Urgent Prayers Needed for Baby Damian

This is Damian Crux. He is not yet 2 months old and he had open heart surgery yesterday. His heart is not responding and urgent Prayers are needed. He is on life support as they allow the heart to rest in hopes that it will recover. 

They are asking for the intercession of Sister Clare Crockett of Ireland, but any and all prayers are so appreciated! 

There is a documentary about Sr Clare that was good and family friendly available HERE

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For those who like all the details-

Update 12/2/2024 16:12:

The surgeon spoke to Ruben and Jenny, He is deeply concerned that his heart is not responding. The plan is to let his heart rest for a couple of days in the hope that it will recover. In the meantime, he will remain on life support, with daily assessments to determine if his heart can regain function.

If you can please offer up fasting in conjunction with the prayers, and let’s all pray for Damian’s full recovery ❤️

Update 12/2/2024 15:28: 

Damian's heart is not fully responding to the surgery, so he will remain supported by the heart and lung machine until doctors can gradually restore its natural function.

His chest will remain open for another day or so to allow for any necessary interventions. Please storm heaven on his behalf ❤️🙏🏽

Update 12/2/2024 14:21:

quick update on Damian. He is still in surgery. They tried to repair the valve but he wasn't responding well so the doctor is replacing it. He’s been in surgery since 7am. Please continue to send prayers🙏🏽🙏🏽

Update 12/1/2024: thank you all for your continuous prayers 🙏🏽 ❤️For those those who’d like to help financially with the extra travel, medical expenses, extra lodging, as well as having to take off work, here is a link to help with the extra financial needs. all efforts to support are greatly appreciated ❤️ May God bless you all! Updates are also viewable in the website: 

https://givesendgo.com/damian?utm_source=sharelink&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=damian

Update 11/26/2024: Damian is scheduled for open heart surgery Monday December 2nd. He still at children’s hospital being monitored, please continue to pray for him and his family ❤️

Update 11/25/2024 : Hi everyone, 

An update: Damian is being admitted to Children’s Hospital in Denver tonight for his heart. 😔Please shower Damian and his family with prayers if you’re able to 🙏🏽🙏🏽

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Hi everyone, I have an urgent prayer request: 

our dear friend’s newborn, Damian Crux Garduno, was just diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and abnormal heart valve morphology. These issues have been causing abnormal back flow, extra pressure and stress to his heart. Damian is currently on oxygen therapy and if the issues don’t resolve, he’ll quite possibly undergo heart surgery. He was born on October 4th (just a few weeks ago) and next cardiology appointment is October 31st. 

I know I’ve had so many wonderful people pray for me and my family, I humbly ask for prayers for the complete healing of Damian’s heart and for peace & consolation for his wonderful parents. Thank you so much in advance, and thank you for being the prayer warriors that you are 🙏🏽🙏🏽♥️

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them” Matthew 18:20

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm case you were wondering...

American holidays in Europe are just different. 

We had Thanksgiving Dinner after 11 am Mass on post today. 

It worked out well because hosting at our house would present quite the list of limitations! 

Starting with the size of our "Polly Pocket" oven!

I did manage to cook sweet potatoes and mac and cheese, but that's all i could manage in 3 hours time. 

So I think we will have Pecan Pie for dessert tonight,  since I couldn't make it happen this morning. You'll never guess who helped make it...

(Sorry it is upside down. There's a J in the middle , if you cannot tell.)

Now. You're probably wondering why I didn't make thinks such as Pecan pie yesterday. 

Well. I tried. But Elijah had a doctors appt at 1500 downtown, 20 minutes away. But since you mist find parking, walk to he hospital, and then find the cashier's office and pay for the visit beforehand...we left at 1400. Good thing, as we arrived at the office only a few minutes before 1500. (That European life.) 

Then we went on a search for Pecans and a few other things. Got home around 1800. Made dinner, cleaned up and poof. Power went out. This time I don't even know why, we only had the dryer and a few lights on! In true "I don't have time for this" fashion, it took until 2200 to get it back on! 

To be clear, this is not the city is out of power, just out house. Electricity here is an adventure. We can only use 2 things at once, even with the upgraded power. If it is my hairdryer, we can only use that and must turn everything else off. (Lights, heat, oven, microwave, etc.) 

So this happened on Saturday and I was late picking someone up from the train station because I was trapped in my driveway unable to open my gate. Happened again on Monday when I dried my hair.

Wednesday night, it defied all things. The generator also decided to no longer work this week. So we were trapped and Noah needed picked up from the airport. 

