Enjoy the pictures of the family in Slavonski Brod, and Daniel's 12th birthday. We thank God for Daniel and are so proud of him!
Thank you all so much for praying for Matthew and us. We have good news: Matthew's spine doctor said that his x-rays look good so that he will not need spine surgery, nor will he have to wear the neck brace at home! We are very grateful for this answer to prayer. Matthew still needs a CT scan to make sure everything is completely healed.
Since things are shut down here in California and Matthew couldn't go to UCSF to pick up his orthotic sling, they agreed to mail it to us at the home where we are staying. This is a big answer to prayer since Matthew really needs the sling, and we were unsure how to get it.
Matthew's surgeon at UCSF sent in referrals to Stanford, Mayo Clinic, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison since each of those hospitals performs nerve reimplantation. This is a rare surgery, and now we are waiting to hear back from these three hospitals to see if they are willing to accept Matthew as a candidate for the surgery. Due to the shelter in place over COVID-19, UW Madison will not be able to look into this until May.
Matthew's amputation wound no longer has to have gauze and an ace bandage, so now he only has to use a couple of large bandages instead.
Assuming that we do not hear anything back from Stanford this week (things are moving slowly because of the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders), we have decided to go ahead and return to Kansas City, leaving the Oakland area on Saturday, March 28. We've packed up Matthew's room in the apartment and he needs to have everything out by March 31 when the lease expires. His car is too small to transport his things, so we will rent a minivan to drive from Oakland to KC. He needs to sell or salvage his car, so we will try to do that this week in California. We plan to arrive in KC by April 1.
Today we applied online for an apartment in KC that will open up the end of April. Matthew and I will be deciding where to stay in KC for April and during that time plan to follow up on potential places to rent for the whole family. Pam, Daniel, and Ariela will come back from Croatia later in May after the stay-at-home orders in Croatia expire, and she has time to pack everything. We cannot afford to keep renting the house in Croatia since we will need to rent a home in Kansas City, so she is now packing up the house in Croatia.
Please pray for the following:
Pray for Pamala as she packs up the house in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, gives away some things, and makes arrangements to ship the other belongings to KC. We are waiting for a quote from a shipping company. Please pray for very low rates so that it is not too expensive to ship things back. Pray for wisdom for Pam and me what to take back to the States.
Pray for the Lord's will to be done that we would hear back from Stanford, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Mayo Clinic with the answer He wants us to get and that Matthew will get the very best treatment (surgery, rehab, orthotics, and prosthetics) for his left should and upper arm.
Pray for God to provide an apartment or house in KC that we can rent for our medical leave/home assignment in the States, that He would guide us and open doors of his choosing.
Pray Matthew and I can get his car sold and his things transported from Oakland to California before his lease expires and in a safe and inexpensive way.
Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, we will not be able to hold the Bible translation consultant checking workshops we had planned for early May. Please pray for the logistics of doing the consultant checks virtually by video chat.
Thank you for being there for us and your prayers and encouragement!
Todd
