Sprung.

Enjoying a Monkey brought as a gift to the hospital!

We are home tonight.

Quite exhausted but very, very grateful to be here.

The quick report and some photos...then there is much more to share in the coming days about The Charmer's revised surgical plan, Jin Jin's surgery, and our roomate (Shi Yu's) prognosis.

KEEP PRAYING.  We have come home, but the girls remain and face significant challenges in the days to come.  We will be visiting them regularly as something profound has bound us all together. 

The Charmer's blood work today showed that his ESR count which had been very high last Thursday in the high 80's, had dropped to just 14 today.  There will be quite a bit of visiting the hospital for x-rays, blood work-ups, and wound checks over the coming three weeks...but if we can maintain the regimen of high doses of oral anti-biotics, four times per day, we can pass the next 23 days of treatment...at home.

Pins have been removed from both legs now, and surgery delayed until all the staph infection is cleared.  This may put back our surgical plan more than 3 weeks.

Jin Jin's surgery today was successful!  She had a tumor on her spinal column and it appears that everything was removed, the neural sac is left intact, and I saw her wiggling her fingers and toes this evening.  It was a very, very difficult surgery according to the surgeon, but he was thrilled to report that she seems to have come through it very well! 

Bright-eyed before surgery - while visiting her room

This morning, when The Charmer and I awoke in the hospital we talked about Jin Jin's big day.  I picked him up, carried him to her room, and we sat with them for awhile.  Then we prayed for her, even The Charmer prayed for her, and encouraged the grandparents with the news that you were all praying for her too.  They were so, so touched.  It was beautiful.  They love their granddaughter intensely, and they are fighting for her!  We connected at a level that surprised me, and encouraged me deeply.  They are strict Hui Muslims, but still warmly welcomed our prayers. We promised them tonight as we left that we would all continue to pray for her recovery and that we'd be back to visit, soon.

The Charmer thought it a good idea to give Monkey to Jin Jin to "help her" through her surgery day

Our Prayer Team visiting in the early AM

Magpie and Jin Jin's Grandmother after surgery tonight

Brownie and Jin Jin's Grandfather by her post-op recovery bed

Awake!  After surgery!

Our Roommate was without fever yesterday and today!  This is a HUGE praise!  It was a significant turn around for her and one that delighted her doctors and her parents most of all.  She faces a long road, perhaps one to two months more of hospitalization to defeat the bone infection that had long to develop before she was admitted for treatment.

Her mother thanks you all for remembering her in prayer.  I told them about the blog and the writing about her situation...then I said, "you have people who know Jesus all over the world who are asking for Shi Yu's healing."  They were incredulous...and obviously touched.  It was a melancholy parting for us, with the knowledge that it will be a long time before she returns home to the life she knew before.  Her family has invested thousands of yuan to pay for her treatment.  I was astounded to learn that the original injury to her arm happened in May!  She has been nursing a growing bone infection for months...and has already been in our local hospital for a month before we met her!

Shi Yu and Brownie sit together during one of her brief episodes on being upright

 I learned some things while in the hospital these last five days.  I will write more about them tomorrow...but I am humbled by the things shown to me...and the way I was included.  These are precious souls who I know our Father loves deeply. How great to call upon our God along with you, and stand for healing and comfort for these who have perhaps never before been prayed for in their lives! Without being pressed together into the frantic and uncomfortable world of the local hospital, I would have never known them.  What a gift to stand with them, to pray for them, and to be received by them.

Must go to bed.  Truly exhausted and needing to feel the comfort of our bed.

More tomorrow.