{"id":258,"date":"2026-04-28T20:21:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaformac\/?p=258"},"modified":"2026-04-28T21:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:00:12","slug":"prayer-request-and-trip-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaformac\/2026\/04\/28\/prayer-request-and-trip-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer Request and March and April Trip Updates:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaformac\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6596\/2026\/04\/strawberry-picking-728x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-261\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7109418392446243;width:526px;height:auto\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We ask for your earnest prayers for Mac. We are having a last minute checkup to Pittsburgh this week to check Mac&#8217;s EBV, Epstein Barr Virus (mono), levels. After our trip to Pittsburgh two weeks ago, all of Macs kidney function was excellent, but we heard back from his EBV labs a week later and they had shockingly doubled . EBV can be referred to as a sleeping giant in the body and can reawaken when on immunosuppression. In March his levels had decreased which was an answered prayer. We and the team had expected and hoped they would have come down more, but the report read they had doubled.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God has made a path for all Mac&#8217;s life and we know He will continue to&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Isaiah 43:19 (NLT): &#8220;For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EBV can lead to some things we would rather Mac to not have to fight and we know it&#8217;s not his battle but His!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other news to catch you up on prior trips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We made it to both our March and April checkups in Pittsburgh. March had Evelyn join along and April had Eddie join along. In March, we met up with our friends the Ackerman&#8217;s to pick up Eddie for a few days with friends during the day and quality dad time at night. We met Mr. John at the airport and we flew up and away to Pittsburgh on a brisk 2.5 hour flight. These flights make traveling more at ease for Mac and he looks forward to them so much! (Andy went up for his trip checkup 2 weeks late with good reports and it took him 12+ hours to get there one way with traffic). Evelyn always packs the best toys for Mac and helps keep him entertained on the 1 hour drive from the Pittsburgh butler airport to our Pittsburgh Airbnb. Since our last trip we always bring our narnia jammies and have a narnia movie &nbsp;night our first night in Pittsburgh. It&#8217;s become a really fun tradition. We got up early the next morning and got to our&nbsp;8:45 am appointment to meet with our nephrology team. We got to see our favorite phlebotomist Emily for Mac&#8217;s blood draw. The blood draws are usually 12-16 vials so it&#8217;s God&#8217;s provision to have Emily, a comforting friend, that knows Mac&#8217;s most useful vein to do blood draws plus she always spoils the kids with treats. We got to see Dr. Ganoza, our surgeon, this visit which was super special. Eddie got to play with friends, Maverick and Luca, during the day and spend quality time with Andy at night. We made it back within 48 hours and got to get back to tending to our animals and Mac&#8217;s favorite scooter board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>March trip highlight video: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pittsburgh trip 4 - God is so good\" width=\"540\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FD7cFcS8Ffc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>April checkup was a joyous occasion. A few months ago, our April trip had to be rescheduled because I noticed that the draft was in town and Airbnb&#8217;s were super expensive. Not knowing, and as God would have it, our friends, the Tallons, would also be discharged the same week from their month long Transplant Journey to come back home. Not only did we get to see them, Dr Ganoza (both of their surgeon) got his dream a photo of both of them in his arms and we all got to fly back together- thank you Mr John Greco! I think I will treasure forever hearing their little voices in the back of the van singing the David soundtrack together.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We started the trip with Mr John picking us up at the airport and seriously the easiest flight into Pittsburgh with Mac sleeping the entire way. We arrived and had our traditional narnia night. Evelyn had a vacation with Rara and Pappy (my parents) and got to go pick out fabric and sew, have Madeline unlimited movie nights, and swim the pool! We woke up early and met with all our physicians at UPMC and we got to give them their mighty mac shirts which was fun. Mac loved telling them all about his favorite animals, characters, Bible verse, and places he loves. Everyone laughed at tractor supply, the bunny, and the bad baby pigs. We finished the day off with a Starbucks and 24 carrot juice acai bowl treat and headed to our favorite park &#8211; Arsenal Park for some good times. It was amazing to see how much both boys had grown and how Mac was able to climb a lot of the equipment now and slide down on his own. They both found a cool twisted tree, and we noticed a cross on it which was special. God is always with us. We headed back to the Airbnb and we sunned ourselves on the back porch and finally got to use the outdoor projector the kids have wanted to use since it was a beautiful 80 degrees. The trip was so special and a reminder of God&#8217;s constant provision, even though the EBV numbers aren&#8217;t what we hoped for we know that He has us and Mac and there&#8217;s a bigger plan. Please join us in praying that Mac is in full health and we all stay in full health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>April trip highlight video: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"April transplant checkup #5\" width=\"540\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3RRHQtnZkJM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We ask for your earnest prayers for Mac. We are having a last minute checkup to Pittsburgh this week to check Mac&#8217;s EBV, Epstein Barr Virus (mono), levels. After our trip to Pittsburgh two weeks ago, all of Macs kidney function was excellent, but we heard back from his EBV labs a week later and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2336,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Prayer Request and March and April Trip Updates: - COTA for Mac<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaformac\/2026\/04\/28\/prayer-request-and-trip-updates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prayer Request and March and April Trip Updates:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We ask for your earnest prayers for Mac. We are having a last minute checkup to Pittsburgh this week to check Mac&#8217;s EBV, Epstein Barr Virus (mono), levels. 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