An email written by Mark Darling today about his very ill daughter, Jessica. Pray for her.
-Ex
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 8:06 AM by Mark Darling
dear friends and family, first of all thank u so very much for your prayers and concern on our behalf. we are quite humbled that so many would trouble themselves for us. we have heard that literally thousands around the world are praying for jessica. we are very humbled.
jessica is still in the hospital but we hope she can come home today. it has been a very rigorous ordeal for her and kathy.they have hardly slept at all. the first nite they were up 24 hours straight , the next nite they got about 4 hours sleep. yesterday was a particularly hard day. there have been countless interruptions, many iv problems which are very stressful as she had to be poked many times trying to get the iv to work right. this morning they will be doing a bone marrow biopsy to try to determine exactly why her red blood cell count is so high, this will also help them rule out what it isnt. the doctor does not seem to think at this point that it is something like lukemia but we will have to wait for the test results to know exactly what is going on, and to be honest even then we may not know. one doctor and nurse after another has commented that , wow , jessica u are a very complicated case. which we already knew.the blood specialist/doctor who saw jessica yesterday and will do the biopsy, when he finally heard her story and saw her skin was quite stunned with all she has been thru. she is in quite a bit of pain and discomfort , but she is such a trooper! to be honest kathy and jessica amaze me. they are so gracious with people, the interruptions, the hassle,the pain, the exhaustion, i admit i just couldn't do it. they are so touched that so many are praying and asking god to strengthen them and help them.
as u can imagine after 4 years of this , jessicas is quite drained . it would be so easy to give up. we are so very proud of her. her courage and perserverance are really remarkable. she has won the nurses hearts. one nurse delayed a trip she was taking just to be able to stay with jessica another nite.
we really dont know where this will end or when it will end. we know for certaint that one day jessica will have a new body, with no pain, suffering, weariness, sorrow or sickness. this we know with certainy. we just dont know in this life what tomorrow holds. we/she continues to cling to our saviour ,and we know in our hearts , though at times our emotions tell us different , that god is working this all for good and that he knows exactly why he is allowing this.
as u might expect , it breaks this old dads heart to see is daughter go thru all of this . i find myself wishing, she was 3 years old again and i could pick her up in my arms and take her home and make it all better. life was much simpler then.
thank u all again for your prayers. please pray that the doctors could discover what is going on with her blood today. pray for jessica and kathys strength. pray that we would have the patience and kindness to go thru this well. continue to pray that she would get well completely. pray that i can indeed bring them home today. please feel free to forward this to any u sent the last e mail to, so they might have this brief update as well. many , many thanks to all of u for your love, support, prayers and great kindnesses . we are humbled a and so very grateful for it all, mark darling
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