Prayer Request

Around midnight last night I heard from my brother, Ron, that my niece, Liz, was transported by ambulance from Colorado Springs to a Denver hospital with a transplant center.  She had a kidney transplant 4 years ago.  Her blood pressure and creatinine levels were high; her hemoglobin count was low.  Please pray for Liz, my brother (who is at a conference in Chicago) and his wife (who is at home in Kansas City.)  

Please pray for the three of them, especially that the doctors there will be able to get her counts under control and that there will not be any damage to her kidney.  I'll update as I have more information.

On the road to recovery

We are hoping that the Monday night setback will be the last obstacle for Aviah to overcome.  Her x-ray at that time showed a possible bowel obstruction so they placed a NG tube and took her off all food.  

I talked to Daniel yesterday and he said they had decided to hold off on the upper GI as they were hoping her bowel just needed 24 hours of rest to restart itself.  Last night's x-ray revealed a more normal looking bowel so they started giving her Pedialyte (which she loved.)  Daniel said she seems to be a little "ticked off" at everyone that she can't have anything more to eat.  We all took that as a good sign!

Nevertheless she will be in the hospital through Friday in order to get the required 7-8 days of IV antibiotics; she will also have 7 days of oral antibiotics after discharge.  This infection (MSSA) is nothing to mess around with and doctor's want to be sure it is completely eradicated.  

She will still need the surgical (laparoscopic) procedure to remove the cyst, but it will likely be scheduled at the end of April, and, hopefully, can be done on an outpatient basis.  

We are so thankful that we have the opportunity to bring our petitions to the Great Physician and that he is faithful to hear our prayers.  Please continue to pray for complete recovery.

Aviah's Improving

Just received an update from our son, Daniel, that Aviah is doing better today.  She hasn't had any fever and has even almost "smiled" a couple of times.  She's starting to nurse again, but having some trouble keeping it all down . . . probably due to the medicine and anesthesia she received during her procedure.  Doctors say that she will need seven days of IV antibiotics, so she won't be coming home from the hospital until Thursday.  

Please keep her in your prayers, because when all of this settles down, she will still need outpatient surgery to remove the cyst.  

Here's a picture from yesterday:

Here's a picture from this afternoon.  We're so happy that she is starting to feel better.  Thank you for praying for her.

Praying for Aviah

Our 4-month old granddaughter, Aviah, has been in the hospital since early Thursday morning when Daniel and Shannon took her to the emergency room.  It's been two and a half days of ups and downs as the doctor's have been working to diagnose her correctly.  

She is now at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (part of the Stanford University Medical Center) undergoing treatment for an infected umbilical cyst.  Yesterday they performed a surgical procedure to drain the cyst which had been growing over the past 24 hours.  The infection has been identified as MSSA, which, although one step below the antibiotic resistant infection called MRSA, still requires very strong antibiotics.

She is on IV antibiotics and will likely remain on them for several days until they are sure she is infection free.  In addition, they are watching to see if there are any additional problems with her digestive system since her stomach has remained distended even after the reduction of the cyst.

Please pray for her and for her parents, Daniel and Shannon.  Shannon's parents are staying with Maleia and Josiah so that Daniel and Shannon are free to stay with Aviah.  Pray for wisdom for the doctor's, that the antibiotics will help rid her body of the infection and that there will be no other complications.

Amazing Blessings

A small group of ladies from our quilting ministry (Hilo, Aguja y Biblia) visited the maternity and pediatric wards at Hospital Zacamil today.  We went loaded with bags of quilts and baby things to give to the new moms and moms of sick children.  Even more importantly we went ready to share the gospel with these women.  

It was an amazing blessing--we were able to share the gospel and pray with the new moms.  At least two of them were were 17 or under.  We did not see any dads, but, perhaps, because there aren't any private rooms, they aren't allowed to visit.  

Just look at the pictures of these precious babies and moms.  Praise the Lord for the 5 women who made professions of faith.

 Our team, ready to go and share!
(Isabel, Martita, Me, Maria Elena, Cece, Daniela, Graciela, Leslie, Ena)

 Ena with a new mom who is only 16 years old.  Please pray for her and her little one.

 Baby Girl Paola swaddled tightly!

 A newborn infant and a newborn Christian--praise the Lord!

 Little baby girl, Ashley!

  Leslie and Daniela praying with a new mom.  She is a Christianbut ask us to pray for her health and the baby's health.

 These moms have babies in incubators so they are provided a "dorm room"
 at the hospital so they can stay close to their newborns.

Isabel sharing with one of the moms.

Hospital workers who helped us deliver the gifts!

Getting ready to share

The ladies of Hilo, Aguja y Biblia met today to continue packing the bags with the baby quilts we made (thanks to Valley Baptist, Bakersfield) and the baby items (soap, shampoo, diapers, clothes, pacifiers, etc.) that were donated by members of Abundant Life Baptist Church in Lee's Summit, Missouri and by members of Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva here in San Salvador and Lourdes.  We also added a Gospel of John and Romans and a "Big Question" tract to each bag.

We are scheduled to visit Hospital Zacamil on Tuesday morning.  We will share the gospel with each of the new moms and give them one of the gift bags from the ministry.  We don't know exactly how many new moms/babies will be there so we may also be able to share with the moms who have sick babies in the Pediatrics wing.  I think we have at least 50 bags!  

We are so thankful to everyone who donated items to help with the ministry; we know the moms are going to be so happy and very grateful to receive a gift bag.  Please pray for us as we go and share!  

Recovery in Progress

My sister was able to go home from the hospital yesterday and "enjoy" her birthday.  She's feeling better (relatively speaking) each day, although the doctors told her she would probably feel like she's been hit by a Mac truck for 2-3 months.

Elizabeth is improving also . . . . little by little they are removing IV lines and meds and replacing them with oral medications to get her ready to go home one of these days.  Without the IV fluids she's now up to her new goal of drinking 5 liters of water per day.

Here's a picture of her with two special visitors, Royals players Wade Davis and Alex Gordon.