A House For My Kids

Dear Friends,

Thanks again for checking in…and for your prayers.

Sean is still in the hospital…he had major surgery a week ago (on the 20th?) They discovered that he had an abcess on the out side of his right lung and that had caused alot of trouble…they went in through his side and scraped off the infection. They also did a third Bronchoscopy ( in as many weeks) and this time felt as if they got him cleared more than they had the previous two times.

Still working on the Staph infection…still on pain management…and we are praying for God to touch his little lung and restore it.

We are grateful to God that the doctors finally found this very serious problem. His right lung was almost completely overtaken with infection. This is a problem that we believe has been there throuh a couple of different hospital stays. We just have not found it yet. The doctors were shocked at the severity of what they found on the CT scan.

Looking forward to when we can take him home.

I am in Florida with Jeffrey, Katie and Grace. I played a concert for an awesome group of people Saturday night at the Holmes Ranch in Lithia, Florida…near Brandon. Had a great time, made some new life-long friends, discovered a few things I need to work on for future concerts, and got to sing at his Church on Sunday Morning. Mr Mike Holmes is the publisher of the Horse and Tack magazine. The largest Equestrian Publication in Florida.

I am driving home on Tuesday, the 29th…slight chance that Sean will be able to come home this week. Diane has been there in the hospital room with Sean since Wednesday night the 23rd…you know…just hanging out and eatin’ bon-bons.

Once again…God has provided our needs with the love offerings at the two concerts.

Hoping to gather together all of the remaining details with the property issue and we can move forward with the next step toward building this house for our kids.

Dear Friends

Sean is back in the hospital since wed. night…side hurting…X-Ray showed a blockage in the upper right lobe of the lung. This is left over from the previous bronchoscopy…they couldn’t get it completely cleared from the lung…Had another bronchoscopy this morning…got a lot but still needed to get more cleared out. Doctor says that if this continues then we need to discuss whether Sean would be better off without that upper right lobe of his lung.

PLEASE join us in prayer asking God to clear this out of the lungs for Sean…
Sean is also plagued with a staph infection in this part of his lungs…this seems to be what’s making things bad. I am begging God to kill the staph infection and take this and do what only He can do. Please join us in this prayer. Please pray for my wife.

Thanks for checking in.

Dear Friends,

We are home from the hospital. Jeffrey and Sean did great! Then on Tuesday night, Sean’s belly got tight and he began to throw up violently. We have experienced this before. Jeffrey has had 3 surgeries because of an obstructed bowel. We knew as Diane made her way to the emergency room with Sean that we were headed for surgery.

I was in Houston, Texas at a Cowboy Church Pastor’s conference. When I got the call from Diane, I told my friends there about it and they immediately began praying for my family.

The X-Ray on Tuesday night showed clearly, a pocket of air behind an obstruction. This can be impacted stool or a kink in the bowel. We’ve experienced both that resulted in surgery.

By the time I got home on an early flight from Houston, Sean was passing gas ( yes we celebrate this at our house ) and all the symptoms had gone away. He was able to eat pop sickles and drink fluids. Later in the day he had a bowel movement that removed all doubt.
The CF Doctor and the Surgeon came in to see Diane after a second X-Ray on Wednesday and said this…

‘We can’t explain it…the X-Ray from last night, showed a textbook picture of a blockage that required surgery…and today it shows nothing’

Did you catch that? We are saying Thank You Lord at our house!!

God provided our every need this past week. On Monday when I left for Houston, I felt like a gambler going off to spend my last five dollars. I was not sure why I was going…I just knew that I was supposed to go. Before I left to come home (earlier than planned,) the Pastor handed me a gift. They had taken up a love offering for our family. I should call it a ‘lotta love’ offering. We have also received numerous CD orders and invites to come play and sing because of this conference trip.
Diane was at the hospital with Sean when I called to tell her not to worry about the money I had to spend to get home early. God had taken care of it all! You can imagine her reaction to such grace.

We have been at a stand still with house plans because of some questions that have needed answering about the land. We’re gonna put this in the ‘God has taken care of it’ slot also.

The gentlemen from Florida that gave us an acre of land to build on came to Tennessee and examined the reasons why we couldn’t build on that piece of land…the solution they came up with is to give us another third of an acre that adjoins our piece that should provide a building site. We believe that this has resolved our land crisis and we hope to be moving forward again.
We now need to clear that piece, get the legal work done and then the next eight thousand dollars worth of CD sales will go toward running the sewer, electric, and water to the property. We will be tempted at that point, to move into a temporary trailer on the building site because then it will be time to start building.
By the way, Thanks to Jackie Heatherly at Executive Title in Mt. Juliet for donating the deed work for this land.

