Friday, January 12, 2007, 10:07 a.m., C.S.T.~

Dear Journal~

This is your friend, Johnny Sandusky, writing. I hope this finds you well. I am doing better, and I hope this trend continues. I was in the hospital last month when my heart rate decided to accelerate to over 150 beats a minute. It was not fun. I had to spend some time in the PICU, and I had to be hooked up to the heart monitor, plus be given oxygen to help my breathing and medications to help slow down my heart rate.

I was in the hospital for nearly three weeks, and I was starting to wonder if I would be in there for Christmas and my birthday (my birthday falls on the day after Christmas), but I got out in time, thank goodness! :)

I heard from my friend, Rebekkah, in California. She is doing great, but she fell last month and now has to go without  her prosthetic legs; she is using her wheelchair all the time now, and it has been hard on her. But there is joy in her life: her sister Daniella  has been found and is now back with the family (they thought she had been murdered; it turned out that it was her twin sister; they looked a lot alike), and there are two new babies in the Cohen family, both girls. I will have to write to her sometime this weekend.

Tonight our church is having a prayer rally and praise gathering. It is a way for the members to get together and offer our praise to a Loving God and pray for our nation, each other, and anyone else who is in need of prayer. There will be special music and preaching, and it promises to be a very uplifting experience!

I hear from the local weather forecasters that we are in for some wintery weather next week; if all holds together we may get a good-sized snowstorm here in Nashville. I hope not, but I really don't mind the snow. I just mind trying to get around; wheelchairs aren't designed for getting out in the snow! But if we do get the snow, I will get some sledding or some skiing in! :) I love winter; I always have!

We are getting ready to add to the family: yes, that is right! We are getting more kids; soon there will be fifty nine kids in our family! YIKES! Mama and daddy are adopting a boy from Iraq (Emir Muhammed), a boy from India (Vijay), a girl from Vietnam (Huong Vu), and a girl from China (Mai Fong). Emir is only one and a half, while Vijay and Mai Fong are both five. As for Huong Vu, she is eight. All but Emir are healthy. (Emir lost his hands and legs because of a bomb explosion.)

We are all excited about the new kids coming (they will be coming within a period of three/six months), but I personally think that mama has some rocks loose in her head! There's already more than enough kids in our family; but once mama saw their pictures that the adoption agency sent in the mail, she could not say "No"! It's always been that way!

Daddy was more reserved, but in the end, he was smitten by the kids' pictures, and now he is ready to love them and be their daddy! Daddy is looking forward to the kids' coming, too! :)

I am now fourteen years old. It is a milestone for me because I have outlived my doctors' predictions by six years, no, more than that: I was not expected to live beyond the age of five because of my muscular dystrophy. I have lived nine years longer than they thought I would! :) But alas, I am having more problems: I have been having more spells with my heart, the MD is starting to mess with my breathing (I have to wear my oxygen a lot nowadays), and it is getting harder and harder for me to do things. It is very discouraging, but then again, the worst thing that can happen to me is that I go to Heaven and see the Lord, face to Face! :) That will be cool, seeing Jesus and meeting Him in Person! :)

I had a good Christmas: I got some new video games, an M3P player, money, clothes, some new DVD's, shoes, socks, and much more. I also got to sing and do sign language to "Silent Night" at our church's Christmas Cantata, and I got to go out to eat at the Golden Corral on Christmas Day, where I made a regular *OINK* outta' myself. :) I ate so much, I was miserable!!

Well, gang, this is it for now. I will write more in here another time. Class is fixin' to end in about five minutes; have to get ready to go to my next class, which is Math. ICK. I hate math with a purple passion! (I always tell people that I am allergic to math: I break out in numbers! *grins*) Take caer, and see ya later, alligator!

~Love, your pal, Johnny Sandusky. :D