My kind of camping

It has been a while since we have updated the blog. We have been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster since returning home from Hawaii. We have had good and bad days and are at times overwhelmed with this disease and what it is doing to our family. God has been good to us through it all and has still given us strength and peace through it all. We are looking to replace our caregiver, Lisa who has finished her schooling and is now starting her fieldwork. She has been such a huge help to all of us and we miss having her around to help out. She will do very well in her field. Please pray that we can find the right replacement for her soon. We were supposed to have our annual Kammeraad family campout this weekend in Muskegon (Eric and I were just going to go up for the day on Saturday) but my parents decided to cancel it since all of her kids were going through some tough weeks prior and we ended up having a campout in our backyard with a couple of tents and lots of us staying in the house. It was so much fun! The kids spent most of the weekend catching toads in the back yard and we all hung out together playing games, putting our speakers up out back (we love having music outside now)and preparing and eating meals together and camp fires at night. It was great having full bathrooms and a full kitchen while camping! It was great spending time with family. We will have to try this with the Fox side this summer too. My aunt and cousins came in to town Sunday from Mexico, AZ and TX and it was great to spend time with them too. We enjoyed time with them in Grand Haven on Sunday and again here at the house on Tuesday night. My dad's side of the family is very musical so Sapphire got out her guitar and we did something new, we all wrote a song together with her help. Eric said he always wanted to write a song with Zach and the night really meant a lot to him. Even in the little things, God knows the desires of our hearts and answers prayers. Eric has been praying for this for a long time and was blessed to do this with our family. We had a good week and it took our mind off of this disease and let us focus on things that are really important in life (faith, family and friends). Our elevator is finally finished today and Eric took the maiden voyage in it this morning. He went into the kids rooms and woke them up and they flipped out seeing their dad in their rooms. The elevator is so wonderful and will be such a blessing in our home. This was fully covered by the VA and we are so grateful! This weekend for the 4th of July holiday we plan on going to the parade and then having a BBQ at our house from 3-6 to promote awareness for ALSTDI and then going to the Whitecaps to support ALSA and celebrate the 70th anniversay of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech and watch the fireworks. It will be a full day! Eric's mom is coming to stay with us next week which is always such a blessing. We are looking forward to spending time with her. Have a great weekend! Thank you for lifting our family up in prayer and for those of you who have offered to bring meals and pick Eric up and take our kids. Lori and Eric

Happy Father's day to my wonderful husband

I just wanted to take a quick moment to wish my wonderful husband a Happy Father's day since it is now Sunday and we are still up. Zach and Eric are still hanging out watching a movie and Maddie is staying at Grandma and Grandpa Foxes this weekend. We are about to go to bed, but I wanted to take a moment to tell Eric what a wonderful father he is to our two children. I was trying to find a card for him for Father's day and I realized that we are not the typical Hallmark family anymore so I wanted to say how much we all love Eric and can't imagine our lives without him here. Even though Eric can't do the things he used to, he is a strong man of God who leads our family and loves us unconditionally. We really do have a lot of joy in this house despite this disease. Eric's mind is and will always stay sharp which makes it hard to endure the changes ALS has brought, but I love that he still knows and loves me the same as he always has and he always makes me laugh. We are still praying for Eric to be healed by God in a miraculous way! Keep praying with us. To all of you who are fathers or fathers to be, have a wonderful Father's day!!
Lori

Laminin

Laminin

Laminin is a protein found in the extracellular matrix, the sheets of protein that form the substrate of all internal organs also called the basement membrane. It is the major non-collagenous component of the basal lamina, such as those on which cells of an epithelium sit.[1] It has four arms that can bind to four other molecules. The three shorter arms are particularly good at binding to other laminin molecules, which is what makes it so great at forming sheets. The long arm is capable of binding to cells, which helps anchor the actual organs to the membrane.
The laminin protein is made up of three polypeptide chains - α, β and γ, giving it a total of six "ends", accounting for a lot of its flexibility in connecting various molecules. Because of this, scientists who create biomaterials are extremely interested in the whole family of laminins[citation needed]. They are a family of glycoproteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding in almost every animal tissue. Laminins are secreted and incorporated into cell-associated extracellular matrices.

