Elijah Update (April 22)

Hello friends!

Before Elijah was born. Joel and I led the latest Beth Moore Bible study, Daniel, at church. We both learned so much through it and I have a few things to share with you. We were studying Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace. Remember that story? What a fun story, worth reading again or for the first time. (In the book of Daniel....check it out on any on-line Bible resource if you do not own your own Bible) So many "mini" miracles occurred during that entire incident and we see mini miracles in Elijah's experience.

We learned that God delivers us in one of three ways:

1. He delivers us FROM the fire (makes it go away)
2. He delivers us THROUGH the fire (walks with us all the way through)
3. He delivers us BY the fire, into His loving arms (uses the situation to bring us Home to Heaven)

In our class we had about 10 people. One of our members began to get sick during the study and said that she felt that God was delivering her BY the fire. She had a peace about it all and now she has gone home to be with Jesus. We heard that she was working on a blanket for Elijah when she died. We pray and pray that God will deliver us FROM the fire. He has chosen not to make it go away quickly. Right now we feel we are being delivered THROUGH the fire. Elijah and his mom and dad are being held close to Him the whole way. Thank you for being with us in this fire and for carrying us THROUGH.

If I had written an update on Friday you would have sensed a lot of discouragement in my writing. We got to the hospital on Friday with Elijah feeling lousy! He was vomiting and had neon green liquid from the other end. His little bottom was so sore and there was concern about bleeding. In his vomit we noticed blood and so immediately Joel and I asked that he be given a dose of factor to put a stop to this. He was restless all day Friday and he had not slept soundly for days and days. Needless to say we were concerned for the little guy.

My mom arrived at the airport right on time and when she saw the little guy she was concerned with all the tubes. We are so grateful that no one else had to see him when he was in super bad shape. He had so many tubes in the beginning and now we are down to one chest tube. We are so grateful for the prayers of you all as you have carried us through so much.

Today Elijah is feeling great. On Friday night the doctor decided that it was time to clamp his left chest tube. We would see how his body would react with four hours clamped and two hours open. He tolerated it well and his chest x-ray was the best ever. So, she decided to clamp the chest tube and only unclamp when he was in distress. He lasted for 16 hours before he became irritated. We unclamped the chest tube for two hours and he drained a huge amount. So, we are going to have to take this in stages.

Sunday we arrived to the hospital and he was just waking up, strrrrrrrretching and was happy and smiling. So far he has been clamped for 11 hours and he seems to be handling it well. We will keep trying to increase the time and see how his body handles it all. Please continue to pray that the blockages in his lymphatic system open up and let things pass normally. We are excited about these improvements and pray that Elijah will continue to circulate things properly. He still has some work to do with circulating especially to his legs but he is working on it and with Gods help they are working it out. I pray that one day Elijah will be able to tell some great stories about memories he has of playing with angels. I pray that the Lord sends special angels to play with him during the night.

Thanks for all the prayers, cards, notes and concern. We greatly appreciate all of your love for us.

Trusting THROUGH the fire,
JJ and Super E