Our apologies for our delay in writing you. We got much to share today!

We are on week 3 of this particular hospital stay. You may or may not remember but Ela came in originally to receive an experimental treatment that we hoped would help with her rejection. Due to concerning side effects, her team decided not to continue that treatment; however, Ela’s numbers were concerning enough to where she had to be admitted. Since then, her team has essentially thrown all of her old treatments at her hoping that her body would respond well and that the rejection would subside.

One of her doctors told us recently: “the immune system is just so smart so it is really hard to keep it from flaring back up!” A good example of how unregenerate minds suppress the truth and exchange it for lies (Rom. 1:25). Here we have the immune system screaming “intelligent design! intelligent design!” to some of the smartest people around and they are content to let themselves be wooed by it and not by the God who designs it, creates it, and sustains it. Pray for Ela’s team…as far as we know, none of them know the Lord.

Ela’s kidney numbers were a prayer request on the last update. Thank you for praying, those numbers are in a much better place! Since then, Noah’s hand has healed up quite nicely! I have been so impressed with how quickly and thoroughly our little ones heal up. We really thought Noah would need surgery on her middle finger but that does not seem to be the case at all. Thank you Lord.

Leslee was also able to get her hand surgery taken care of (thank you Mrs. Evelyn for hanging out with Ela for those couple of days). Although pretty sore for the first couple of days she’s needing less and less pills to handle the pain so I think we’re heading the right direction. That’s 3 out of 5 folks…pray for me and Josiah, for our hands and hearts to stay out of trouble! 🙂

This Thursday will be Ela’s last round of plasmapheresis (6/6) so we’re looking at a heart cath with biopsies on Friday. The cath/biopsies should give us more information regarding how her body has responded to this cocktail of treatments. We’re heading towards Friday very hopeful, the Lord gave us some good news today…the most recent labs revealed that all of Ela’s antibodies are in an acceptable range (black) as supposed to an unacceptably elevated range (red). It has been a minute since we’ve seen her antibodies that low! Praying that the Lord continues to keep them at bay.

I was reading through the book of Judges recently and came across this passage.

Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. ² It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before (Judges 3:1–2).

A passage like this gives me a potential answer to why the Lord would provide for the experimental treatment to just take it off the table. Although we do not know the mind of God, it could be something similar to what the Israelites were experiencing in the book of Judges. Enemies were left around “in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war.” Although our battle today is against antibodies (as supposed to Canaanites) the common denominator is that many of us, myself included, need to deepen our dependance upon the Lord for whatever we’re battling. Reminds me of Phil Wickham’s song: “So when I fight, I fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you.”