"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12:2

This is Emma Joy Jefferson. She is one of the true manifestations of the Lord's joy in our family as she came late in our lives (her brother Randall is 17 years older). She continues to demonstrate God's grace and love, not to mention joy, as we see the influence of her presence daily.

Emma's middle name is Joy primarily because of her propensity to vigorously kick about in the womb while in church, especially during the hymns. Even now Emma has an active and outgoing personality that lights up everyone she meets, her amazingly contagious cheerfulness at the tender age of two astounded everyone. In public she marched in full confidence leaving literally a wake of smiling people. We would love to hang back a few paces and watch the faces of people as she illuminated the blandest and busiest of scenes. Emma is incredibly active and shows great endurance, she is very bright and loves to learn. She loves people and makes friends at every outing. We have made it a practice since day one to ensure that she remains as physically active as possible, more and more research is showing this as essential for normal children, it is critically important for CF kids. I have spent the better part of her first 5 years ensuring

that Emma get vigorous physical activity. Now fortunately exercise is part of her regimen and part of her perspective and she gets outwardly agitated if she has not broken into a full run at least every other hour. It is our distinct pleasure to see her outpace all her peers including the young boys. She has done well in dance lessons taking those along with swimming lessons (she just won her first and only race across the pool this summer!)

Emma has just started second grade and absolutely loves it. She is quite active intellectually and still enjoys learning, and is of course socially still unstoppable.

Life with Cystic Fibrosis:

There are two standards of human life in general: surviving and thriving, even with CF Emma is in the latter and solidly so. Now 7 years-old, Emma continues to impress us with her current health and growth despite the disease and all the data indicates that early health factors are absolutely critical to long life. She is in fact her wonderful nutritionist's "superstar" and is often referred to within the clinic as an early success story. In her latest checkup she remained above the 70th percentile for height and well above the 80th percentile for weight, and these on the scale of a non-CF child! She sprouts inches like they are going out of style, so we have much to be thankful for. Emma takes enzymes with all the food she eats and doesn't seem to mind, from what we've heard this can be a huge challenge in many young CF patients. Emma has started her first effective breathing exercises and thankfully, she has not presented too many lung issues, God's blessing for sure but perhaps also in part to our strict regimen of physical activity, outdoors if possible even in Seattle.

   We hit a small hurdle in Emma being diagnosed at age 3 with fairly robust allergic responses to trees and grass. This is troublesome for sure given her environment, lifestyle and the extra strain it could put on her lungs, but that too is largely genetic and we've dealt with it before so it wasn't much of a surprise or setback really. It is of course just another small issue for us to forge ahead in faith with. She has also begun daily regimens of what is now a standard CF treatment. This has really been the first of the more significant lifestyle treatment impacts on Emma and us as it involves the rather unceremonious tethering to a noisy nebulizer for ten minutes or so each day breathing in a drug that breaks up the highly deleterious mucus in her lungs. She also has been through her second surgery to remove almost total blockages from her sinuses which is a chronic problem for CF kids since the dysfunctional membrane tissues grow polyps constantly.

   But we refuse to be daunted, we consider ourselves very blessed that she has not been tremendously beset with CF issues early on like so many children her age. Emma had one lung bacterial infection three years ago that was beaten back right away and one just this October. With the new aggressive inhaler therapies now available (thanks to millions of dollars of research by the CF Foundation) these are proving incredible tools in the fight. Although infection is a continual and looming threat, she continues to demonstrate in many ways her strong lungs and her strong will.

   The improved modalities and treatments for CF are always on the horizon and we are so blessed to have one of the nation's leading CF research and treatment clinics right here in Seattle at Children's Hospital. Emma has already been a part of several small research projects and has been a champion patient through it all. We consider it a duty really to make sure that she is involved in every research that she is eligible for, both for the good of the research (which she often does not directly benefit from yet) but also for the good of her perspective in terms of getting used to lots of visits to the clinic and . She is a favorite patient there though, with such a terrific attitude and smile all the time. We consider it as just part of her little ministry.

Life with Faith:

We live our lives in faith daily with this disease knowing that we will never know what lies ahead for Emma's health and life, but that she has the potential for the most potent of ministries with the kind of influence she has already shown in her personality and her ability to love.

We welcome all to join with us in our fight of this disease and you can connect to the adjacent links to learn how to get more involved with both Emma's E-Team efforts as well as the CF fight in general. But more importantly we would petition your aid in the building of this young lady into a woman of Christ through supportive community, love, and prayer for Emma and our family. Truly God is good and His perfect will is to be with us all as we serve His Kingdom.