Prayer for our Boys - email #2

Dear Ones,

Forty eight hours ago, we could not have dreamed that we would be in Leuven, Belgium awaiting a laser ablation procedure to be done by Professor and Dr. Jan Deprest, one of the top specialist in this field in the world with the hope of saving the lives of both our babies!

On Thursday, after finding out that I was diagnosed with Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS), my brother, Joel, called his mother-in-law, a doctor in Minnesota. She immediately contacted a specialist who does laser ablation surgery, one of very few doctors in MN who does. Joel called with the contact information. I called his office and spoke to a nurse. Within several minutes, another specialist, Dr. Block returned my call. I explained my situation to him as best I could. Maybe it's because I live so far away, but I feel like never in my life has a doctor's office been so helpful and patient. Dr. Block told me that he would be hard pressed to tell me to fly back to the states because the experts in the field, who trained him and his colleagues, were located in Belgium. He offered to email Dr. Jan Deprest personally about my situation.

Friday morning, I awoke to an email from Dr. Deprest with information about who to contact from his team. I called this very helpful Belgian women right away; she said, "come today." Brian booked the flights at 9:30am Friday morning and at 7:10pm, Brian and I were the hospital in Leuven, and I was getting an ultrasound. (Our dear friends, the Ellenwood's who also serve on the Bteam in Czech, are watching Cece.)

I have to say though, your prayers were so important. I'm not sure I've encountered such spiritual warfare in all my life. An amazing friend, Petr, offered to drive us to Krakow (two hours away) to catch our flight to Belgium; his car wasn't working right the whole way there. When we arrived in Krakow, the plane was delayed and we were told it may not even fly that day. When we were finally able to confirm our reservation, it took so long that we passed the check-in deadline. We were able to get through security in time. However, once we began boarding we were told that we needed a doctor's note because I am visibly pregnant. Three airline workers, including a supervisor, stood between us and the gate, despite our best pleadings, saying that we could not board. I called the helpful Belgian women, who also tried to talk to the airline, and she began working on a fax. Then, suddenly three seconds after saying an adamant no again, suddenly they were asking for our passports and telling us to board. Only God knows how that happened; there was no way the fax had arrived in that amount of time.

We arrived several hours later to the hospital here in Leuven. A doctor did an extensive ultrasound to confirm the extent of the TTTS. He explained to us that we are in stage three, and after consulting Dr. Desprest, they wanted to do surgery the next day (today at noon Belgian time). Maybe it was because we already knew the severity of the situation, so we weren't focused on that, but I can't even communicate to you the hope that this doctor infused us with as he explained the procedure and the various outcomes. This surgery is by far the best way to save both babies, and with relatively no risk to me. If left alone, in my situation, there is a 99% chance that both babies would die.

As I lay in bed last night, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with thankfulness that God uses his children to bring about change in this world. To think that there is a procedure not even available twenty years ago that has incredible success at reversing such a grim prognosis. Incredible.

Please continue to pray. We are standing with so much hope that both babies will be born healthy.

Like I said, I have the procedure at noon, and then we are to stay in Belgium until Monday. We will know then if the surgery itself (like what they hope to accomplish) was successful. Beyond that, we will need to closely monitor both babies to ensure they continue to grow properly.

You have no idea how much it means to us to be so well loved and prayed for!

With so much hope!
Aleisha (for all of us)