We have good news and bad news!

We have August 10th circled on the calendar in anticipation of getting the brace off.  We have crossed off the days and had many conversations about this trip.....but we're not going to be making that trip to Florida after all.  Dr. Paley was very gracious in allowing us to send an x-ray.  The parents' intuition kicked in...John Thomas had mentioned a couple of times that his leg was hurting.  The red flags went up and panic set in.  We scheduled an x-ray for Friday and emailed it to Dr. Paley.  Had the hip collapsed? Would we go back to square one?  We just knew we would have to wait for the answer, because it was a Friday.  What doctor emails you back before a weekend?  Dr. Paley did.  The good news is that the hip hasn't collapsed...a stroke of God's mercy and grace.  As you can see in this x-ray, his right hip still needs to grow.

The bad news is that the brace will  not be coming off on August 10th.  John Thomas will be in a brace for 6-9 more months.  You can't imagine how hard it was telling a 6 year old boy that he will need to stay in the brace longer.  He will be starting first grade in a brace and sports will have to wait.  He took it much better that we ever imagined.  The Fall and Winter should be a little easier in that it's not hot outside (hopefully), and we won't have to hear about not being able to go to any water parks. We will have another x-ray in September. Our prayer is that as we continue doing those dreaded stretches, the hip will rebuild at a miraculous rate.....no collapse. 
Thank you for your prayers for John Thomas and our family.  Thank you for loving him and Juliana in such a way that gives us strength to finish strong.  The finish line is in sight......just a little bit longer on our journey towards big steps for John Thomas.
#GodisFaithful