We praise the Lord, God that He created such marvels like the human body. Who could have thought of making bone where it heals itself and grows new bone as we apply pressure and pull it apart? No one but the living, awesome God Himself.

At the End of day 6, we have seen 6mm of length gained and everything is looking great! Ryan looks forward to turning the screw four times a day and watching his fingers grow. Every other turn, we clean the pin sites as we do our best to keep the incision and pins clean and dry to prevent any infection. This time around it almost seems like old hat as his first round of treatment (over two years ago) we had to take care of four sets of lengtheners  and this time, only two. We look forward to seeing more growth each day!

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Just last week we visited the Creation Museum in Kentucky. Wow, were we blown away by the solid Biblical basis for the exhibits and the quality in which they were presented. To see a small sample of the exhibits in the Creation Museum, just click on the images below:

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Ryan did great with this second round of surgery. Dr. Seitz placed two lengtheners on his middle two fingers and placed a bandage for healing. That will stay on for one week and then the stretching will start.

Coming out of anesthesia is always the hardest part for Ryan. He struggled for a while, but with some pain meds, he fell asleep and then has been his normal self ever since. Coloring, watching movies, and eating lots! He had to go without breakfast and lunch today, so for dinner he ate 3+ big pieces of pizza, his favorite!

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We are all excited as Ryan gets to continue his hand reconstruction with his fifth surgery scheduled as he starts the second round of treatment. Dr. Seitz of the Cleveland Clinic in Beachwood, Ohio will continue to be his surgeon.

We ask for prayer for Dr. Seitz, his team, skilled hands and work, and for Ryan’s safety during the surgery and that he will not have any complications from the anesthesia or surgery itself. He is always allergic to adhesives, so pray also that God will calm his immune system in response to these types of things and move his body’s defenses over to fight off bacteria from the incisions.

For those of you not familiar with his condition of the procedure, feel free to read the whole story here, but for a quick synopsis read on. Ryan was born without fingers on his left hand from Amniotic Band Syndrome. He had a few stumps, but without much function at all. After much prayer and searching we found Dr. Setiz in Cleveland Ohio, who is one of the few people in the world who performs distraction augmentation on the hand. Basically, he implants bone if necessary (toe bones) breaks them, attaches a device screwed into the bone and extends outside the hand to slowly move the two broken pieces apart. Then God’s miracle of bone regeneration takes over and fills in the space. Sometimes it is necessary to cut the skin that “webs” between the stretched fingers and fill in with skin graphs taken from the groin area. Sometimes this is not necessary.

Ryan is ready for stage #5. Last time he had four fingers stretched, this time only the shorter, middle two fingers. These are the fingers that are entirely toe bones. The longer thumb and pinky finger he had did have a small amount of bone to start with, so they are a combination original finger and toe bones and do not need further lengthening as they are growing well. The other good news is all the transplanted and original bone still have active growth plates with means they will all continue to grow naturally as well.

Some pictures of his pre-op condition are shown below with daddy’s hand in comparison just like those original pictures before the 1st surgery.

Click here to view the entire story…

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Please pray for my dad’s safety as he is going to Haiti today. His company’s flour mill was destroyed and many employees were killed. The company is trying to help the situation and the people of Haiti the best they can. – Sarah

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We are all very proud of Sarah as her entry into the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest was selected as one of a hundred finalists! She will travel to Orlando to make a case for her recipe as the winner next spring.

Coming up later this month, she will be featured on Channel 10 in Springfield on January 21, 2010 on the 6AM morning show. She will make the recipe on TV for everyone to enjoy!

Be sure to visit the official page and vote for her recipe!

Click Here to view official Pillsbury Page

Sarah started baking long ago as a young girl and always enjoys baking a good treat!