Laminin is vital to making sure overall body structures hold together. Improper production of laminin can cause muscles to form improperly, leading to a form of muscular dystrophy.

So, what is LAMININ then?

In the human body, we are all made of Trillions and Trillions of cells that compromise our body and all it's intricate parts. What holds this vast body of ours together?

Laminin is a type of protein that acts as the glue that holds all of our trillions of cells together.

During a presentation by Louie Giglio, he displayed an actual microscopic photo of a single Laminin cell and it looked exactly like the photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of the black hole light years from Earth.

All who believe in a Divine Creator say that God is everywhere. In the far reaches of the Universe and in every cell of our bodies, is it possible that science can finally confirme the existence of this God who billions of humans believe in? Was Jesus God incarnate? If with this evidence some still do not believe, then they are blind of heart and head. Here is scientific evidence that is shaking the scientific community comfort. Please do not call it “coincidence” it no longer flies…

See Video Link below to watch Louie Giglio's amazing video on Laminin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e4zgJXPpI4

Eric

Homeward bound!

Well, our vacation in Hawaii has come to an end and we have enjoyed every minute of it and are truly blessed to have been able to take this trip. We leave for the airport today at 5pm and fly out at 8pm (4am Michigan time) and will travel throught the night and return home at 7pm after losing 6 hours. We hear that the return jet lag is the hardest especially with losing time. Please be in prayer for safe travel for us on Friday. We are so excited to see the kids and feel like 6 days have been just enough for us to be here relaxing and enjoying God's wonderful creation in another part of the earth and are always grateful to return home. We would love to come back here someday. We just missed whale season by about a month. March to April is prime time for that. We really enjoyed the Luau and yesterday we took the shuttle to Lahaina which proved to be a bit challenging with the chair, but people have been so nice to help us. We have experienced some beautiful sunsets here and will treasure the memories of this trip forever. We read in my daily Bible today and were really touched by this verse: Luke 10:20 Rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Charles Stanley says "we tend to get excited about miracles like curing cancer and casting out demons, but the Lord insists that the greatest miracle is our salvation. Evangelism is therefore a greater work than we can imagine." While we pray for a miracle of healing for Eric always, we have received the greater miracle of salvation.
In His grip,
Lori and Eric

Scenic pics from Hawaii

Treasuring every minute here together

We are having an amazing trip here. We have not left this strip of the ocean but there is a paved sidewalk that goes quite a while along the beach so Eric and I went exploring yesterday and I pushed him in his chair (which has been great) to the end at the Sheraton property which overlooks the cliff at the cove. There are sea turtles swimming below and a bunch of kids hang out on top of the cliff and jump off. i thought about trying it, then thought who would stay with Eric? :) It was record heat here yesterday at 92 with high humidity but we didn't care because how could you complain here? We met some more people and Eric had a great conversation with a man named Tim about religion. Pray we can be a light to the natives and the tourists here. Everyone we meet is intrigued by the joy and peace we have which comes only from an active and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. He is the one who continuously gives us life. Tonight we are going to an authentic Hawaiian Luau at the hotel. Eric has been having a hard time sleeping here, but he has a hard time sleeping at home too. We'd rather be here not sleeping while we listen to the waves crash outside then in MI where I sit and think of how tired I will be in the morning and everything that needs to be done that day. We have no schedule here and it has been a wonderful break.
Eric wanted to share that last year, we went to the Grand Canyon and saw God's amazing tapestry and now we are here in another part of God's world enjoying his amazing beauty. How can anyone deny that He is our Creator and the ruler of all things. When I stare out at the ocean and think about Heaven and how big our God is, I know that it is Him who made all of this and He holds it all in the palm of his hands!
Enjoy your day and consider yourself blessed for another day of life. Look for the blessings!
Your brother and siser in Christ,
Lori and Eric
Aloha!

