Time in Turkey

We've had a really good time in Turkey so far, we've also had some unexpected time here, but more on that later.
We got to Istanbul on Tuesday and ate some delicious Burger King before we even left the airport. It was some kind of wonderful.


Haydn and I got to enjoy Burger King twice! We were supposed to fly to Bangkok last night but the airline canceled our tickets without notifying us so we were at the airport until 1 AM trying to get that sorted out. Now we are flying to Bangkok tonight instead. Kind of a bummer, but today has been relaxing and I did get some more BK.

On Wednesday we got to go to the hospital to see some of our kids who are still there after heart surgery. We got to go to cardiac ICU and see baby Daryan. They are hoping to be able to extubate soon but he is still in pretty critical condition, please keep praying. Here's Jeff next to the model of the hospital, I couldn't believe how nice this hospital was!


We had a great time taking Daryan's mom out for lunch and then for some time in the city away from the hospital. It was also pretty wonderful getting to go to McDonald's twice and get some ice cream! I'm not one to usually take pictures of my food...but I was just so excited to eat some American food. We even got some Starbucks last night while we waited at the airport.


Here are some pics of us from the roof of the house we were staying at. I almost forgot how beautiful Turkey is, we've really enjoyed our time here.

We had a good time on the roof playing with Emma & Micah.


And this is Jeff's new traveling shirt. One of his good friends bought this for him right before we left Iraq because he said that Jeff needed a new shirt for his trip. Isn't it something? =)

We've had a great time in Istanbul but are ready to move on to phase 2 of our trip. Inshallah, we will get on a plane tonight and then arrive at our final destination in Thailand tomorrow night just in time for all of the big events to kick off for the week. Please be praying for our health. Jeff is at the pharmacy right now trying to find some cold medicine for us. I just got rid of a parasite last week, then got an infection from the antibiotics, and now it seems we are both getting colds. I'm really ready to feel better - especially on vacation!

Four heart surgeries!

It has been 1 weeks since we sent 4 children to Turkey to receive life saving heart surgery and all four have received their operations.


This is 3 year old Maziyar. He is out of ICU and running around the hospital! He is doing really well and will likely be returning home to Iraq very soon.


This is 11 year old Mohammed. He is still in ICU and will hopefully be released soon. His surgery went really well and we are hoping he will be stable very soon.


This is 8 year old Ruzhan with her father. She just returned from surgery yesterday and was looking great! She received a full correction and has a full life ahead of her.


This is 4 month old Daryan. He was the last to receive surgery and is still in ICU in critical condition. Please keep praying for him over these next few days that he would begin breathings on his own and continue to recover.

We are so thankful for our team with the kids and their families in Turkey and for the amazing surgical team at ASM! Praise God for the opportunity that these children will have to grow up and be healthy. To read more about these kids and watch some pretty cool videos, head on over to the PLC blog.

Baby Daryan

We are sending 4 children to Turkey tomorrow for heart surgery. We are hoping to send one more, but are waiting for all of their documents to be in place before we can send them. Please be praying for these children and their families. We are sending one baby, baby Daryan. He is 4 months old but still looks like a newborn. He has several very complicated heart problems.

Our doctor in Turkey isn’t even sure that he will be able to operate but the best chance this baby has is to get to Turkey so the doctor can see what can be done to help him. These will be difficult weeks ahead for these families. We pray that the grace of God would rest heavily on them and that they would KNOW the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding. You can be checking PLC’s blog for more updates on these kids as they arrive in Turkey and are scheduled for surgery. Thank you for your prayers!

Banquet

Last Friday we had a big party for all of the kids who have received heart surgery this year. It was great to see these kids running and playing and having fun. It was also great to spend time with these families who we have gotten close to as we have spent time in their homes with them and their children. Here are some pictures of the occasion.


the girls next to me and Abby both had surgery this year and the girl on the end (to the right) was inoperable. Please join us in continuing to pray for her!


This is the family of Heran. She is the taller girl in the gold dress. She had surgery in May and is doing much better! Her family has really welcomed me into their home - in fact I can't go there without them feeding me, no matter what time of day it is!


Here are all the girls in our Cili Kurdis - this is the special Kurdish dresses that women wear for picnics, weddings and other special occasions.


