For the first time in five years of 10millionmiles, this is Ryan hijacking the blog.  It’s always been an amazing blessing for me to watch Laura give of herself and receive just as much and more back through her friends near and far.

And so that’s why I’m appealing to you for your prayers today.  Last evening Laura and I took Malachi to the ER because he had stopped being himself and was becoming more unresponsive.  Initially everyone thought he was just dehydrated and therefore a bit jaundice, but after a series of tests (he was amazing through all of the needles) it was determined that his white blood cell count was about a third of what it should be at this point.  That changed their course of treatment and he has been admitted for 48 hours so that he can get antibiotics and be monitored.  They’ve taken both spinal fluid and blood to do culture work on, a process that takes about 48 hours to see if any bacteria/virus grows to provide more clear treatment.  Basically they wanted to start the antibiotics now rather than wait to see what might be causing it.

After being there for the night getting fluids and nursing supplement, he is returning to more of himself and the white blood cell count went up slightly – Praise God! (of course I was hoping to hear the count was back to normal in a few hours… :-).  Laura will be staying with him for today and tomorrow and we have every reason to believe he’ll be coming home tomorrow evening.  Although there are many things that swirl through my head at this moment, I’d ask that you specifically pray for:

• Malachi’s complete recovery.  That all scheme’s of Satan and his servants to hinder this mighty little messenger would be thwarted at every turn.
• For the doctor’s skill and care.  We’re thankful that they didn’t brush us off as over cautious parents last night.
• For Laura’s rest and continued recovery.  She was just starting to relax a little at home and, if nothing else, this is simply forced recovery time.
• For our faith to be strengthened.  The Holy Spirit has been challenging us both on what faith really looks like recently and giving us yet more opportunity to grow in it.  It’s exhausting (and yet I know we still have it easy compared to so many brothers and sisters)

Thank you everyone.  We’ll update you one way or another tomorrow or Thursday.