Pictures from the plane

We've arrived safely in Hawaii

Aloha from Hawaii!
We arrived late last night after a long day of flights. The airlines were really good to us and very helpful with the wheelchair. On our last leg of the flight, we were upgraded to first class from Seattle to Maui because Eric could not fit into our seats. It was a six hour flight and we were treated like royalty. The seats were huge and reclined back so we slept a good part of that flight. We met some really nice people on that flight too. It was just beautiful flying over the Rockys and the Cascades, then the Pacific ocean seeing it through the clouds. When we came upon the islands, it was so green and just breath taking with the ocean and the mountains. We were so excited to be here! We took a handicap shuttle to the hotel and the people here are so friendly. We felt very welcomed at the airport and when we arrived at our hotel. The bellman named Byron personally assisted us to our room and has been so helpful and kind. We had an ocean view room we got to at 9pm Hawaii time (3am our time). I could see part of the ocean out our balcony but Eric couldn't see the ocean from his chair so Byron got us a room right on the ocean today and transferred our stuff for us. The room is so amazing. I am listening to the ocean crash on the shore right now and Eric is sleeping in his chair. It was good that we moved too because this morning, I turned on the shower and a cockroach the size of Montanna scurried across the floor!! I about jumped out of my skin. I have never seen a real cockroach that close up. Byron said he calls them 747's. I have a picture if you want to see, but I didn't want to post it on the blog since we have so many beautiful pictures already. Anyhow, it has been very muggy here the last week they said because the trade winds have not come in so this brings out the cockroaches. I pray I don't see another one this trip. The resort is so serene. We laid by the pool and looked out at the ocean today and then Eric watched the Red Wings at the outdoor lounge with some people we met. I walked along the ocean and people were snorkling around sea turtles in a cove. I am so amazed at God's beauty here. It takes my breath away. We watched the sunset tonight and one man said it was the best sunset they had in the 9 days he has been here. Thank you, God! God has been our Jehovah Nissi this trip and has gone before us as our Banner. We are so blessed! We ate at a restaurant on the beach tonight and Eric saw this shirt he really liked so I went over to them to ask where they had gotten it and I kid you not, they took it off their back and gave it to us. They were from Hawaii and here for a sailing race and the shirt was from the race. People here just live life to the fullest and radiate love. We plan to go down tomorrow morning at 8am and see them off and then there is a church service on the beach. We are truly having an amazing trip so far and we've just begun. Thank you for those of you who have prayed for our safety. We will update more later. I've already taken 97 pictures so it is hard to choose what to post.
Mahalo!
Lori and Eric

Hawaii bound!

Well,
some of you may know this and some of you will be saying when did they plan this? About three weeks ago, we (Eric and I) decided that we should take our dream vacation to Hawaii. We have accumulated points through a credit card we setup from our time share so I called to see if we had enough points to go to Hawaii and we had enough points to go for 5 nights and the promo was for a 6th night free! We have always said if we sold our house we would take this trip and here we are! We got a good price on flights and we plan to mostly stay at the hotel which is right on the ocean. The kids are staying at the house with Eric's mom and we leave GR airport at 7am tomorrow. We are really excited to be taking this trip! Please pray for our safety as it is quite a long day of flights to get to Maui. We will arrive at 6pm which is midnight your time on Friday. We will try to update the blog with some pictures if we have internet while there. We will be home on June 5th.
Aloha!
Lori and Eric

A night with our Harley Friends and MDA

Last Friday was the Black and Blue Ball for MDA to raise funds for research for ALS and many forms of Muscular Dystophy and to send kids to camp. Black and Blue meant to wear leather or blue jeans or your Harley gear in which department we are lacking. MDA asked Eric if he would come and share his story of living with ALS that night so we were off to the event which was very well put together. There was a silent and live auction, dinner, speakers, free photos on a Harley (as you can see above my first time on a Harley) It was a wonderful night and I was so proud of Eric when he spoke in front of over 400 people about how the only way he gets through life is with God's help and by our faith. He talked about ALS and thanked them for their help that night and shared the hope we have in Jesus Christ because he knows where he is going. I know that God spoke to someone that night through his testimony. We also met some inspiring people like Alex who has Duschanes Muscular Distrophy who sat at our table and spoke so well and brought tears to our eyes. Life is such a gift that we take for granted. We also had a woman named Elizabeth at our table who spoke who had lost her husband 11 years ago to ALS. We meet people like this all the time who inspire us and encourage us.
We had a good weekend despite some difficulties at night sleeping. The kids are keeping us busy as usual with ball schedules. We are looking forward again to some sunshine this week.

