It seems like my whole week has

been one of sadness and pain. The beautiful lady pictured above, (in the brown and blue stripe) is my friend Rebeca's daughter in law. They were reunited when we made our trip to Tanzania this fall. While we were there, Star became very ill. The Dr. said she had endemetriosis. She has been sick all this time. This week, we received word that she is in the hospital hemorrhaging. Tonight I received a phone call telling me that Star is bleeding from her eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Please keep her in your prayers. She is the mother of four small children. In the difficult circumstances they already live in, it will be even worse if the children loose their mother.

URGENT Prayer needed for this dear sweet little boy.

This is Eli. His parents are Julie and Zack @ My life with boys. For those who do not know them, they are Missionarys in Hungary. They have been dealing with illness almost all winter and now Eli is extremely ill. Below is an e-mail Julie has sent out telling of Eli's illness.
Please pray for healing for him and comfort for his parents.




Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Update on Eli
Thank you all so much for your comments, prayers, emails and concern. It means a lot. We are blessed by you all. We would appreciate you continuing to pray for Eli during this time and please send out this prayer request to anyone you know...any prayer chains at church, mom's groups, etc... We covet your prayers for us as we make decisions regarding his treatment.I just sent out this email to those on our email list...and thought I would copy and paste it here, so that you will know the latest update and prayer requests. Thanks!!
Hello everyone…
Julie here. I wanted to update you on Eli. I was able to spend the night with him last night. I slept on the floor and a kind nurse gave me a blanket and a pillow. I slept well considering I just came back from America that morning. I got about 4-5 hours of broken sleep. I was grateful for it and thankful for that much. Zach came in at 7 and I left to come home and get a nap in and a shower.
I just spoke with Zach and he has learned a few things.
-He has an infection in the porous bone in the ear. Also in the porous bones around his nose and eyes, but not as serious as the ear. He is on strong antibiotics but it works best with good blood circulation which he doesn’t have right now.
-The Thrombosis is in the main vein that goes through the ear in the head then down to the heart. They are giving him blood thinners through shots in his tummy (not fun) and prayerfully this will help.
The doctors said they are looking for 2 signs showing he is responding well to the antibiotics. First that he will complain less about his headaches and secondly he will want to sleep less.
If the doctors don’t see any improvement in these areas within the next day or so they are thinking that he will need to have surgery to remove the bone that is infected. Apparently this is not a “needed” bone and he can live without it. With the infection gone, the thrombosis will heal much quicker and not be a danger to him anymore.
Please continue to stand with us in prayer as we anxiously await to see our Eli back to himself. He is scared. He just wants to sleep and all the doctors are poking at him, injecting him with things and he is so afraid. Please pray for him to calm down so he can ACCURATELY tell us when he is in pain or just afraid. It is important to know the difference.
Thanks. We will keep you update. We are also keeping our blog updated as much as possible too.
Grateful, Zach and Julie
Again, thank you all for standing by us in prayer!!!!

MY Mother

is still sick. We have her scheduled for surgery (knee replacement) on the 24th of March. It is so far away, but the earliest they could get for her. She is in so much pain and is becoming disoriented and confused because (I hope) of all of the medicines they have her on. I have always been so proud of her that even in her 80's she had a sharper mind than many who were in their 60's. Not so any more. Everything makes her cry. On Friday we could not find a little book she writes notes to herself in and she was crying because of that. That embarrasses her and she cries more. I did find it for her and we put it back into her purse right beside her chair. Another incident was when she had to go potty. She asked me if my brother was at home and I said no. Soon I heard her on the phone calling him and asking him to come home and take her potty. I said. "Mama, I am here, I can take you." "Oh," she said, "Larry never mind, Eve can take me." This just is not my mother.
I have a schedule worked out with my sisters, two of them, that one of us are there every day. I am taking Monday and Tuesdays, another is coming on Wednesday which is one of her days off, and another on Thursday and Friday.
Since I do not want Olivia to witness her GG in the condition she is in right now, Angie is putting her into Daycare while GG is sick. Today being Monday, I should be there but my brother is not working until Wednesday so he is staying with her. I really need him to also. Hope that does not sound selfish.
I truly pray that once the knee is replaced and she is not in continual pain she will make significant improvement.

My Mother

is much better. Thanks to everyone for prayers. I stayed with her again yesterday. We were able to get her a shower and dressed. She was a bit nervous about me pushing her to the bathroom, but since there were no brothers at home, she had to let me. By the afternoon she was using her walker to get there. She really is a very strong woman and I know she still has a few years left. The Doctor told her last week that her heart was very strong as were all of her other organs. What is knocking her down is the pain in her leg and I am confident that once she has the surgery and is not confined to her recliner she will be much better. She was not as confused as she had been on Monday either. That was really scaring me. She talked nonsense all day long, rarely ever making sense in what she was saying.
I spent most of the day cleaning and doing her laundry. She lives with two of my brothers and I do not think either of them know what a broom is or how to turn on a vaccum. I just managed to touch the surface but at least it is a bit cleaner.
Once again thanks to everyone for their care and prayers. I will post a picture of her on Saturday when I commemerate her 88th birthday.