a wonderful end to an amazing week!!!

yesterday we expected to have a pretty easy day and get the last of the patients out of the icu but the day really didn't go as we had planned. during the night the hosptial had to admit two patients into the icu, which we happen to be sharing with them, so we had to cram four beds into one small room to make room for their patients. what we soon learn was that when someone in one of those beds gets sick and needs an x-ray, echo and lines placed it's quite complicated. after a few hours we finally got all of that under control and thought things were going to settle down but that wasn't exactly the case. we soon learned that there was a 2 day old baby boy at another hospital in town that was very blue with sats in the 50's. we didn't have the supplies that we needed to operate on him and even if we did our anesthesiologist and perfusionist had already left and we were all getting ready to leave so there would be no one to care for him. we knew that there was a procedure we could do to buy him time but if we didn't have a way to repair his heart soon there was no reason for us to do this procedure. lori got on the phone and arranged for him to go to new york in the next few weeks so we agreed to do what we could. there were many risk involved but we said lots of prayers and i'm happy to say all went well. he's pink and he'll be on his way to the states very soon.

today was our last day with the kids. we went in and sent the last two icu patients to the floor, discharged some home and the rest to the barnabas house where they'll be cared for until they are well enough to go home.

this week was so crazy and there were so many things that could have gone wrong but everything went so well. thank you so much for all of your prayers, we definitely felt them. it's amazing what god can do, there is no way we could have accomplished this without him.

busy, busy day!

today was probably our busiest day cause we were working hard to get all the caths and surgeries finished while working on getting everyone ready to go home. there are a couple kids that have stayed longer than anticipated so at one point the icu was completely full and that was before the 3 surgeries of the day. cinthia, the last patient from two days ago who was so sick, is doing so much better and she got to go to the stepdown unit today. a few other kids also went down and lots of them are starting to go home. it's so exciting to see them all walking up and down the halls, they look great. please continue to pray for these kids. rosa, the second case today is very sick and the third case is still in the or. thanks again for all of your prayers.

i can't believe the week is almost over!!!

the final surgery of the day just came out and all is going well. i can't believe that we only have one surgery day left, this week has gone by so fast. for the most part all has gone well. we still have one patient, cinthia, who is really sick. she is doing much better than she was last night but she still has a long way to go. we have the final three surgeries tomorrow and then we all start leaving on sunday and monday. please pray that all of these kids recover quickly and that everyone is stable and doing well when we leave. i got to see another patient from last year, walter, he looks great. it's so great to know these kids are doing well.

9 surgeries and 14 caths completed successfully!!!

well it's the end of day 3 and so far all is going well. the morning started off very busy getting four patients to the step down unit. our first two surgery patients of the day, sochy and liliana, made it through with no difficulties. the final surgery was a bit more complicated but cynthia is now in the unit and doing well. so far the total for the week is 9 surgeries and 14 caths, that's a lot in 3 days!!!

i have hundreds of pictures but it's late and it takes a while to upload them so i'll work on that tomorrow. thanks for all of your prayers and support!

two surgery days completed with success!!!

sunday was a wonderful day of relaxation. the hotel gave us their beach house for the day so we played in the ocean and napped in the hammocks, it was wonderful!!!

monday was our first day of surgeries and it was so very busy. we had 4 surgeries scheduled but their were complications with the 3rd that caused him to have to go back to surgery so we had to postpone the last surgery. i am happy to say that juan, lester and eduardo are all doing well. lester is out of the icu and juan and eduardo should be able to leave tomorrow.

today we had three surgeries scheduled and dora was first. dora was on our surgery schedule last year but we were unable to operate on her due to how sick she was and the limited amount of time we had. we were all so heartbroken that we weren't able to do her surgery so we made sure we got her done early this year. dora is very sick and had to have a big surgery but i'm so excited to report that she is doing well. she was still pretty sleepy from her surgery but she was stable and doing great. sonia was our second case of the day. she was having some rhythm issues when we left for the evening but nothing unusal or critical. the last surgery was still going when i left but from everything i've heard things are going well.

there have also been many caths done. i don't know they exact number but i do know they are all doing well.


prayer request:

• it's only the second day and we are all exhausted. the kids, although stable now, have been very sick and requiring a lot of care. pray that we as a team have the strength and energy we need to take care of these precious children. we also seem to be running out of supplies. at the end of the second day there are already lots of things we are completely out of. so far we seem to be finding ways to make it just continue to pray that god will provide what we need


• the kids:pray that each surgery goes well and the recovery time is short. pray that god would wrap his arms around each patient and their family and comfort them


• once again we have screened more patients and had to tell the family that there was nothing we could do for their child. i can't imagine how it would feel to know that your child would not make it much longer, please pray for these children and their families

quick update

it's almost 0200 and i just got back to my hotel room. things have been so crazy with some unexpected events but so far all the kids are doing well. please keep them all in your prayer, especially the last one, eduardo, he is still pretty sick. i know this isn't much of an update but i have to get up in about 3 hours so i'll do my best to give a full update tomorrow. thanks for all of your prayers!!!

unpacking

our first full day in honduras was a great one, i got to sleep in til 0830!!! we spent most of the day unpacking and getting everything set up and organized so that we are ready to go first thing monday morning. i'm sure most normal people would hate what we did all day but when you are as ocd as i am organizing is fun!!! when that many people spend that much time in a small space you can't help but goof off, get to know each other and have lots of fun. we have a great team this year and hopefully we can do great things. once the organization was complete we ate dinner and then went to a soccer game which was a fun cultural experience.

praises:

• our team mates traveling in today made it safely
• audrey got her passport and she's here now

prayer request:

• the final team mates are flying in tomorrow
• one of the patient passed away this past week before we even made it here
• we've already had to tell two families that their child's heart was inoperable and there was nothing we could do

we made it!!!

we finally made it to honduras and i'm so excited!!! we had a safe trip and all of our luggage made it which is an answer to prayer. it's a beautiful 90 degree day here and i'm loving it. tonight we are going to have a few meetings but mostly relax which makes me happy since i've been up for 36 hours!

prayer request:

• we have more team members traveling on sat and sun
• one of our team members had passport issues and is in houston right now trying to get a new passport to get down here
• we have lots of surgeries, caths, etc scheduled for the week, please pray for safety as these families travel (some come from very far away), pray for us as we operate and care for these patients and of course pray that all of our kids do well