All's well that ends well, after much stress and many prayers, I prayed a flying novena and poof, power. 

Bryan arrived at the airport exactly 1 minute before Noah texted asking where he was parked. 

I know I don't post much, I apologize. We are SO busy, and still adjusting to all the craziness of trying to live in Europe. To say it is an adventure is putting it mildly. 

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. May your day go more smoothly than ours! 

Zucchero Zollette (Sugar Cubes)

On Monday, I hosted a book club. As I pulled out the fixings for cups of tea, I thought to myself how surprised I was that the children had not eaten all of the sugar cubes, especially since they were still in their marked box. They did eat a fair amount during book club, and I threw away that box. 

This morning, I went to open the new box, and to my surprise....it was empty! I'm not sure if they suddenly knew we had some and ate them all in a day, or if they had been pilfering from the bottom box the whole time! 

Lucky for all, I had picked up a box from the Italian grocery store. I present to you Italian sugar cubes, still called cubes, but it seems their math skills may be lacking here. These cubes are most certainly rectangular in nature.

Today's Italian lesson is Zucchero- sugar. Pronounced zoo-ker-oh, this is a useful word when one drinks coffe (with or without sugar. Though now that I think about it, sugar is never in the coffee, it is always served as packets on the saucer or on the table.)

Found!

Mom! I found it! I knew I would find it! I found my favorite cup!

This was Noah's that he bought ay Niagra Falls when he was Judah's age,  and I fear I'll never be able to get rid of it. It's the only plastic cup we have! 

24 years later..

Bryan and I were back in a DLI classroom together learning a new language. 

It was a bit different than the cassette tape days of old-with a smart white board that gave our instructor all kinds of tech issues but also all whiteboard notes emailed to us after the class!

Our class started at 7 am, so a cup of cappuccino with cocoa sprinkled on top was much needed afterwards. 

Salt with no Spice.

Mmmm, mom this so good with that salt that is not spicy!! (Sugar. He is speaking about sugar! He's eating dry cinnamon chex because mom went to spain for the weekend and need tp go grocery shopping!)

A few minutes later, completely randomly-

Mom, never give me away, okay? (Maybr He's worried about the mess he just made eating those chex. And I haven't a 220v vacuum,  yet.)

Jude quotes

Mom, did you buy that mac and cheese? 

I did. 

It's so big! I don't think I can eat all of that right now!

I should hope not! It is family sized!

Mom, did you know i have another jello cup hidden away in my secret drawer?!

I do now!

Italy in Color

I apparently never finished linking videos recently.

There a new link for family videos from Italy. Included is a tour of the house by Elijah.  He missed all the interesting things about the house,  so I hope to someday make you another.  Until then...

Wilhelms in Italy

A House!

After 99 days in a hotel, we have a house! 

It is a very large house, even by American standards. It is a rather odd house, by American or European standards. Custom built, I am sure, and could use some serious updating, but fingers crossed we can find a way to make this a comfortable home! 

The landlord is a super sweet old Italian man. Not much English (though more than our Italian) but so friendly. We met his daughter and she was just as nice and spoke great English. She is probably close to our age and I hope we can become friends. 

Truly though,there is plenty of space, and even a guest room. Come visit! There are also a couple of odd little storage rooms (with windows) that we might be able to use as extra guest rooms for any kids you bring along! 

We walked into town for gelato with Elijah and Judah last night. I didnt try it, but Bryan said it was incredible and the boys both loved it, as well. 

Well, pray for us. The owner was still moving out Friday as the truck with our stuff was here unloading. There is stuff everywhere, some ours, some theirs, and I haven't even had time to figure out how best to set the rooms up. It'll be good, but it'll take a while to get this situated! 

Weekly Randoms

We've finally started bringing Jude toys to restaurants. (You're going to be there a while and the alternative is a screen in his face.) So here he is ordering me to take my turn trying to balance the penguins when I'm trying to snap a quick picture. 

Last night was Brunch Republic for dinner. (They try, but it just isn't quite America.) I love their yogurt- granola bowl, but since I had yogurt for breakfast and lunch....I tried something new-  avocado toast with poached eggs and chili flakes. Jude ate my eggs. And the rest was,  well,  let's just say they REALLY should take a page from the Americans and have salt and pepper on the table. Things here are so bland, and I'm not even someone who likes much flavoring! But alas, there is always sugar on the table, usually oil and vinegar, but almost never salt and pepper. 

