Friends, we just got this from Henry's Daddy. As we know, God hears the prayers of his kids so PLEASE let Him hear yours for Henry and his family.
"Dear Prayer Warriors,
Once again the Toth family comes before God petitioning for His sovereign care for our man Henry and for His intervention in our lives. The challenges with Henry’s feedings are escalating to the point where we may have to get a feeding tube placed. Our frustration and anxiety levels are at a new high as we wrongfully placed our faith in a doctor, only to be reminded that she is a simply human just like us… (read: we are looking for a new ped gastro doc). We are recognizing our misalignment with The Father, which manifests itself in the aforementioned frustration and anxiety, but frankly are pretty overwhelmed by all of this. We need your prayer coverage.
Please pray for peace for our family, healing for Henry, and the medical support we need to make sound care decisions for him. Please pray for the protection of An Na’s heart as she is stuck in the middle of this, not understanding all of it, only feeling the burden being carried by her mother. We are tired, scared, frustrated, and sad that our man is hurting. We know God has our lives in His hands but we are having a hard time letting go of the burden. We come before Him with our palms up, only to turn them back to the controls when issues arise. This is really hard for us and we need your prayers.
Thanks again for the support."
Steve and family
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Henry needs your prayers
We just got this e-mail from Henry's Daddy. Please pray for Henry to like his food again and not get dehyrated.
"Dear friends and family,
You once read where we called Henry a “quick change artist” when his situation had deteriorated rapidly. Although our current situation isn’t necessarily the result of a quick change, it is something that we’re deeply concerned about. The past few weeks have been challenging when it comes to feeding Henry. Unfortunately, things have gotten significantly worse this week. He is screaming at the sight of his bottle and fighting his way through every feed. He’s taking in about 50% of what he needs to.
Of course, we’re working with his doctors and therapists to understand what’s going on. But we know that the Great Physician is the One we need to petition for help. Please join us in praising God in all He is doing for our family and petitioning Him for healing Henry’s resistance to eating. We’re praying against dehydration for Henry and the strength for us to “retrust” God with this child. My faith seems very strong when things are going well and I’m challenged to go to God first when things are difficult. This week has been particularly exhausting for Nikki and her spirits are very low with concern for her baby. Please lift her up while praising God for all He has done in her life over the past six months.
Thank you for caring for my family.
Steve"
"Dear friends and family,
You once read where we called Henry a “quick change artist” when his situation had deteriorated rapidly. Although our current situation isn’t necessarily the result of a quick change, it is something that we’re deeply concerned about. The past few weeks have been challenging when it comes to feeding Henry. Unfortunately, things have gotten significantly worse this week. He is screaming at the sight of his bottle and fighting his way through every feed. He’s taking in about 50% of what he needs to.
Of course, we’re working with his doctors and therapists to understand what’s going on. But we know that the Great Physician is the One we need to petition for help. Please join us in praising God in all He is doing for our family and petitioning Him for healing Henry’s resistance to eating. We’re praying against dehydration for Henry and the strength for us to “retrust” God with this child. My faith seems very strong when things are going well and I’m challenged to go to God first when things are difficult. This week has been particularly exhausting for Nikki and her spirits are very low with concern for her baby. Please lift her up while praising God for all He has done in her life over the past six months.
Thank you for caring for my family.
Steve"
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Henry and Kelti Updates
Kelti first...she's doing great! Thanks for praying for her. She got through surgery very well and even got to go home a little earlier than was planned. Her mama reports that she's recovering nicely (Jessica, you can update me more if there's more to add)
And, little Henry (who, by the way, isn't all that little anymore)
This is the most recent update Henry's parents sent to us:
"6 Months old that is!! Hello friends and family. Sorry for the long delay since our last update. Time seems to fly by and the busyness does not relent. We continue to praise God for you and for all He is doing in our lives. He continues to show us what a kind and merciful Father He is and his favor on our family is very obvious. We continue to give our kids to Him, for Him to use for His glory. We know He doesn’t need us to glorify Himself, but we love it that He chooses to use us anyway.
Things continue to improve for our man Henry. Today he is 6 months old! Where did the time go…? He is weighing in at a hefty 9lbs, 5oz and continues to show great growth progress. These days there are the two main areas of opportunity for Henry; his lungs and GI system. This past week we visited specialists in both of these areas both in Fayetteville and in Little Rock.
Starting with his lungs, he is still on his supplemental oxygen and a pair of diuretics to manage the fluid buildup on his lungs. This week his pulmonologist started weaning him off the meds and is heading towards working him off of the oxygen. All we can say is praise God and YIPEE!! Having him tethered to this machine and his monitor is really hard on Nikki as she would love to be wrapping him up in a carrier and doing her mama thing around the house with him close. It is particularly hard to manage An Na’s needs in one room with Henry stuck to a 20’ cord. We are praying that God continues to work miracles on Henry’s lungs (and a heart condition that is related to being on oxygen for so long) and that the weaning process goes well. It will take about a month to clear the meds and we have a follow-up scheduled for April 7th. If all goes well on the 7th, we will start with very short periods of time off oxygen and gradually increase as he tolerates. Please join us in praising God for all He has done with Henry’s lungs and petitioning Him for continued healing and growth.
