Update On Stephen " A Letter From Donna"

Dear Friends;

No, I’m O.K.", were the first words that I have heard from Steve since the accident five weeks ago. It was raspy and quiet but it sounded wonderful. I was so surprised to hear him speak that I actually said, “Pardon?” Then Steve talked to his brothers on the phone and then our children. Here, again, is another testament to the power of prayer. I asked you to specifically pray for his speech and only days later he is talking. God is so good to me. He was fed up with the tube in his nose so once again he pulled it out. The medical team does not want to put it back in and would rather put a direct line through to his stomach from his side (called a peg) but I would really like to avoid that as I feel that he is quite capable of eating food. He had a swallowing test yesterday which he failed because the speech pathologist felt he wasn’t cognitive enough. We asked for a reassessment in the afternoon and my mom told Steve that if he didn’t do what they asked he would never get out of the hospital. He obeyed every command and passed with flying colours. He has had pudding, apple sauce and some thick juices. Now I have to convince the dietitian that I can puree anything they want and feed it to him to try to get enough calories into him and avoid the peg.Steve is becoming quite steady on his feet and needs less and less assistance to move around. We seem to have found some medicine to help him sleep better at night which I think is helping him function better during the day. My hope now is that the medical team will see that he has reached a level that is high enough to submit an application to the rehab hospital. The sooner to rehab, the sooner he is home and my ultimate goal is to get him home, of course!I spoke with his doctor yesterday about his specific injuries. I have been concerned with his vision as he seems to be grabbing for things but is about 4 inches off of the mark. The doctor said that the hemorrhaging at the back of the brain has caused vision field loss and that is permanent. So, if you could pray for that and prove him wrong that would be wonderful!What a great network of friends and family we are so blessed with. Your prayers, food, time given and donations cause me to be in awe at times. I tell Steve all the things you each are doing and talk about the big party we want to have to thank you all.

Thank you so much.”There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:” Ecclesiastes 3:1In

His grace,Donna Langman

Our Weekend

Our weekend was full of stuff to do... First off Ryker, Reegan, Larkyn and myself seem to have developed a cold, which totally sucks.

On Saturday Reegan had her Ballet performance with is a very big deal it's a three hour show from preschool dance classes right up to the Big girls... This is Reegans third year at Ballet and once again it just amazes me who she can get up on that big stage and do her stuff with the rest of her class. My sister is going to kill me because after I was seated I realized I didn't take one picture of her in her Ballet costume!!! (My Bad)

After her show we had a great time cooling off in the pool Saturday was a very warm day. Larkyn can now jump into the pool on her own from the steps.. The cutest thing is her life jacket instantly turns her over onto her back and while she floats off in to the deep end she waves and says Bye... Bye... I then launch a rescue mission and one of the kids bring her back to the steps were she rest for a second and jumps back in !!! I hope to get this on video soon.

Reegan and her friends down the street

David assuming his life guard position!!!

Ryker teaching Larkyn the basics of swimming above the water.

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!!

One Year!!!

It will be one year this Sunday that we received Larkyn's referral. I knew the moment I saw that picture that this was the little girl we had been waiting for.

The day we finally got that call I had been at Reegans end of the year beach party for her preschool. David and I had been waiting for weeks to get the news... We new our referral was on it's way the CCAA and our coordinators confirmed this... so we waited.

Here she is posing with her referral picture.

Our beautiful girl

For all those people out there still waiting for their referral, your day is coming. Your wait is longer then ours and I can't imagine if we were still waiting how hard it would be. But once your referral comes it won't matter anymore because you will finally have your little one.

Visitng Stephen

Both David and I are back in Toronto right now. Stephen has changed so much since we were last here.
All good changes, he's started the first steps in a long line of many more to come.
The only tube he has left is his feeding tube, which we are constantly making sure he does not pull out. Stephen enjoys sitting in his chair most days and we have taken him outside to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine. Unfortunately even though his mouth is now free from tubes he has yet to make a sound our try to utter a word. When that day comes, once again there will be a happy dance around Sunnybrooke.

It's very hard to decide if Stephen can recognize anyone at this point, most of his movements are similar to that of a new born, he's able to squeeze your hand if you take his in yours but if you ask him to squeeze your hand he doesn't consistently do it. The doctors here want to see more consistency with things like that.

Despite the fact that Stephen has a tremendously long road ahead of him his friends and family have high spirits that there beloved Stephen will once again energize any room he enters.