Here is Jeff with the Dad of one of the kids we sent in February, his son Zana is doing great! Jeff plays soccer with him every time we go to their house.

Lately

We’ve had some busy days the last few weeks and I’d thought I’d give you a brief glimpse into what’s been going on around here.
Last week all of the kids who were sent to Turkey for heart surgery returned and Shad’s funeral began. Funerals here last about a week and begin as soon as someone dies. I got to see all 4 kids who received surgery and it was great! I was really blessed to be in their homes and hear about their experience in Turkey and see how grateful they are to have healthier children. The youngest child we sent was little 2.5-year-old Roman. I went to his house twice last week and couldn’t believe the improvement. When I saw him before surgery he was always either sleeping or laying in his mom’s lap. He wasn’t very active and didn’t want to play with his brothers. I couldn’t believe that he was the same kid! Now he is riding his tricycle all over the house, wrestling with his brothers, and can hardly sit still. It is beautiful to see childhood restored to these children. I had lunch with another little girl’s family we sent and she is doing wonderfully. She was not able to receive a total correction because of the complexity of her heart problem but the doctors assured us that she would live a long life and be able to have children. She got all dressed up and put makeup on (I think she is 7) and is eating much better now than she was before surgery. She is very small for her age but should be able to gain weight properly now. The oldest child we sent was 16-year-old Lowen. Her parents have known about her heart problem for more than 10 years and have been waiting for the day that she could be healed. It was great to see the gathering of family and neighbors at their home to celebrate her recovery. I only got to see Schwan briefly as his family lives in a village 3 hours away from our city, but he was looking fabulous as he clutched his heart shaped pillow that the kids receive after surgery to help ease some of the pain. We are going to his village this week to see his family and check up on him. I also got to see one of our kids that we sent back in February. Little Lowran is just over a year old and will require another surgery when he is older. His lips and hands still have a blue tint to them and he can’t yet sit up by himself because he is so underweight and doesn’t have control of his muscles. He isn’t crawling or sitting yet, but he is making progress and getting stronger. I’m realizing more and more the dire importance of these children getting heart surgery while they are still babies. Ten-year-old Shad just had to wait too long for his surgery and his body was too weak from 10 years of fighting. The same is true for the kids who have been inoperable. If they had the chance to get surgery when they were babies (both were diagnosed since birth) they wouldn’t be facing the medical hopelessness that they are now.
Shad’s funeral was the first I have attended since we arrived here. They set up a large tent outside the house and all of the women gather there. The body is immediately taken to the mosque and that is where all of the men go. It is culturally appropriate for the women to be very vocal in their expressions of grief. They cry and wail and it is a very corporate event. There were probably over 100 women gathered in the tent when we arrived and it was really heart breaking. It was really encouraging though to see the mom’s of the other children who had been in Turkey with Shad there because they really understood how easily it could have been their child. There were also two moms’ whose children died in Israel awaiting heart surgery there. It grieves us that any of these parents have to go through this and yet I was really blessed to see how they support and care for each other. We’re praying that it won’t always be like this. That on that list of 4,000 kids waiting their turn that they won’t have to wait until it is too late for them. You can be a part of the solution. By making a donation to PLC you are helping to save a child’s life, restoring their childhood, and helping ensure that it is not too late. We’re praying for hope for these families who have faced and are facing medical hopelessness. We know there is a Hope that surpasses our circumstances and cradles us in our grief. Join us in praying Hope for these families today.

Shad

PLC sent 5 kids (and helped send one 26 year old) for heart surgery 2 weeks ago. All of the children were able to receive the life saving heart surgeries they required. The older girl was determined to be inoperable, it was just too late for her, she had to wait too long. One of the most critical and difficult cases was a little boy named Shad. He is 10 years old couldn't wait any longer for this surgery. We weren't sure he would even be operable as his case was so difficult. The doctor determined that he could do the surgery but that it would not be a total correction for Shad.
Shad went through his first surgery only to have to have another emergency surgery the next day. He had begun to recover last week and was finally released from ICU and was talking excitedly about returning to Iraq. He crashed suddenly on Thursday morning and was rushed into another emergency surgery. He was in critical condition yesterday and his Dad had given up hope for his recovery. We don't know the details yet, but we received word that Shad passed away this morning. We had been fervently hoping and praying for a different outcome and I know we are all grieved by this news. But we know who holds life and death in His hands and we believe wholeheartedly in His all surpassing goodness. Join us in praying for Shad's father who is at the hospital with Jeremy as they work to get the body back to Iraq. Pray for his siblings and his mother as they are back here in Iraq grieving with their family. Pray that God would comfort and draw these ones near to Himself.

