Here is an update as of Sunday evening at 8:00 PM:

Today brought another round of nothing but miracles and great progress in Josiah’s condition.  I do not take any of this for-granted.  God has moved on our behalf and shown favor.  I believe it is due to the people of God all over the world that have lifted my son up in prayer. I know we have not been able to respond to all of you that have contacted us.  There is just not enough time right now. Just know that we are eternally grateful for the outpouring of love and concern.  And please, keep praying!

• This morning we were able to witness him moving his left fingers and toes on command.  The Dr. came in and had him move his toes and hold up two fingers on each hand.  He had not been able to do this, so we took it as a great victory!  That was a great start to a great day!
• Not long after that, as I looked into his eyes, I told him to say “hi” and he did!  I finally got to hear his voice after these many days!  That was a starting point for great strides in his speech all day.  His very first word on his own was “milk.”  I am not sure why, but even at 8 PM this evening he is asking for milk.
• For most of the day he had basically only been speaking when spoken to, and then it was only one word answers. But this afternoon he actually started a conversation about none other than his phone! He said the word “phone,” I had him repeat, which he did.  I assured him that his phone was intact and that I had it.  He then said “get it.”  And when I told him we would get it to him later, he said “now.”  Of course, he is still not able to text or talk on a phone, but just that he is asking for it is signs of who he is.
• He has spoken many other things today, and to our amazement, his speech has progressed very quickly throughout the day.  His sense of humor has come out today as well.  I asked him to identify people in the room, which he did, and then I asked him who Josiah was and he pointed at himself and then said “stupid” in reference to the little game I was playing with him. He also tried to get kisses from his girlfriend, to which his mother reminded him that she was still in the room.
• I could go on and on about all the different things he has said.  But I will only tell you one more.  This evening he looked at me and said, “I need help.” and then in reference to the nurses he said, “Get them to help me.”  You talk about ripping my heart right out of my chest.  My boy sits here and knows that something is wrong with him and I cannot fix it.

Here are some specific things to remember in prayer for Josiah:

• He has been very peaceful and quiet today, which is already an answer to prayer.  Please continue to pray that confusion and irritation will be minimal, and instead that he will keep that peaceful and quiet spirit.  Many times a head trauma patient will be irrational and very irritated.
• Pray that the therapists will have wisdom as they plan a course of action for his recovery.  We do not know the level of rehab as of yet.  We will find out more of that over the next few days.
• Pray for my younger kids.  Joshua came to see his brother again today and did pretty good. It was still upsetting for him to see his “Superman” like this. He got to talk to him!   Jenna also got see him today and did remarkably well. We will still wait a couple of days before we bring Jaidyn in to see him.  Also, pray for his older sister Jordan that she would be comforted as she is over 900 miles or so away.
• Pray for Jennifer and I to have patience.  We know God is in control, we count on that, but we want to see him healed!

Psalm 10:12 “Do something, Lord God,  and use your powerful arm  to help those in need.”

Here is an update as of 8:15 PM on Saturday, December 4^th.

Josiah had an early start to the day again, as he went for another CT scan. The results were very positive, and for now, there are no other CT scan planned.  The bruise on his brain is stable!  With that news, the plan for the day was to get him weaned off of the breathing machine so that they could try and wake him up a bit.

• At about 9:30 AM they took him partly out of his sedation and lowered the amount of breaths that the machine was taking for him.  We watched him for a while as he struggled to breath.  I can tell you that was a very tense period of time for me personally.  It hurt to see my son struggle so much just to take a breath.
• They kept the machine on those settings for quite some time, and he did breathe on his own, but it was not as many respirations per minute as they were looking for.
• After doing this for a bit, they asked us to leave the room for a few minutes so they could take a tube out.  We figured that they were going to remove the old feeding tube that they had not been using.  To our surprise, when we came back in about 10 or so minutes later, the entire breathing machine was not only removed from him, but was not even in the room anymore!  His breathing was as normal as could be.  One of the nurses explained that many times the machine actually hinders a young person’s breathing, so they just removed it!  They also stopped giving him the meds that kept him sedated.
• Again, remarks have been made all day about how good he is doing in his progress.  It is remarkable to see how much things have changed in the last 2-3 days. God’s hand has been on Josiah. I call it a miracle!

