Written on Resurrection Sunday.

Hey Everyone, I first want to say thank you for all your prayers the last few days. We all (including Justus) have definitely felt God's peace through all of this. Also, thank you for all the phone calls and text messages. I'm sorry we have not been able to get back to most of you, but we do appreciate you calling. I figured it would be easiest for me to just send out an e-mail and update all of you at the same time. For those of you who are still wondering what happened - Justus woke up with an extremely high fever on Thursday morning. I took her to the Pediatrician at 10:30am and there she was tested positive for the respiratory flu virus. I took her home and was trying to control her fever with Tylenol and Motrin. Well, at noon she was watching TV on the couch and started seizing. So I called 911, found the oxygen tank, and gave her some Valium. Tara Chavarria came over quickly and took Jett for me. But this was the first time he was old enough to watch and know that Justus and Mommy were not ok. This whole thing has been very hard on him - especially since he could not stay with our family at the hospital. He just wanted to be with Justus. It took the paramedics 20 or 30 min to arrive because they were on another call. But as soon at they got there, we took Justus to the ER. At this time she had been seizing for about 45 min or more. While in the ER they gave her several medications through her IV trying to stop the seizing which wasn't very successful. She seized for an hour and a half straight and then off and on for another hour. At this point they called the Neurologist at Children's hospital and he suggested she be flown down to Denver. While we were waiting to be transported to Denver, they were giving her a cat scan I was talking to her and she opened her eyes, she recognized me immediately, and began answering my questions. I will never forget that moment. I was filled with such thankfulness and complete joy! Lucas arrived at the hospital shortly after this (he had been out of town for Young Life) and as soon as he walked in she got this huge smile on her face. She was so happy to see her daddy and recognized him immediately as well! Because Justus was now responding to us and also because a snow storm had just began we all agreed that it would be best to transport her by ambulance to Denver. So the flight for life ambulance team from Summit County came to Steamboat to drive her and Lucas to Denver. Jett and I followed in our car behind them. Children's Hospital was great. We are always amazed at how good of job they do of taking care of our little girl. They mostly focused on controlling her fever so she wouldn't seize again and keeping her in bed while all the drugs wore off. Through all this Justus was in good spirits. Every time a doctor or nurse would ask her how she was feeling she would answer with "I'm healthy and I'm perfect. God made me perfect". She definitely had an impact on every doctor or nurse she spoke with and shared Christ in her own little way.She is such a tough little girl with the gift of faith just like her daddy! We got to meet the neurologist on Friday afternoon. He told us that Justus' seizures do not fit any on the normal seizure molds. What she has is very, very rare - especially for a 5 year old female. So he told us that her seizures are not just complex febrile seizures anymore -but most likely that she has some underlying epileptic conditions and that he would like to put her back on daily seizure medication. This was extremely hard for us to hear considering that we have always been told this is something she will grow out of and also because she has had such a hard time with all the side effects of the other seizure medications she has been on in the past. But through all of this Lucas and I have been asking God what He wants us to learn from all of this. And it was pretty clear what that was. While at Children's Hospital you see all these parents pulling around their kids who are battling cancer and you see pictures of kids who have been burned all over their little bodies. And you quickly realize how blessed you are. God has been so good to our family and taken such good care of our daughter through every one of the hard times. So we quickly turned our feelings of sadness and feeling sorry for ourselves into praise and thankfulness to God. God is good all the time! We got out of the hospital yesterday and are now at my dad's house in Denver. As soon as Justus' fever breaks we plan on heading back to Steamboat. But as for today, we are going to Celebrate Jesus and His Resurrection! We are so thankful for what He did for us and the life He has given us! Hope to see all of you soon!
Happy Easter!Love, Jayme


I am so grateful for my Daughter in Law Jayme. She is every thing I could ever want or imagine: a Godly Women, Wife, Mother and Daughter/Friend.