You may recall that Henry was having a lot of trouble with reflux and vomiting. We are working with a new pediatric gastroenterologist in Little Rock to figure out what is going on. She is awesome and an obvious answer to our prayers. Henry had an upper GI (xray of his digestive tract, basically) the week before last and the radiologist thought it looked normal. However, Henry’s gastro doc actually thinks that his stomach looked like it was more horizontal than it should be, which can cause vomiting. We’re headed back to Little Rock in the next week or so for another upper GI so she can get a better view. In the meantime, a couple of changes (and lots of prayer) have apparently been the miracle cure for his vomiting! He went off of a medication that could have been causing more trouble for his stomach (if it’s indeed rotated) as well as off of his formula fortifier (that adds calories to his breastmilk) because his feedings were becoming totally stressful, due to his apparent strong dislike for formula. Since then, he has hardly vomited at all and his feedings are mostly peaceful and pleasant! Praise God! Please join us in praying for his stomach…that whatever is going on won’t require surgery. Or if it does, that the surgery can wait until after he’s off the oxygen for a while. There are a lot of risks inherent in surgery while he’s on oxygen; risks that we aren’t willing to take, except for emergency situations. We’re also praying that he continues to gain weight at an acceptable pace off of the fortifier. He is so much happier with his bottles now…which, in turn, makes us so much happier, too!
An Na continues to be an awesome big sister to Henry. She loves her baby brother and he responds to her when he needs calming. He seems to know her voice and often stops fussing if she attends to him. She has done really well stuck inside the house during this flu/RSV season and God has preserved her (and all of us) well. She is very healthy. She found her “stride” as a 3 year-old a few months ago, but that seems to have subsided a bit for the time being. We are working hard to listen to her better, and to God, for her needs and wants. With all the attention on Henry, she could easily get lost in the shuffle. Please pray for her heart and for her to know how much God and her Mama and Baba love her. On the 4th of March we celebrated 2 years of being a family with her and she is starting to ask more about her life in China. We have prepared a life book for her to help her understand and suspect that the time is quickly approaching that she will want to understand more. She knows who her foster parents are and we have a sweet picture of them with her in our living room. She was particularly close to her foster grandpa. Please join us in praying for our sweet girl and for protection of her heart in this season of her life.
Thanks for reading this long update. We will try to do a better job of getting them out more often so there isn’t so much to cover. We praise God for you and greatly appreciate your prayers for our family.
In Him,
Steve, Nikki, and His perfect kids" and Henry and An Na's swee tlittle faces:
And, little Henry (who, by the way, isn't all that little anymore)
This is the most recent update Henry's parents sent to us:
"6 Months old that is!! Hello friends and family. Sorry for the long delay since our last update. Time seems to fly by and the busyness does not relent. We continue to praise God for you and for all He is doing in our lives. He continues to show us what a kind and merciful Father He is and his favor on our family is very obvious. We continue to give our kids to Him, for Him to use for His glory. We know He doesn’t need us to glorify Himself, but we love it that He chooses to use us anyway.
Things continue to improve for our man Henry. Today he is 6 months old! Where did the time go…? He is weighing in at a hefty 9lbs, 5oz and continues to show great growth progress. These days there are the two main areas of opportunity for Henry; his lungs and GI system. This past week we visited specialists in both of these areas both in Fayetteville and in Little Rock.
Starting with his lungs, he is still on his supplemental oxygen and a pair of diuretics to manage the fluid buildup on his lungs. This week his pulmonologist started weaning him off the meds and is heading towards working him off of the oxygen. All we can say is praise God and YIPEE!! Having him tethered to this machine and his monitor is really hard on Nikki as she would love to be wrapping him up in a carrier and doing her mama thing around the house with him close. It is particularly hard to manage An Na’s needs in one room with Henry stuck to a 20’ cord. We are praying that God continues to work miracles on Henry’s lungs (and a heart condition that is related to being on oxygen for so long) and that the weaning process goes well. It will take about a month to clear the meds and we have a follow-up scheduled for April 7th. If all goes well on the 7th, we will start with very short periods of time off oxygen and gradually increase as he tolerates. Please join us in praising God for all He has done with Henry’s lungs and petitioning Him for continued healing and growth.