Some other great things that have happened today:

• Because he is not sedated anymore, he has been a lot more responsive to us than I expected (and I think even more than the medical staff has expected at times!).
• We have been able to see his eyes several times today as he has opened them to communicate with us.  It is so good to be able to look into those eyes again!
• He has been able to do basic commands like squeezing a hand, but has also been able to answer yes and no questions most of the day. Some of the questions we have asked and that he has answered have been about if he is in pain, what parts of his body hurt, and does he know who we are.  He answered all those with flying colors.
• When I asked him about what hurt, he actually shifted his hips and patted his butt, letting me know that his rear end was in pain, which he shook his head yes when I asked if it did.
• I asked him if he knew where he was, to which he tried to talk, and mumbled 3 syllables. I said hospital and he shook his head yes.
• Jennifer posted this story on facebook:

“He has made our hearts glad today in sooo many ways. Both with all of Josiahs progress and the funny things he has done. Maybe Jason will post it more tonight but one thing was the nurses came in to move him so he doesn’t get sore. I think he is tired of them pulling and tugging cause they woke him up and said, “Josiah, we are gonna move you, okay?” He literally picked his whole rear end up off the bed and shifted to the other side, as if to say, here I will do it for… you. So, I praised him outloud, patted his leg and said, “Good job, Siah, you did it for them, now they don’t have to pick you up.” He raised his hand in the air and gave me 3 thumbs up. It brought the house down for me, his cousin, buddy, girlfriend, and the nurses that witnessed it. Ohhh, Siah we needed that. Thanks God for that sign of life and humor in him.”

Though there is great progress made each day, there is still a great road to be traveled for Josiah.  Here are some specific things to pray for:

• He seemed to be fairly calm for the most part today but please continue to pray that as he wakes up that confusion and irritation will be minimal, and instead that he will be filled with a peaceful and quiet spirit.  Many times a head trauma patient will be irrational and very irritated.
• Pray that he gains more control over the left side of his body.  He has plenty of strength, but does not squeeze or respond quite as well on that side.  This is expected because the brain injury is on the right side of the brain.  But I believe that being specific in this request will bring the specific answers we are looking for. It may take some time for that to happen, but I am asking for visible progress.
• Pray that the therapists will have wisdom as they plan a course of action for his recovery.  We do not know the level of rehab as of yet.  We will find out more of that over the next few days.
• Pray for my younger kids.  Joshua came to see his brother yesterday, and no matter how much I tried to prepare him, he was not prepared to see his big brother laying there like that.  The girls have not seen him and will not see him for several more days.  Also, pray for his older sister Jordan that she would be comforted as she is over 900 miles or so away.
• Pray for Jennifer and I to have patience.  We know God is in control, we count on that, but we want to see him healed!

Psalm 9:1 “I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart and tell about the wonders you have worked.”

Here is an update on Josiah as of 7:30 PM on Friday night.  Once again, we would like to thank you for the outpouring of kindness and love that you have shown us.  It is amazing to know that God has placed each and every one of you in our lives for such a time as this.  So, here is where we are at today:

• The day started early for Josiah as they did another CT scan of his brain.  The bruise that he has on his brain did get a little larger, but not so much that it has caused any concern.  Again, the neurosurgeon says that as of now, there will be no need for any surgery.  This is a huge answer to prayer!
• Because there was no significant increase in the bruise size, they were able to start weaning him off of the ventilator.  This is a slow process, but he is responding pretty well.  They will need to reduce the level of sedation that he is under starting tomorrow to continue the process.  This is the first step to getting everything out of his mouth/chest so that they can begin to wake him up.
• After he wakes up, they will have rehab consultants come in to assess him and give a plan for his recovery.  I am really looking forward to this part, but it is a ways off as of now.