Thank you to our dear friend Mike Chambers for coming to Vanderbilt and staying the night while both boys were there in separate rooms. Diane needed to take the girls home and we needed someone in each of the boys rooms. Mike was there and has been available ever since for whatever else we might need.
Thank you to our dear friends Jim and Polly Blanton for taking the other three kids while Diane went to Vandy with Sean. Polly stayed the night at our house with the kids…cooked, cleaned, changed Jeffrey’s IV out at the appointed time ( according to Jeffrey’s instructions), contended with Grace to do her treatments and to go to sleep, Listened to every word that Katie had to say about a variety of subjects. There are so many more friends to mention,  I can’t keep up.

Once again we are so grateful to you all for your prayers and for keeping up with us through this site. Please write or call anytime…615 668-3908

For those of you in Florida, come see the concert in Lithia on May 26th. 7 PM at the Holmes Ranch near Tampa.

God Bless you all!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

P.O. Box 1756
Mt. Juliet, Tn. 37121

Dear Friends,

Wow, I can not believe that it has been so long since I’ve updated this. Please forgive me. The days are speeding by. We literally are watching these children grow before our very eyes.

At this moment, Katie is ’selling’ me a few books from her bookstore. Grace is running around in a long T-shirt as she frequently visits the boys room trying to wake them up. Oh, Sean is awake and just came through in Spiderman attire.

The latest is that both boys are going into the hospital this weekend to have a Bronchoscopy done. They both have a blockage in the upper right lobe of their lungs and we need to get that opened up and cleared out. We suspect that this has been the case for a while and we are just now finding it. They had their first CT scan done late last week and that is how we found it.

Please continue to pray for us as we make our way back through all the logistics of being at Vanderbilt with our kids. Please pray that all goes well with the procedure and for safety for our kids. They will have PICC lines again in order to have two weeks of IV antibiotics at home. Anyone know of a GREAT probiotic? Both of the boys were upset to hear that they were going in again, but they are glad that they will get the remote for the TV the whole weekend.

We are being still and waiting right now for some questions to be answered about the property. Because of property line setbacks and slope, the land has been deemed to need serious improvements before we can build. This has us at a stand still because of the added expense. The good people that gave us the land were not aware of this when they gave it to us…they are currently looking into some alternative lots as a possible solution to this problem. Thank you Lord!

In January, I released a song from the CD to Christian Country radio. I did this to try and spur sales of the CD once the holidays were over. Sales have been very slow since November…

Much to my surprize, ‘What the Lord Gave Me to do’ has done very well at radio and has risen to #4 on the Christian Music Weekly chart. I am waiting to hear about where it is in The Powersource magazine’s top 100 chart. In the April issue, it was at #23. Amazing! All of this as I head out this morning to Mr. Corley’s house to patch a few places on his walls and paint his dining room.

Thank you so much to all the great people at radio that have put it on their playlist. We have heard from a lot of friends about hearing it on the radio and from a few places about coming out to play and sing and tell our story. We are so excited.

As soon as we hear about the land, then we finish getting approved with Owner/Builder network’s financing and will begin building! We heard from a drywall company yesterday that said they should be able to help with supplying the new mold resistant drywall. Once we have a start date, we will put the word out to everyone in as many ways as we know how. We also will then be able to name names of all who have donated building materials and land.

This project has changed our lives in so many ways. The house will improve our children’s lives in so many ways. I don’t know if some of you realize this…but it will actually add years!

Thanks to all of you! God Bless!

greganddiane4@tds.net

(615) 668-3908

Dear Friends,

First of all… Thank You for being here and checking up on us.

( this means you too Mike )

It is incredible to get phone calls from you all because you read something on this blog.

Grace just got her PICC line removed this week and it seems that we are on the mend…Except that Diane is having trouble getting rid of the crud and congestion…along with a cough that goes with it.

Then we realize that our bed room seems to be the problem and I realize that it is dustier than the rest of the house and that Diane has trouble mostly at night…All of a sudden I am wondering ‘ what have I gotten my family into.’ This is the room that we spend most of our time in because of treatments and vest time and sleeping here.

