Prayers for Maddie

A copy of an e-mail I was about to send out, but wanted to be sure I didn't miss any faithful friend. xoxo.

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Hi Friends,

Hope this finds each of you doing well! I know it is a busy season for so many.

We are grateful to have friends who, even in their own busyness, take time to check in on or encourage us through our transitions. Joe enjoys being a professor and is energized by connecting to and teaching his students. We are so thankful to have been given a job like this in an economy like this! Lynchburg is turning out, as many shared it would, to be a special spot here in central Virginia.

As most of you know, however, we’ve had some health concerns with our oldest girls over the last few months. A couple of days after Joe’s first class, Hope and Maddie were hit with a crazy virus that they apparently got during our big move. They were both hospitalized within five days of one another; it affected Hope’s gastrointestinal system and we were actually taken by ambulance to the children’s specialists at UVA. Thankfully, she has recovered and ended up only needing minimal interventions to get back on track.

Madds, on the other hand, had a worse issue. The virus infected the lining of her heart and caused a leak in her left mitral valve. She was sent immediately to the heart specialists in Lynchburg (some of the best in the country; praise God!) because our ped had only heard one heart as concerning in her 20+ years of practice. She is also a natural doc, so we knew that her sending us to the cardiac hospital was pretty serious!

Anyway, that background brings me to the point of this e-mail; Maddie goes back to the cardiologist this coming Fri., Oct. 14^th at 10:40. We are hoping to hear that her heart has completely healed! If it has not, this could mean that the virus only brought to light some deeper autoimmune issues she’s had.

We would be ever grateful, if you could say a prayer for our little girl should the Lord bring her to your mind throughout this week. I apologize if we’ve been somewhat difficult to get in touch with for the last few weeks, but I’ve been focused on asking for her FULL healing. When her symptoms flare up, I have to get my mind back in the right place and trust the One who loves her even more than we do!

As always, please let us know if there are any ways we can be praying for you and yours.

With Love,

Katrina for Joe, Hope, Maddie, and Alysse