Sunday,

Another day of fatigue and diarrhea for Bonnie. We continue to remain hopeful for signs of neutrophils (the good white blood cells) to start producing. Our doctor stopped by today and said we will be amazed in Bonnie’s improvement once those WBCs start to grow. He is encouraged that there have been no blasts (leukemia cells) showing up in her daily labs. Today her hemoglobin was high enough to stave off any red blood transfusion, but her platelets were low again so another unit of platelets were transfused today. Please pray that the good white blood cells will start growing. Today’s labs showed a minimal count of .1 which is 100. Point 1 can be human error in counting as it was .1 a week ago and went back to zero for several days, so we don’t get too excited about this count. When we start to see .4 or .5 then I think she’ll be on her way.

The last two nights have been very tiring for both of us due to the renewed frequency in diarrhea which hits about every hour and a half. Our physician has been keeping an eye on Bonnie’s abdomen due to it protruding (Bonnie calls it her “Ethiopia” belly). In some respects it is protruding because of the lack of protein in her system, even though she has the IV food bag. He (our doctor) wanted to make sure she didn’t have some sort of infection settling into her intestinal tract so he changed up some of her antibiotics on Friday and one of the side effects is increased frequency in diarrhea. He thought her abdomen looked much better today, although he is holding off changing the antibiotic as of yet. Please pray for our weariness with respect to this. With risk of being graphic again, it is a two person job and typically takes between 10 to 15 minutes factoring the clean up time, which includes washing her legs and changing her hospital issued socks and sometimes the gown. She is so afraid to move for fear of triggering another bout because every time it takes its toll on Bonnie physically just to get up out of bed and make it to the bathroom.

Please continue to pray that Bonnie’s temperature would stay below 103 degrees (preferably under 99 degrees). Her heart has also been racing a little this afternoon at a rate exceeding 150 beats per minute, so the doctor on duty is being consulted.

If my calculations are correct, we have been here 40 days and 40 nights, the running total since our journey started on May 12th. When I think of 40 days and 40 nights I can’t help but think about the number of events in scripture that covered a 40 day and 40 night period so I went back and researched the various occasions this afternoon:

1) Genesis 7 is the account of Noah’s flood. It rained for 40 days/nights and the water also covered the earth for 40 days and Noah waited 40 days before opening the window of the ark. God chose to pour out His wrath on His creation because of the sin of the people, which started years earlier with sin entering the world through Adam. The result was death, sickness, illness, wars, and the list goes on and on. Adam’s sin does not make us exempt from the result of sin such as the disease and sickness Bonnie has succumb to. In this scripture account though, God showed mercy on His people and kept a faithful remnant alive as well as the land animals to restore His creation. God is also showing his mercy on Bonnie and will restore her with a glorified body (someday) because of her relationship with Christ. We pray that He will restore her physical body now, but are willing to subject ourselves to His will.

2) Exodus 24 & 34 is the account of Moses spending 40 days and nights with God on Mount Sinai. Because of this journey Bonnie and I are on, it has been incredible how close to God we have felt over these past 40 days and nights, like Moses must have felt on the Mount.

3) Numbers 13 & 14 is the account of the 12 spies who spied out the Promised Land over 40 days and returned with a report that created fear (all except Caleb and Joshua) with the people of Israel who didn’t put their trust in God and feared the unknown. We have ventured into an unknown land for the past 40 days and are uncertain where we are headed, but we do know that God is with us and He will protect us.

4) 1 Samuel 17 is the account of Goliath the Philistine coming forth to fight Israel for 40 days. There are times since our arrival here at Sparrow we feel what we are facing is insurmountable just like Israel must have felt against Goliath. However, we also know the outcome of God’s deliverance and believe God can deliver Bonnie from this illness.

5) 1 Kings 19 is the account of God providing Elijah enough food and water prior to a 40 day and night trip to the mount of God at Horeb. We know God thus far has provided us the spiritual and mental strength to endure the treatment Bonnie is going through for the past 40 days and nights.

6) Matthew 4, Mark 1 and Luke 4 provide the account of Jesus fasting for 40 days and 40 nights which ended with His successful defeat of Satan’s temptations. God sent His Son who lived a sinless life to satisfy God’s mandate of being holy without sin. Jesus’ fasting brought Him close in prayer to God and we know that He intervenes on our behalf when we pray to God, as we are unworthy to approach God directly because we have not lived a sinless life like Jesus. We can take comfort in knowing that Jesus is interceding on our behalf for all the prayers for Bonnie’s health.

7) Acts 1 is the account of Jesus appearing to many of the disciples for a 40 day period after His resurrection showing He is alive. The number of witnesses who saw the risen Jesus during this 40 day period resulted in the expansion of the Gospel message that if we put our faith and trust in Jesus believing He lived a sinless life, died and suffered the wrath of God for our sin, that He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and is at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf we will have eternal life. It is that hope in which we hold onto as we have sat in this hospital room for the past 40 days.

We don’t know the outcome of what this earthly journey will bring, but we know the final outcome because of where we choose to put our faith. I (Steve) think the a good scriptural summarization for where we’re at as we face a new day and night comes from the book of Titus 2:11-14:

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

Please continue to pray for our endurance over the next 40 days and 40 nights. We appreciate each and every one of you.