I started to wonder if this new rental house also has an issue with ‘Aspergillus’… the mold that is causing our children problems… let me tell you, it looked pretty bleak here for a day or two. I didn’t know if I had moved us into the same or worse of a situation. If the 3 recent hospital stays were from this or not. Man, what a scary thing and a desperate situation to not know exactly what is causing trouble for your family.
Have I mentioned that at times I am pretty compelled to PRAY? Believe me when I say that I wish I were more compelled before I actually see the train on it’s way. Sometimes I hear the whistle blow and I guess that I think..’I still have time… I got it’

Well, once again… I had no earthly idea what was going on or what to do. Guess who does?

With earnest prayer and asking God for the answer, I suddenly realize that our room was an add on to this house and that there should be an extra HVAC return vent to accommodate it. The air is not circulating properly and therefore the dust is not being circulated out properly. Diane and the kids are having the worst of their allergic reactions after time spent in our room.
I am fully convinced now that the return vent is the problem and I will be taking care of it as soon as daylight hits…(it is 3 AM at this posting)

What a relief!!! Thank you Lord!

Have you ever thought that your car’s motor had blown up and then come to find out it was only a spark plug that had fouled out? Did you say Thank you Lord when that happened?There may be more to the story that I’ll have to tell… but I know what has happened here… God is the one who revealed to me where to start looking for the problem. He is the one who has taken away the angst, worry and fear. I have work to do. Maybe a few weeks of seeing that everyone’s symptoms have indeed been alleviated. But I Know what happened when I took it to Him in total reliance for the answer. He is faithful and merciful and I believe would have been glad to show me the answer sooner… if only I had asked.

My children need a special allergen free home now more than ever. This situation only confirms that. We can’t afford too many of these types of episodes. It can have a cumulative and detrimental effect on their condition. Jeffrey’s numbers are still elevated to around 1800 when they should be at 200. Sean is now also testing allergic to mold. I am so shameless and void of any pride in whatever it will take to get this done for my kids. The stakes are high. Only a year later we are so close to getting started with building.
Yes we have applied to TV shows and even had multiple conversations. So far no word. We can’t afford to wait for the right slot in prime time.

( Diane loaded up the kids today and went to meet the new CEO of Home Depot while he was here visiting the stores in Nashville. She got to meet him, gave him a CD and told him a little about our cause. Might never hear a thing but couldn’t risk not trying. )

If you have not seen a movie called ‘Facing the Giants’ I encourage you to go find it today! One of the most enlightening movies that I have ever seen. If you are always rootin’ for the ‘underdog’…guess what… we’re ALL the ‘underdog’! This movie has been a sweet reminder of the basics in my relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ.

Each day… God is showing us to move forward with preparing the crops and He will provide the rain needed to water them.

If you think that God is too busy to be concerned with every detail of your life, I am witness to the fact that every detail is EXACTLY what He is busy at being concerned with… And He is more than able!!

We love to hear from you all. Thanks! gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

P.S. We are taking the kids into the studio this weekend in order to record them singing some of the richest, sweetest songs that you’ve ever heard little angels sing! We hope to get that together ASAP in order to offer on the web site. We will let you know about that soon.

Dear Friends,

We are home from the hospital and have been told that there is a concert to benefit our family’s cause, tonight at 7PM at the Musician’s Hall of Fame. The Student Government Assoc. at David Lipscomb University is putting it on and we can hardly believe it!

Special Thanks to those
students involved at David Lipscomb University and the SGA Special Thanks to Joe and Linda Chambers for hosting it at the Musician’s Hall of Fame. They are dear friends who hired me years ago to do some work at their guitar store in Nashville.
(Chamber’s Guitars)Make sure to visit the Musician’s Hall of Fame when you’re in Nashville.
As you all can imagine, this kind of outpouring of Love and support is something that words cannot describe. As a father… there is no way to properly Thank you all for what you are doing to support our endeavor. I will say… that everyday I am trying to get closer and closer to the goal. As my twin brother Jeff says… ‘Just get to phase three’. That is when we begin digging in the ground and building walls and that is what we are driving hard for right now.
If you are keeping up with our blog, then you know that we’ve had some hospital stays recently. That only strengthens our determination to be proactive and preventative with our children’s health issues and in reaching our goal. God Bless you all for the CD orders, the phone calls, the wonderful cards, letters and E-mail messages, the benefit concert, the date auction and most of all… the prayers!