Letter From Donna

June 3rd, 2008


Dear Friends;

Steve has opened his eyes! Not only is that fact amazing but the story behind it is even more so. On Sunday morning many churches were praying for Steve. Between 10 and 11am our church, Elmvale Community Church had dedicated that hour to prayer and praise. It was about fifteen minutes into that hour on Sunday morning that Steve opened his eyes. I know hundreds of you are praying and it is working! How gracious of God to answer our prayers so fast! He is so good to me! I was in the depths of despair and now I am practically floating.
Steve is still not what they would call awake yet as it is a slow process of waking up but he is on his way. He is showing many good signs of his abilities. His right side had gone quite still for a few days but it is now moving again. He is focusing on faces and had made a couple of attempts to talk. Yesterday, he was focusing on a friend on one side of the bed and then turned to me on the other side of the bed and looked at me. He then raised his arm and ran his fingers through my hair and rubbed my back. It was a piece of normalcy that felt so good! He also ruffled our son Andrew’s hair when Andrew was hugging him goodbye.
Steve is still being ventilated to keep his airway clear and currently has another bout of pneumonia that is quite common when intubated. The doctors are hopeful that he will be more awake in the next few days in order for them to take the tube out of his throat. I look forward to hearing his voice.
We are on our way to recovery friends. It is a long and bumpy road and not one that I would have ever chosen. Thank you for all your support and prayers. Please continue to pray for a full recovery for Steve, endurance for me and comfort for our family. We are all really missing him.

In His Grace,

Donna Langman

Some One Pinch Me!!!!

So here's the Story... three years ago while Madonna had her Confessions on the Dance Floor tour my husband surprised me with two tickets in Vegas to see the concert. I was more then excited, Madonna and Vegas who could ask for more.

The day finally arrived I was packed and ready to go... We said our goodbyes to the kids and off to the airport we went. We managed to leave in plenty of time but the traffic was horrendous and for some reason my husband thought the time for departure was later. So once we arrive at the airport we had a nice diner. After finishing my husband double checked the ticket and that's when her realized the departure time was sooner rather then later... So we checked in and then proceeded to US customs. Now before I finish let me tell you we have been to the states many times before, but on this day as we ran thought customs looking rather stressed the officer there must have decided to make our day even worse. You see my husband has a funny kind of citizenship he was born in France but has a Canadian passport. This has never been a problem before but on this day the customs officer decided to make it a big problem and refused to allow my husband into the states. I don't know if anyone out there has ever had to deal with custom officers but they can be very scary people when the want to be. I even tried the tear thing and all they did was say that I was welcome to go but my husband was not. To this day I don't understand why all of a sudden they decided to make this an issue and since this incident my husband has rectify the problem... But I was in shock at the time,, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

As you can imagine my husband felt terrible and he promised me that if she ever had another tour that he would do just about anything to get me there to see it.

As luck would have Madonna starts her Sticky & Sweet Tour this fall, and you guessed it I AM GOING!!!

Here's the layout of the stage at BC Place. Pay particular attention to section A4.

Now here's my ticket.... Notice anything ... do you see an A4 anywhere on this ticket??? Look closely!!! Right there in the top right corner FLR - A4. OMG... I will be so close I will be able to smell her!!!!

Thank -You soooo much David!!!!!!

Update On Stephen Langman

This picture was taken last year while my son visited with Stephen and Donna. This is Stephen and Abby his daughter.

After Last weeks MRI when Stephen's family was told that he had an Diffuse Axonal Injury to the brain spirits were very low. The doctors explained that with injuries like these they no longer say when he wakes up because in 90% of cases people don't wake up. They also told Donna that if he did wake up he could have speech, memory and moter skills problems, but until he wakes up they will have know way of knowing the true extent of the injury to his brain.

Well Saturday Stephen started to open his eyes for very short periods and so far each day he wakes up for a short period. He's still intubated so he can't speak and seems very confused, but he is starting to respond when asked to give a thumbs up by the nurses.

You can call it the miracle of so many prayers or you can say just dumb luck, what ever you call it Stephen has taken his first step in a line of many steps.

Thank-You everyone who has prayed for Stephen and his family, He's still not out of the woods yet so lets keep those prayers coming...

From left to right Andrew (Stephen son) Conner (Stephen's nephew) Ryker and William (Stephens oldest boy)