Please keep in your prayers on Wednesday this week a friend, Gloria from our church who is having a serious surgery on her trachea. Gloria gets short winded easily and she still was at our house a few weekends ago spreading bark with her family. That inspires me to not look at things you can't do, but to keep doing what you can.
God Bless you all!
Lori

But until that day.... we will worship you always! a tough night

We had a tough night last night. I was having a hard time going to the bathroom last night (constipated) worse than I have ever been in my life. Not sure if I want to share this but just being honest. It exhausted all of my strenghth and caused a lot of pain. It even affected my walking with Lori's help. I say this not to say poor me, but to share insight what is going on with us while living with ALS. I realize that I can't eat the same food I enjoy so much like cheese and bread so I plan to change my diet again to more fruits and veggies. It was hard for Lori too because she couldn't help me. Lots of tears were shed last night by both uf us. Every time we have a night like this, we awake with God's mercy in the morning. Today and another time we had a rough night, our alarm came on with the song "There will be a day with no more tears" by Jeremy Camp. What a powerful song that gives so much hope! Lori got up and googled the song and found this powerful video made by Jeremy Camp (you may recall that he lost his wife to cancer) and we watched it with tears streaming. Even Maddie came over and put her arms around us. Zach was still sleeping so we will share it with him later. Anyways, take three minutes to watch this video and then read the words of the song below as a powerful reminder from God that the burdens of this place will be no more when we see Jesus face to face!
Thanking God for His mercies today,
Eric and Lori

Due to technical difficulites, the video is on the right side of the blog. Scroll down to the Jeremy Camp link.


There Will Be A Day lyrics

I try to hold on to this world with everything I have
But I feel the weight of what it brings, and the hurt that tries to grab
The many trials that seem to never end, His word declares this truth,
that we will enter in this rest with wonders anew

But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings
That there will be a place with no more suffering

(Chorus)
There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more
fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more,
we'll see Jesus face to face
But until that day, we'll hold on to you always

I know the journey seems so long
You feel you’re walking on your own
But there has never been a step
Where you’ve walked out all alone

Troubled soul don’t lose your heart
Cause joy and peace he brings
And the beauty that’s in store
Outweighs the hurt of life’s sting

But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings
That there will be a place with no more suffering

(Chorus)

I can’t wait until that day where the very one I’ve lived for always will
wipe away the sorrow that I’ve faced
To touch the scars that rescued me from a life of shame and misery
this is why this is why I sing

There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more
fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more,
we'll see Jesus face to face

There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more
fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more,
we'll see Jesus face to face

There will be a day, he will wipe away the tears,
He will wipe away the tears,
He will wipe away the tears,
There will be a day.

We sold our house!!!! .... again :)

We have been extremely busy this past week doing updates on our Jenison home for sale to get ready for an open house on Sunday. I had a friend from my Bible Study go thru the house and give some suggestions for updates and we picked some to tackle and sent out a call for help. We had many painters, cleaners, deck scrubbers, fixture installers, a few meals, Eric's mom here for the week for Eric and the kids. I was at the Jenison house every day Mon thru Sat busy making it really look nice. We also had the Wessely family come out on Saturday to both houses to help us with landscaping through the Young Marines. We are so blessed and thankful for all of the help we had this past week. WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT THAT HELP! The Lord has been so good to us in providing all of our needs. We had lots of interest at the open house and an offer on Monday and Today. They were both much lower than we had hoped, but that is the nature of this market right now. We are just pleased to have come to an agreement with the first offer which come to find out is my brother's old roommate and her husband who really love the house. There's just something about knowing someone loves your house, especially with all of the TLC we put into it this week. All I can say is praise the Lord and pray that everything goes smoothly up until close on June 12th.
On another note, we have been very busy with the kids baseball schedules with both kids having a game tonight. Some pictures of the kids are above.
Eric has been on the drug IPLEX for two weeks now and we are hoping to see some positive changes from this drug now that he is up to his full dosage for a week now. He has noticed it is helping him with swallowing. His friend asked him "would you take not getting any worse?" Eric said absolutely.
Happy Cinco De Mayo and Happy Birthday to Eric's mom, Joan! It has been a really good day!
In Him,
Lori and Eric

