Good news- first hurdle!

"Good news," began the nurse as she returned my phone call, "Anna's culture is completely clear."
Relief. Relief. Relief. I sent up a huge thank you to God for answering my desperate cries for Anna's healing (and to St. Jude and Maria Goretti for their assistance!).

At the same time, I have been told that medically, though her culture is clear now, that is not a guarantee that the pseudos are completely gone. The germs may be too deep to see on a throat culture or the culture may have missed them. It will take several successive throat cultures (each three months apart) to determine with certainty that the pseudos are really absent. That means, nearly a year..... of waiting.  Still, I am hopeful- and that is saying a lot.

When I told Anna the bad germs were gone, she jumped up and down and wanted a double high-five. We both said a prayer of thanksgiving to God and I reminded her that she helped too because she took her long therapies so well.

Earlier this week we were talking about stewardship, about taking good care of the things that God has given us. Together we were thinking of examples in her life where she practiced good stewardship. I talked about taking care of toys, eating all your food,  and not jumping on furniture and beds. She thought for a moment and said, " I do stewardship when I take my vitamins and do therapy." Yes, that is good stewardship too.

Please continue to pray for her and the hurdles yet ahead. Thank you so much!

Waiting....

We are waiting. Anna finished her 28 day inhaled therapy last week. Then she went to the hospital for a throat culture to determine if the germs are still in there. We are waiting until Tuesday for the results. In the meantime she has gotten a bad cold that has her coughing pretty hard and now we have to determine whether or not to put her on an oral antibiotic for that.  Sigh.

Just thought I would let you know where we are at in the process since so many of you have asked and shown concern for her. Thank you for you prayers and support.