blowing bubbles

We had a celebration for the children who returned from Turkey after surgery. It was great to see these kids who couldn't walk up stairs before play games where they had to take deep breaths and blow and they did great! They had a great time and it was so fun to watch their enjoyment and see how healthy they are looking.



Ahmed if you remember was one of the worst cases. He was very blue before surgery and could hardly walk. Look at him now! He is doing so much better and has been playing and gaining weight - he looks amazing!



This is Taban. She is doing great! Her family is worried that she's being TOO active because she loves to run around and play and is now totally healed. She will never need another surgery and will be able to grow up and have kids and live a normal life. Her dad loved playing the bean bag toss with her, it was really cute!


This is little Zana. He was the last to return from surgery and just got back a week ago. But look how great he is doing at blowing bubbles!


Here is the girls with our first child we sent to Turkey for surgery. She is the one in the middle in the red and she's doing great!

Please Pray

I went to see Serhang and his family today. It was really wonderful too see them and really, really sad too. His family is really amazing. I pretty much fell apart when I asked his parents how they were doing and feeling after finding out that Serhang is inoperable. His dad talked so lovingly about his eldest son and how he would do anything for him. His mother kept asking us if there was any hope for him. The medical answer is simply no, there is no hope. Our doctor in Turkey is one of the best and if he can't do it than no one can do it. I told them that we had not given up hope for him but that we believed that the God who created him is the God who can heal him. I told her that we would not stop praying for him and asking our friends around the world to pray for him as well. We laid our hands on sweet Serhang and asked Jesus to heal him. We don't know how much time he has left, only God does. But, I'm going to be honest with you - I'm going to be heart broken if God doesn't heal him or make a way for him to have surgery. I held back my tears the best I could, but it was pretty impossible to not love that kid and his family. His mom had to go get tissues for me because I couldn't not cry anymore. I promised them that we would not forget them and that we would do whatever we could to help them. Serhang has some brain damage due to the lack of oxygen that is getting pumped to his brain, but he understands. He understands that he will not have the chance to be made well like the other kids did. Serhang told his dad when he got off the plane from Turkey that he didn't have to worry anymore because he got heart surgery and was well. His mom was planning a party for him when he got back to celebrate his recovery. Serhang keeps asking her if they will still get to have the party. I know that God loves Serhang infinitely more than even his parents love him, but it is so painful to see their hurt and disappointment. So, please pray for Serhang. Let's be like the widow who kept going to the judge everyday until he gave her what she asked for. We told his family today about how Jesus raised people from the dead and did all kinds of miracles and that he still did them today. For the sake of your name in this place Jesus, please heal Serhang. Amen.

Sad News

We found out late last night that 11 year old Serhang has been declared inoperable. He is the only child of the 7 that are currently in Turkey for surgery who have to return to Iraq without the hope of receiving the surgery that he needs. Serhang was originally in the group of 4 who were supposed to be fairly easy cases with a good chance of a full recovery. Unfortunately, he was misdiagnosed and he is missing a pulmonary artery. Even if the surgery were possible, he would not be able to survive the surgery due to his pulmonary pressure being too high. Apparently that means that his blood pressure is too high in his lungs.
I am the family advocate for his family, so we will go with a translator to his village on Monday to see how he and his family are doing. His mom was very upset. I was with our translator when she called his dad to give him the news. She said he was very saddened but didn't have much hope that he would be operable. Without surgery his condition will only get worse and he will likely only have a couple years left to live. All we have left to do is to pray. As Jeff & I prayed last night for Serhang and his family I was really comforted by the Lord and reminded that He was not surprised by this, He did not misdiagnose Serhang and no one is inoperable to Him. So, let us pray to the Lord who still does miraculous things that he would cure Serhang so that his family, his village, the doctors in Turkey, and the watching world will know that Jesus Christ is the God who heals, saves, and delivers.