Noah

Noah had a wonderful time at his school party. We have been so blessed by his friends and teachers. I only started crying when Teacher Ira, Noah's teacher aid who has been with him since grade 1 hugged him and told him she loved him and that God would go with him wherever he goes. She was crying too! How wonderful it is to love the people here and then have them love us in return. We will miss the school most of all I think. Crying and sadness are just part of saying goodbye. I hate it....I really do. The pain hurts and I will be glad one day when we are with Jesus and there are no goodbyes....instead we praise the Lord together...all of us.

Noahs blood work was rough this morning. Noah screamed and screamed! The results....platelet count has gone down. We need it to go up. His white blood cells have gone up and that is good. Since going to school and to get blood work, his fever is back and diarreaha has returned. We are going to see the doctor tonight....so I will keep you posted!

Below is my email that I sent to our supporters...



Dear Friends,



It is 10:30pm at night, and I must say I am feeling tired. Tired from the effects of the Typhoid my body is currently fighting. Tired because I am hungry and I still cannot manage to eat very much. Tired because I have been taking care of a sick little boy since the weekend. Tired as I try not to think about what the next few months of our lives will look like!



I write to you tonight not because I want to complain (even if it may sound that way), but because I am pleading with you to lift our family before the Father.



Noah has not been improving since he came down with a headache and fever on the weekend. Today, we decided to take him to the lab to get blood work done. We have done so much blood work on our own here that all we need to do is walk into the lab and tick the boxes of the tests we need. When we got the results, it looked like Noah’s Dengue Fever test and Typhoid Test were negative. In Malang, we have an amazing nurse on our team, Mei. I usually go through Mei for most things. This morning when I messaged her about Noah, she just happened to be sitting in Chapel next to another great nurse, Sarah, and they both agreed that he needed the blood work. Tonight, Mei seemed concerned when looking at Noah’s routine blood work that his platelet count was lower than the normal. Because we have been stuck at home (me for 2 weeks sick and Noah for the past week), we decided to go to our group meeting here in Malang because some friends had made Noah a birthday cake. It was good to get fresh air, but by the time we arrived home, he had fever again.



I decided to call the American doctor in town. At first, she thought that Noah probably had Typhoid like me (that would mean that we were exposed to the same contaminated food-Typhoid is transmitted from feces to mouth). I emailed her Noah’s lab results only to have her call me back just tonight. Yes, Noah’s platelets are low and that is a major concern. It does indeed look like he is in the early stages of Dengue Fever. The Dengue Fever test will come up negative in the first 4-6 days (and that is why we think Noah’s test is negative). There are a few other factors, but I won’t bore you with all the medical terms that I have come to use as “normal” as I order my own blood tests and antibiotics regularly!



So please pray ….



1. For Noah as his body tries to fight this mosquito born virus. He will now need blood tests in another 2 days to monitor his platelet counts. We need to watch them closely. If they get too low, he will need to get to a hospital in Singapore. If he gets dehydrated, he will also need to get to a hospital. His blood tests are already showing dehydration even though he has actually been drinking really well.

2. Please pray for me to get well. I do feel that I am improving, but it will be weeks before I can eat normal. Oh…I miss my exercise routine! It really is hard to face the stress without my exercise! I am really supposed to be taking it easy, but that is difficult when I am trying to help Noah. Pray that I will sleep well at night and wake up rested to take care of him.

3. This was Noah’s last week at school. Dengue Fever is not contagious and we would love to take him to school on Friday for his birthday party (even though he doesn’t want to eat at the moment)….and to pack up his school things. I so wanted him to have this last week with his friends. Tonight he said that he loves Wesley (his school) and it will be hard to say good-bye. Just pray with me that he will be well enough to go up to the school on Friday….just to say good-bye to his teacher and friends.

4. Eating. Noah needs to eat, but he is barely eating anything. He is very thin already.

5. Pray for Shane as he is trying to organize our move. We are actually scheduled to go to Singapore for our visa run in April. We are just praying Noah doesn’t need to get there for medical purposes. We are excited about moving and sad to say good-bye. Moving is a big deal….but we have done this so many times before!

6. Pray for us to have patience with Dave and Maggie. It is hard on them being in the house because I have been too sick to go out and now Noah is too sick to go out. Shane is taking them out as much as we can for some activity.



Thank you so much for praying for us. I am currently reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. It really helps me to put things in perspective at times like this and reminds me that every moment is precious. Even though we are being pressed in from every side (or so it seems), we feel such a peace and joy in the Lord.



We are more than conquerors through Christ!



Marlana