Some great things happened today:

• He was much more active today.  He moved around a lot more.  This is a very good sign.
• The ophthalmologist visited Josiah today to take a look at his eyes, Of special concern was the right eye because the right eye socket has a fracture.  The Dr. said there was no apparent damage and that all looked good!
• During one of the times when he was active, I asked Josiah to squeeze my hand… and he did!  He actually did this two different times.  This made my day!  My boy is in there!  I cannot wait to talk with him and not just to him! (Edit: he just did this for the third time as I was posting this!)

Some things to pray for over the next 24 hours:

• Pray that the CT scan in the morning comes back with positive results.  This will be a key step in getting the breathing machine reduced/removed.
• Pray that Josiah takes over the breathing on his own.  He has responded so well in other areas.  He body is naturally taking over things that were being externally controlled by medicine.  This is a huge step!
• Pray that as he wakes up that confusion and irritation will be minimal, and instead that he will be filled with a peaceful and quiet spirit.  Many times a head trauma patient will be irrational and very irritated.
• Pray that we will be patient.  We want our boy back as he was, and as quickly as possible, but this takes time.  It is hard to sit here and watch him like this.  As a parent you want to make it all better, but we know that God is the only one capable of this.  This fact reminds me of a verse found in the book of Psalms:

Psalm 70:5  “I am poor and needy, but you, the Lord God, care about me. You are the one who saves me. Please hurry and help!”

Again, we thank you for all you have done.  We are grateful to God and His grace, power and love at a time like this.  It is amazing to see the body work as it restores and heals itself.  We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made!

As many of you may already know from facebook, our son Josiah was in a terrible car accident last night around 11:45PM.  He has suffered a brain injury, and the following is where we are at as of Thursday at 8:15PM.

We are so grateful for the calls, texts, notes, tweets and facebook posts throughout the day today.  I know we have not been able to respond to all of you, and for that I apologize.  It has been a very hectic, emotional day for us as you can imagine.  I want to give everyone an update for where Josiah is at as of Thursday evening.  I am doing my best to remember everything, but today is a huge blur.

• First off, the next 12-18 hours are very important for him.  As the Dr. put it, we are really still taking this hour by hour.  After a few things tomorrow morning, we can start to talk 6 hours at a time, and so forth.
• He was upgraded from critical condition to serious condition this afternoon. This is an answer to prayer in itself.  It does not mean that he is out of the woods, as mentioned above.
• He has a bruise on his brain, a fractured skull and an orbital fracture (eye socket basically).  His Dr.s told us that as of now, there is no surgery needed.  Again, another huge answer to prayer!  Again, this could still change.  The important thing we are looking for is that the bruise does not get any better.
• If everything remains the same as they look at the new CT scan in the morning, then they will take out the breathing tube and check for ligament damage around his neck.  As long as he has none, they will then begin to wake him up and see how he does.  From there, we see what he will need as far as therapy is concerned. Still a very long road ahead for him.
• He has been responsive at times, including trying to beat up his nurse as she was changing bandages.  He squeezed her hand when asked, and then when she tried to take tape off of him, he hit her.  Then she tried again and he brought up his leg and kicked her. Believe it or not, that was a good sign!

There are a few of many positive signs that have been shared with us today.  We continue to believe that God has a great plan for Josiah, and that this is but a small part of what God has in store for him.

The love we have felt from our friends and family all over the world has been a huge lift to us today.  We hold to God’s Word in the book of Job regarding Josiah

Job 23:13-14 “But he alone is God, and who can oppose him? God does as he pleases, and he will do exactly what he intends with me (Josiah).”

PS – Give your kids a hug tonight.  NEVER take that for-granted.