Daddy Daughter Dance

Eric and Maddie went to the dance on Friday night after a very full day of running to appointments right up to eating dinner and getting all dressed up and out the door. It was very special that Maddie asked her dad to take her to the Father Daughter dance at her school. Eric originally had said he wouldn't be able to go to this with her when I asked him when we received the first flyer on this from school. But when Maddie asked him this week, he just couldn't say no. Eric went and got her a wrist coursage and had it resting on his feet as she came out in her dress. They both looked great considering how quickly I got them ready to go. We were off and she was proud to escort her dad to her school with her. I did tag along to make sure Eric didn't have any problems while he was there and of course to take pictures. The theme was Candy Land so Maddie's mission became to get as much candy as she could and to run around with her friends from school. She did stay by Eric's side for much of the night and when the music slowed down, she would sit on Eric's lap and rest her head on his shoulder while they spun around the floor in his chair. Eric said how special the night was to him and how glad he was to be able to go with her. Our kids are growing up so fast and you have to treasure these times. Hope you like the pictures. It's been raining like crazy here this weekend after a beautiful 86 degree day on Friday. Zach played his first baseball game on Saturday and they mercied the other team in the 5th inning 11-1 and we were able to make it downtown for inner city missions before the rains came down. It's been a really good week and a great reminder of how blessed we are. In Him, Lori and Eric

An amazing night of worship

Last night we were blessed to receive tickets to see Micheal W Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman in concert together (this was their first tour together). We were supposed to go with my sister, Kristi and Brian courtesy of their friend Margorie (Thank you so very much!) Unfortunately, Kristi was not able to go after her chemo on Monday as she was very tired so we invited our friends Tom and Heather who were able to go with us. These two artists are two of our all time favorites! They have revolutionized the Christian music industry and are so inspirational to Eric and I with the songs they write and perform. They took us back with some songs and then sang some of our new favorites and then ended the night with some powerful praise music. Stephen Curtis talked about how some of his songs have took on a different meaning after the tragic death of his 5 year old daughter, Maria eleven months ago. His songs that night really spoke to Eric's and my heart. Particularly, Miracle of the Moment, a few words.... "there's only One who knows what's really out there waiting in all the moments yet to be and all we need to know is He's out there waiting. To him the future's history and He has given us a treasure called right now and this is the only moment we can do anything about. And if it brings you tears, then taste them as they fall. Let them soften your heart. And if it brings you laughter, then throw your head back and let it go. Listen to your heartbeat."
I have heard this song so many times, but never really listened to the words. Eric and I shed a lot of tears during this song and of course, the song, Cinderella as that touches the heart of any parent especially a daddy about his daughter. Madison invited her daddy to the father daughter dance on Friday and that is all we could think about. Maddie doesn't care that her dad is in a wheelchair, she just wants to get dressed up and dance with her daddy. The last verse he changed in the song to say I'll dance with her again. Not a dry eye in the church I imagine. That is so true, the life after this one is where we will dance and worship our Great God and see those we love again. He sang of how everything we have, even our children, our spouse, our money, it all belongs to God. How quickly we forget that He has so graciously given us all these things. He gives and Takes away, blessed be the Name of the Lord! What a night of reminders of how great our God is. We have been blessed beyond measure this week! To top off the night, Margorie found us after the concert and said she had one back stage pass left! She allowed me to go back with Eric too so we got to meet Stephen Curtis Chapman and Geoff Moore who is another amazing singer and song writer we had the pleasure of meeting and hearing perform at our church about 4 years ago. It was a late night, but an amazing night of worship!
I am coming to the end of a Bible study on the life of Moses and just went through most of Deuteronomy this week and these versed leaped off the page to me and I wanted to share them.
Deuteronomy 4:39-40
Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God has given you for all time."
And one more....
Deut 4:7
What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
Have a blessed week and give God praise this week if not for anything else, then for the sun coming up and the warmer weather on it's way.
Lori and Eric