While doing laundry earlier this week, Elijah realized the coffee machine had definite cappucino.  He begged money off of Selah after the machine ate his American coins (because it took Euro) and then proclaimed it was the best thing he has ever had to drink. 

The older kids love that Jide crosses his eyes and are always telling him to do this for their amusement. 

The kids went to KFC at the mall for the millionth time, so bryan and I tried to get dinner at the hotel restaurant. There was quite a wait, even for two, so we checked out a little place down the street. 

Finally! A little Italian place just like you would expect. I wish I had taken a picture of the gentleman who served us. 😔 

Also, finally good food! 

I had the house made Bigoli- homemade pasta with a pepper cream sauce. Incredible. 

Bryan had some kind of soup made from creamed beans. He said it was actually quite good, despite the stew look. 

Secondi,  I was excited to see caprese with buffalo mozzerella on the menu (secondi is normally meat or fish) and while it was decent, it needed salt and vinegar! Tomato, cheese, olive oil, basil... I'm just not that Italian. 

This was lunch the same day. A four cheese pasta. This is why we complain about the food here. What is in my simple four cheese pasta?! Blue cheese?! Needless to say I didn't finish it. Selah ate even less of hers. Secondi was grilled chicken- actually grilled! Too bad there was no seasoning whatsoever...

Judah, giving me a heart attack! Just peeking out the screen-less second floor window 😳😳😳

Mom! What day is it?! 

Monday?! I hate monday! 

A picture stolen from the high school's instagram account from last weekend's tennis meet. 

Just a Little Jude

This kid. A day in the life. Need I say more? 

my phone and I are not friends. The sideways pictures are making me crazy. I did read how to fix it, but it requires editing the code on every picture and my tech savvy kid lives in Germany...

Etiquette Training at Its Best.

Mom, you always do this to me! 

Do what to you?!

Make me use a fork!!!

Unrelated to forks, I cannot remember if I have shared about the Italian breakfast juice. It's called Ace, which is pronounced Ah-chay. It is a combination of orange, carrot, and lemon juice and available everywhere, even in juice boxes. Judah actually enjoys it quite a bit. 

Writing Names

It is a much needed cooler morning here, only 74 with a high of 80 today! 

We are waiting for the laundry to finish and Judah asked to draw while I worked on some emails. 

He wrote his name. I am so proud of him. We will work on the upside down u and the crazy d. It was such a good start! I didn't even know he was ready to start working on this. 

A Day With Judah

Judah- Mom, do you want to play with me? 

Yes , I do. But these dishes will not wash themselves. 

J- It's your job to play with me you know. 

Yes, but it's also my job to wash the dishes! 

J-Hmm. I wish we could use electricity to make those dishes wash themselves!

........

A LITTLE LATER WHILE PLAYING PLAYDOH...

.........

J-Mom do you want some more?

Well, we are going to be leaving in all few to take micah to tennis. We should start cleaning up.

J- I'll take that as a yes. Here's more.  

Tennis Season Has Started.

Micah decided he wanted to try out for the High School tennis team- and he made the team! 

We are very proud of him, even though we now have no other life. I think 12 boys tried out and 8 made the team. Not bad for a freshman with no experience other than playing for fun occasionally! 

So, we now spend much time sweating on the tennis courts while being eaten alive by mosquitoes. He has practice M-Th for 2 hours after school and each Friday and Saturday he will have matches. Now, since we live in Europe but aren't European, it seems we play other European located American military schools and a few international ones. Which means travel. The good is that we only travel 3 weekends and we stay in Italy. One trip is to Rome and two to Naples- unless Micah does very well. Then he will also go to Germany for the Eurpean DODEA (DOD schools) tournament at the end of October. 

It seems that it is also customary to have private lessons, in addition to the team practices. So, here we are at 11am working with an instructor. It's still school, do not worry. We are getting all the PE in that we missed all those years in MI!  (Plus, I told him school still must come first and he has been great about starting school around 7 am to make up for the shorter day.)

Elijah is working on the practice wall behind Micah. 

And Judah is building and putting out fires. 

today we went to sciovie Verena 2000 - guest post by Elijah

Today we went to Sciovie, Verena 2000 it's a ski resort in the winter but in the summer it's a place to hike. First you ride a chair lift to the top and than there is a world war 1 fort and some really amazing views. then you can ride the char lift back down or walk back down. we walked and it was very pretty but very hard with Jude. 

This is in the world war 1 fort

l

This is an Italian swing

  Hear I dont know but there were a lot of motorcycles and that's it

-Elijah wilhelm