A Grandma's perspective...

My mom (Mindy's) asked to share on our blog our story.  So, the following is written by Mom and Dad (Myron & Julie Stump).  We are excited to note that my brother and his wife are going to let us use their vehicle through January for all Indy trips!  So we are covered.  Thank you for continuing to support this!!!!  We are going to get this miracle!!

~Jeff & Mindy Pfohl~

Dear friends,

I am writing this on behalf of my daughter, Mindy. 

My daughter has been on a walk that none of us could possibly understand unless we were to walk within her shoes.  

All three of her adorable children have a terminal disease which is called mitochondrial myopathy.  It effects their muscles and it causes them to not have the energy they need to function.  Some days are really good for them.  But many days they are forced to use wheel chairs because their strength is all gone.

She spends her days nurturing them and homeschooling them.  Her kitchen is like a clinic.  She measures medications and lines them up for all three children (you would have to see this to believe it)…  they each have a feeding tube with little bags hanging on a pole and she prepares and cares for them for this.  The two older children are soon going to have to be on a Bipap machine at night.  The doctors have already ordered this.  The baby has to have treatments where they place a vest on him and it shakes his little chest to clear his breathing.  All three have asthma and are on breathing treatments.  I don’t know how she does it.  The children are all three in and out of the hospital.  She is the best mama in the whole world.  And of course, she prays and trusts God for their healing even though there currently is no cure for mito. 

The five of them live in a small house and their van is constantly broken down.  We were there the other day and it is leaking every fluid.  So even if the van is running…. It is in danger of breaking down on the road.  Breaking down can become and emergency in this weather.
 

My son in law used to be a pastor of a new church plant but his church closed down so he could take care of his family and now he is working at Walmart part time.  This is their only earned income as my daughter has to be home to be the full time care giver.  She also is ill herself.  Two of the children receive SSI.  But there just isn’t enough funds coming in for them to be able to meet their daily needs and to purchase a new van.

Think of what it would be like to have three terminally ill children who need to be transported with all their medical equipment plus their wheel chairs regularly to doctors more than a hundred miles away.   And think what it would be like if the van was not safe and could break down on interstate in all kinds of weather.

I fear for their safety and I cry for them wishing there were an answer…. Something that I could do to help.  My husband and I have helped children all of our lives and now that our grandchildren need help, it’s so hard to not be able to rush in and fix this for them.

Today (Jan. 6, 2014) – there is several inches of snow on the ground and temperatures are expected to drop to 17 below zero.   I could hear the panic in her voice when she said that one of the children woke up sick.

Please… pray for them and help them if you can.  They are good people and the children are just precious.  They just need a break.  They just need a van to get them to and from all their medical appointments.  I just wanted to share those thoughts with you.

Myron and Julie Stump (Mamaw and Dapaw)