God is so good! His love is inexhaustible and it’s displayed brightly through his people. Today Josh received his new bone marrow!! It was surprisingly an anti-climatic event.  It was thankfully not very exciting in that there weren’t any major complications. Josh’s blood pressure was a bit off but they said it was an expected effect of getting the infusion.  The medical team anticipated allergic reactions so they gave him Benadryl beforehand and also slowed the infusion so that his body wouldn’t react. We are hoping and praying the Benadryl will help Josh sleep better tonight without the awful side effects of nightmares he couldn’t wake out of last night from taking sleeping pills. The transplant should take ten hours to fully go into Josh’s bloodstream.

Now, all we do is wait and pray that the two systems would work together to kill Josh’s disease, then colonize with the new system. The major risks come in the upcoming days and months ahead; they are host vs. graft disease and infections which Josh is too weak to fight off. At this point and till Josh’s new system begins to reign in his body and do away with the old, he will have little to no immune system. So we pray that God would protect Josh from any infections that could attack him.  The other thing we pray for is that there would be only a small amount of host vs. graft in order to extinguish his old system of cells, yet not too much that it would damage his organs or end up taking his life.

Our good friend Jason, shared with us his likening of Josh’s bone marrow transplant to our need to do away with the old man in order to make room for the new.  The old man functions in the flesh, but the new man created in the likeness of Jesus through faith in Him lives by his Spirit.  However, in order to make room for the new, the old must be done away with as much as possible.  Jason and Becky took the boys to a fun bounce house place with their young kids. Then they took us all out for dinner to celebrate Noah’s birthday, and bought him a new Lego set, which he loved!  Thanks again Metcalfs! We pray for their safety as they drive back home to Arizona tomorrow morning.

We had about a dozen or so friends mail Noah birthday cards and gifts, and I’m told more are on their way!  We also had the family pastor from our respite church here take Noah out for ice cream this morning.  Thank you Pastor Ken! At the end of the day, Noah was floored by how much he is loved!  I reminded him that he is much loved by God first, then the outpouring of that is seen through others. Thank you all who have poured your love into our family and to Noah!

We are humbled by all of your love, financial support and your deep concern for us.  The prayers mean so much to us during a time when all we can do is hold on tight to our faith in a sovereign God who hears from heaven the prayers of his children, and answers in his perfect wisdom and time. Many prayed at noon as Josh started his bone marrow transplant. Thank you!!! Keep praying! This is only the beginning of a long journey through a very dark valley, but in the end, we trust it will be all worth it.