On the road to recovery

 

Here a quick update about Davi! The surgery for the urinary stoma was successful, but afterwards his intestines didn´t want to start up again. He couldn´t eat or drink anything, and whenever he tried, it would come back up. This lasted nine full days. He lost quite a few pounds and became very weak. But he stayed in good spirits.
 

A visit from Olaf (!) with Johan and Dilma

With his brother Pieter

Hundreds of people prayed for him, and his hospital room is decorated with lots of get well cards. Whenever there was a little emotional dip, he had his daddy’s shoulder to lean on!

  

If everything progresses well, he should be released from the hospital in the next few days and will be able to recover at home, which will take another four weeks, the doctor told us.
 

We would like to thank everyone who has stood with us in prayer, has come to visit, and has sent cards, emails and messages. We have felt carried by the love and faithfulness of so many people and especially by our heavenly Father.

The surgery went well.

The surgery Davi went through yesterday went well! Thanks to all who prayed, sent emails, texted, phoned etc. It was a great encouragement to know so many people stood with us on behalf of Davi. Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery.

It took a little longer than expected for Davi to be admitted to surgery, so it was quite late in the evening when he returned to his room. I had been allowed to stay with him until anesthetics put him under and was allowed to sleep in his room the first night. It’s been wonderful how nice all the doctors and nurses are towards us. To fight the pain they put him on a morphine pump, which works fantastically! Besides this, he’s got lots of drains and lines hooked up to him, but we hope they will be taken out over the next few days.

Right now we are listening to some of Davi’s favorite music from Hillsong!

Okay, now I am ready to help the nurse with his general cleanup.

Please pray with us for Davi during the coming weeks. We´ll try and post regular updates on our blog and Facebook.

Thanks for standing with us. We wish you all God’s richest blessings!

Davi's surgery

Here is some news from our side, especially about the upcoming surgery of Davi. As some of you may remember, our youngest son Davi (27), was born with Spina Bifida and as a result became paraplegic. 

One of the other symptoms is that his bladder keeps cramping all the time, which in turn deteriorates his kidney function so much that 2 years ago, his doctors told us he needed hemodialysis. 

But against all expectations, we believe because of a miracle, his kidney function improved to about 45%. To keep this stable he will need another surgery to create a urinary stoma. This is a big surgery in the abdomen and is planned for the 8^th of October. If all goes well, he will still need about two weeks of hospital care.

Davi has already undergone lots of operations, mostly on his spine. In Brazil it was always possible for me, Jeannette, to go into the operating theatre until the anesthetics took over. We thought that might not be possible in Holland, but to our surprise both the surgeon and the anesthetist approved it. This is a great consolation for Davi who also has an intellectual disability, and is a bit fearful to go into surgery.

We are in Holland for a couple of months right now, as we knew this surgery was planned. We also moved our office over here as well, which wasn´t too complicated as our office only consists of two laptops! While preparing for the surgery we are busy working on our next book, and doing a lot of planning for future Children at Risk schools around the world, where we train young people to start projects, working with children in need.

Please pray with us for Davi during the coming weeks.

We´ll try and post regular updates on our blog and Facebook.

Thanks for standing with us.

We wish you all God’s richest blessings!