Dear Friends,

We are in the hospital with Grace. We did not admit her in December because the hospital could not get us adjoining rooms for Grace and Sean and hospital policy says that siblings cannot stay the night. This left us with the question of what to do with Jeffrey and Katie while we are staying with the other two at the hospital. Our children are 8 years old and under and with special needs. We stay together! They are ours and therefore they stay with us. The Doctors felt that Grace could try another round of oral antibiotics because she was not as symptomatic as Sean. So that is what we did. The past couple of weeks has revealed that Grace was still not winning the battle and so here we are getting I. V. Antibiotics. Please pray for Grace, the Doctors, and for Diane.

We are in the process of getting house plans drawn up. We are still moving forward in every way we can. CD sales have slowed down and everything seems to be up in the air right now. Funny how times like this, that one’s prayer life gets to be more of a priority. I will be sharing some more details soon about the project. Please stay tuned…and Thanks again for being here.

God Bless you all!

Thanks to everyone! For your prayers for the CD orders and for all the help. We are still forging ahead and getting closer. Life seems busier than ever so please forgive me for not updating in so long. We are in the hospital this weekend getting I.V. antibiotics for Sean and when we get another room that adjoins, Grace needs them also. Jeffrey got his PICC line out on Friday. There is so much to tell and so many links to add to the friends of the project page. I will simply promise to get to all that as soon as I can. Stay tuned and please remind everyone you know that they need our CD for Christmas gift giving. Don’t they?

May God Bless you as you are reading this and Thanks for visiting us.  Looks as though we could start building in Feb. Pray for us!

Approximately 42 hours ago, Diane got on a plane to go to Tampa/ St. Pete. Fl. for a friends wedding. This is the first time that Diane has been away from all 4 kids ever! Lord knows the couple of days off from her routine will give her a much needed and deserved break. A break from the 23 dirty diapers that occurs within this time period. The meal preparation every 2 and a half hours. Dressing the little ones more than once a day. Socks! Where are the socks?There is also this whole treatment thing. Oh, there’s albuterol, flovent, flonase, saline that has to be mixed to the exact specification, another meal in the midst of this, a new dose of enzymes with each meal. And with each snack. And with each cracker that I see Grace has found and is walking through the house with. Nevermind where she found it, I just gotta get her some new enzymes. (Katie give that back to your sister) Medications that have to be measured out for the right one at the right time, (excuse me, gotta take the clothes out of the washer real quick…..OK I’m back) There is also vest time each day for the boys. This is the device that helps keep the mucus shaken from the walls of the lungs. Thank God for the vest. Grace is too small for the vest so there is 20 minutes of percussions for her twice a day. This is where we lightly pound on her chest and back to break up the mucus. DISHES! oh my word are there dishes to do. I’ll get to them later. Bath time. No not at a set time each day but as needed. My sweet babies are in bed asleep right now but Katie and Grace are covered in lipstick. Thank you Irene and Justyna for the very nice assortment of makeup that you gave to my girls earlier in the day. Did you know that lipstick is hard to get out of hair? And automotive upholstery? Grace looks as though she has a sunburn.  As I type this right now, I am in awe of the very creative design that decorates the computer monitor. Gateway should have thought of using “Sharpie’ to install their logo. Very durable.  Diane will be so be so impressed that all the sheets for all the beds in the house have been changed and washed. Twice.

All of you moms are hopefully laughing hysterically right now. Honestly, I am not brand new to what has to go on each day to make it work around here, but I kinda wanted to pay a humerous tribute to my incredible wife and all that she does to make a house a home. Here’s the kicker, she has all this that she does in a very matter of fact way and then I come home and suddenly she has 5 children instead of 4. We knew we would miss her terribly this weekend, but it is worst than we thought. Not because of the logistics of dishes, diapers and dinner, but because of the sweet softness that only she can provide. The hugs and kisses that come when you fall and bruise your knee and ego. The extra measure of love that the meals are served with. (This weekend, my kids have declared that they never want another bowl of cereal as long as they live)The details that she cares enough to attend to each day. ( Katie wore mismatched shoes to the store today because I pronounced that I didn’t care what she wore, just put SOMETHING on and let’s go) The gifts and strengths that God gave her that He didn’t give me. I am blessed with a lovely, unselfish, incredible wife/friend/ mother of our children, who tirelessly sets out each day to do what needs to be done. Work time, schooltime, playtime. Doesn’t matter, she gracefully fits it all in. She shows us real love every day! I pray that she has a great time and gets some rest, because she really works hard. I am certainly gulty of taking her for granted. Shame on me if I didn’t take this opportunity to say so. Now if you’ll excuse me, now that the kids are in bed I can finally take my shower.