Bananas and a Big Suprise

Wow, today was another awesome day. Partially because our family and some friends were able to visit, but really because more doctors confirmed that Hudson should be able to come home before the end of the week and Hudson's day had been relatively pain-free. He's been reading more, talking more, even laughing a bit at some more Elmo sing-along stuff, though he can't laugh or cough too hard. Today he even tried some bananas for the first time, which he could never do before because of the high level of potassium. One of the greatest times of the day was what happened right after the pharmacist spent an hour going over his new anti-rejection medications, telling us how difficult they are to take for some little children. She no sooner walked out of the room than the nurse walked in with the most difficult pill for Hudson to get down and I decided to just try it in his mouth anyway. Within two seconds he swallowed it with no problem! The nurse was shocked and ran out of the room to go and tell the doctors - it was hilarious! It seems that everything is going smoothly, probably because it is. We were told today that his progress is much better than "textbook" and nobody has seen anything like it before. I would love to say that it is because our Hudson is such a tough kid, but the reality is that his body has been broken since it was formed and truly the Lord has just been gracious to him once again.

That moment with the pill was fun, but the truly the sweetest time of the day was when Scott and his wife, Kim, walked through the door to see Hudson. Scott spent the first few minutes reading to Hudson while Kim was filling us in on more of the details of his surgery, and then we spent some time just talking about life and other things with them. They have been such a tremendous blessing to us, I still hardly know what to say. I was reminded the other day of a trip Scott and I took together a number of years ago when we were some pastors in Russia that were trying to learn how to work with teenagers in a quickly morphing culture. At the end of the week-long conference, Scott and I heard some noise down the hall late at night and upon investigating, found a room packed with the pastors singing together, praying together and sharing food they had saved over the week for this modest feast before they spread out all over the country. Some of them had a seven day train ride spanning eleven time zones ahead of them the next morning but here they were, loving each other and trying to bless even us foreigners simply because we are of the same faith, part of the same body of believers. They gave us food, even to our objections, that some of them had saved for that train ride because supplemental provisions on the trip would be unavailable. They just wanted to give and they had joy in this, so we did not want to refuse them. I suppose this trip must have rubbed of well on Scott, because this is exactly what he did for Hudson. I'm sure you can see the joy in these pictures.

Please pray that Hudson will continue making progress towards recovery as there are still many things that must be accomplished prior to his discharge, including a satisfactory level of anti-rejection drugs absorbed into his blood and establishing a successful eating regiment. He really needs a bowel movement to be able to move forward in his recovery. Also, please pray for Kristi and me as we are still taking in all of the additional work that will be required post transplant for the first year even after we bring Hudson home; it was a bit overwhelming going over the schedule with doctors today. There are still a few surgical procedures left (a kidney biopsy and stint removal from his new kidney) and a strict regiment of daily drugs that will be difficult to adapt into our lifestyles, so pray we will continue to have peace, patience, and wisdom.

Thanks,
Donny