Witnessing Miracles

(Written on March 12, 2015)

My head is spinning. The past couple days, and the few to come, have been and will be a roller coaster ride for sure. There are so many details I'm not able to share. There are confidentiality laws that do not allow us to receive or share information. The last thing we want to do is compromise this adoption or compromise the relationship between governments who allow international adoptions to continue. I realize this post will present many questions. Please understand the position we are in.

That said, here's what I can share. Basically by chance (no such thing), Ru saw a well-respected, brilliant, international doctor yesterday who has taken a second look at her diagnoses and prognosis. She was only there to receive immunizations when this doctor showed favor on her. There is a ton of reevaluation going on and many doctors involved, including some at Stanford University. The medical information is vast and confusing but it seems there may be hope for Ru after all. All I can say is... we are witnessing miracles, y'all. We have no confirmation of any new prognosis but we do have hope that the doctor who said she's not a candidate for Kasai MAY have been mistaken.

It pains me to not be able to post this real-time. All your prayers are working and I want to share that with you now! We don't know the outcome. We still don't know what tomorrow holds for her. But we do know that people are listening and studying and fighting for her. God's hand is in this, regardless of the end result. Please keep praying. He's listening! We give all glory to God for this glimmer of hope. He has granted us an amazing gift of FAITH that allows us to have "a peace that surpasses understanding". We are well-prepared for this roller coaster ride and are comfortable with any path God leads us down. Nonetheless, we are still praying for a miracle, for complete healing, for Ru to come home to us soon. God has already made it abundantly clear that He loves Ru so very much. Please keep praying!

Side note... We've sold almost 100 shirts for a net profit of about $1100 towards our adoption expenses! We are grateful for your involvement in this fundraiser and we will continue to take orders if you missed out on the first order. Thank you!


(Written on March 13, 2015)

The entire world has changed since yesterday. God has been at work through so many people and so many avenues. I am overwhelmed at the amount of information we now have and am trying to discern what to share. At this point, I think it's important that we share the main points of what we are learning. Otherwise, we could compromise relationships in China and confuse the heck out of y'all. ;)

Yaru's ultrasounds are showing that her liver disease could be a result of several causes. Although we know she has biliary atresia, we are not certain of the type or severity. Doctors are in agreement that they need to proceed with surgery (this is a major change since last week, when other doctors said that her liver was too damaged for surgery). We are not sure what the surgery will consist of until they are in. The first part of the surgery will be exploratory and diagnostic. There is a great risk of profuse blood loss in babies with BA so our first prayer is that she doesn't bleed out. If her bleeding stays under control, they will likely proceed past the exploratory phase. This could include Kasai, liver biopsy, and other possible curative actions.

Ru will be admitted to the hospital in Beijing on Monday and her surgery will take place Tuesday morning (Monday night our time), but we are first waiting to hear about funding. This could be an obstacle but we are hopeful the surgery will happen. The cost will be about $50,000 and this is a steep price for any foundation to pay for a baby with a hopeless prognosis. Please join us in praying for funding! We will have more information on this very soon.