You may recall that Henry was having a lot of trouble with reflux and vomiting. We are working with a new pediatric gastroenterologist in Little Rock to figure out what is going on. She is awesome and an obvious answer to our prayers. Henry had an upper GI (xray of his digestive tract, basically) the week before last and the radiologist thought it looked normal. However, Henry’s gastro doc actually thinks that his stomach looked like it was more horizontal than it should be, which can cause vomiting. We’re headed back to Little Rock in the next week or so for another upper GI so she can get a better view. In the meantime, a couple of changes (and lots of prayer) have apparently been the miracle cure for his vomiting! He went off of a medication that could have been causing more trouble for his stomach (if it’s indeed rotated) as well as off of his formula fortifier (that adds calories to his breastmilk) because his feedings were becoming totally stressful, due to his apparent strong dislike for formula. Since then, he has hardly vomited at all and his feedings are mostly peaceful and pleasant! Praise God! Please join us in praying for his stomach…that whatever is going on won’t require surgery. Or if it does, that the surgery can wait until after he’s off the oxygen for a while. There are a lot of risks inherent in surgery while he’s on oxygen; risks that we aren’t willing to take, except for emergency situations. We’re also praying that he continues to gain weight at an acceptable pace off of the fortifier. He is so much happier with his bottles now…which, in turn, makes us so much happier, too!
An Na continues to be an awesome big sister to Henry. She loves her baby brother and he responds to her when he needs calming. He seems to know her voice and often stops fussing if she attends to him. She has done really well stuck inside the house during this flu/RSV season and God has preserved her (and all of us) well. She is very healthy. She found her “stride” as a 3 year-old a few months ago, but that seems to have subsided a bit for the time being. We are working hard to listen to her better, and to God, for her needs and wants. With all the attention on Henry, she could easily get lost in the shuffle. Please pray for her heart and for her to know how much God and her Mama and Baba love her. On the 4th of March we celebrated 2 years of being a family with her and she is starting to ask more about her life in China. We have prepared a life book for her to help her understand and suspect that the time is quickly approaching that she will want to understand more. She knows who her foster parents are and we have a sweet picture of them with her in our living room. She was particularly close to her foster grandpa. Please join us in praying for our sweet girl and for protection of her heart in this season of her life.
Thanks for reading this long update. We will try to do a better job of getting them out more often so there isn’t so much to cover. We praise God for you and greatly appreciate your prayers for our family.
In Him,
Steve, Nikki, and His perfect kids" and Henry and An Na's swee tlittle faces:
Happy Half Birthday to Me!
I am 6 months old today. My 6 month stats are......
18 lbs. 29 inches long. Still only 2 teeth (and they had to come back through) and still blue eyes. My likes include Olivia, Simon, rhymes, music, stuff to chew on, food, Kleenex, and maracas. My dislikes include napping for more than a half hour, being alone, and dropping my yummy food.
New and Improved
This is my new and improved non-crawl. I can go in the direction that I want even if I have to turn myself around to get there and I'm surprisingly quick. Don't let the thighs fool you...they're all muscle.
Happy kid
Mommy says I'm just a happy, easy kid. It's true. I like to laugh and smile and I don't get upset very easily.
Wanna Play Peekaboo?
I like Peekaboo and my object permanence is in place now so it's even more fun because I really try to find mommy. Here I am looking for mommy while we're playin in my crib
mmmmmmm
Mommy bought me a little mesh teether thing that you stick real food it but there is a mesh net around it so she doesn't have to worry about me choking. I am sort of in love with it and I cry super loud when I drop it. 
Monday, March 16, 2009
MMMMMM....meat
Okay, so it's not meat but Mommy finally decided to start me on cereal. I've been trying to tell her to let me start for a while now by grabbing her food and shoving it in my mouth but she insisted that we wait until I was pretty close to 6 month. I was so excited when she put that first bite of mushy rice in my mouth and I ate up the whole thing and then yelled at her when it was all gone. Now I get excited when I see my little orange spoon. I am an excellent eater. I'm sure you're all surprised about that, no? 
Friday, March 13, 2009
Super Baby
Seriously, Mommy and Daddy spent WAY too much time playing with this picture and laughing!
And the video made it even funnier. Daddy thinks it looks like I'm trying to jump into flight
Here are some of the unediteds:
And the video made it even funnier. Daddy thinks it looks like I'm trying to jump into flight
Here are some of the unediteds:
Cold and Windy
It was supposed to be a really nice day when we went to the park but it got pretty cold and windy so I hid in mommy's sweatshirt and took a nap.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
At the Park
Mommy, Livi, and I went to the park today. I get worn out pretty quickly by being outside and this is how I generally spend the majority of park time
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Skooching
I'm skooching. It's sort of my own special mix of crawling and an inchworm. I'm quite fond of doing it instead of napping. I'm also getting too long-armed and big-chested for some of my 6-9 month clothes. Mommy's not sure what to do with me. She's used to Olivia who wears the same stuff for more than a year.
Bella's Birthday
LIvi had a great time at Bella's birthday. The problem is this, I'm 5 months old. They do not allow 5 month olds on jumpy things and huge slides....probably with good reason. I did get to do this though:
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