will have to be redone and then her arms. Her feet are still in question. Most likely she will lose at least 2 or 4 toes- hopefully not her feet. She is doing therapy so she stays flexible and they have put 'boots' on her feet to keep her from getting drop feet. She is still heavily medicated so no real conversation can be held, although she does recognize and will talk-she just won't remember. She feels pain so she's not so medicated that she's under all the time. DaShelle, on the other hand, is being kept sedated quite heavily.
If any of you heard about the small plane that went down in Orlando on Tues. well-the firefighter that rescued the people was our brother-in-law. He is married to Karen, Tom's sister. I believe he will be alright. He was being treated for smoke inhalation.
Our family has seen a lot in the past 3-4 weeks. My nephew was diagnosed with cancer- a very aggressive kind- and had his first chemo treatment on Tues. It starts to get a bit frightening.
I trust you will have a great day! No matter what- we STILL serve a great and good God! Anything that helps us to make it to Heaven will be a mercy!
I'll try to update later.
Oh- Hannah and Andrew are doing fine. She is liking her new home and I think Andy is liking his new wife! She surprised him with his favorite meal for his birthday last week. He thought that was pretty great!
Nathanael is struggling a bit at base- he does not enjoy all the garbage there and can't wait to get off base and away from it all. He hasn't been feeling to hot either so, I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers.
Aaron has been hired by Lima Tank and begins training today. It will be a lot of hard work but, he wants to learn different things and the money is good. He has signed up to go to the Marines-scheduled for boot camp in Oct. as of now. I can't say I'm excited about that but, we'll support him. How could someone not support a kid taking on that type of commitment? It's all so scary and the garbage is so prolific! Please pray for him.
Now- I really will sign off!! Tally-ho!

It's unreal

Wow! Last Tues. my niece was in an apartment fire in Carey. Dashelle and her friend, Rashelle, were rescued by a man in a dump truck who pulled them from the building. They were flown by life flight to St. Vincent hosp. in Toledo. Dashelle suffered 70% burns on most of her body and 2nd degree on her face. Rashelle's burns were mostly the lower part of the body-I'm not sure the %. They were both in critical condition. As of today, Tues., I do not have an update on Rashelle, the friend. The Drs. have harvested skin from her to grow some for grafting.Dashelle, my niece, is still not doing well. Her kidneys are not functioning properly so they have given her a medicine to jump start them. We should know by 11 today if it will work. If not, they will start dialysis. They wanted to graft some skin from her chest area, where she still had a patch of skin, to her right hand but, were unable to because she was to unstable. They did harvest some skin from under the arm and sent it away. They are both a long way from being whole!
Then, Sat. eve we received a call that another niece and her boyfriend were in an accident-in Carey- about a 1/4 mile from their house. They were both life flighted to St. V's also. We headed to Toledo- ariiving about 11 p.m.. There were several family members there already- some had gotten half way home (from visiting Dashelle) only to turn around and go back up. Amber suffered 35-40% burns, mostly the lower part of the body and her hands- the truck had flipped and caught fire. Andy, her boyfriend, was fatally hurt. He passed away at 3:53 a.m.. at first they thought Amber had brain damage because there was some bleeding on the brain but, the neurologist said all looks well. She does know that Andy is gone. They plan to do some grafting on her this morn at 11.
So--- I have 2 nieces in the same burn unit at the same time. Neither of the girls are saved and neither are the parents. Dashelle has not been responsive for several days- not sure if it is all medicine related or not. I know the Dr. had said they would keep her sedated for maybe as long as 3-4 months. She looks like a mummy all wrapped up.
Please remember them all in your prayers. It is going to be a long, hard road to recovery. I pray that they will turn to God through this. He certainly has shown much mercy!!
I trust your life has not been so eventful! Have a great day!