Bowers' Praise/Prayer Update 2006-02-16

Dear pray-ers,

Melodye visited with the doctor again today. Last time he said it could be 7-10 days or it could be as long as a month. This time he said probably next Friday (24th) to leave. There is a certain number on her labwork (HCG, I think was the name, for you medical people) that needs to get down to 0. It was 5500 in Albania then it went up to 7000 in the states. Last time it was measured it was down to 1500 and this time it was 700. Obviously we're moving in the right direction, but apparently this level can gradually subside for a long time and then suddenly spike up very high again and that's what the doctor is concerned about.

Meanwhile the boys and I are being treated very well by team-mates and Albanians alike here. We've had many meals brought to us and offers of many more and many people have offered to take the children for varying lengths of time. We are so grateful for this outpouring of love -- I don't know what we would have done without this expression of love by the body of Christ here in Albania...

Unfortunately there's nothing that makes up for the absence of Mommy. Tonight at supper two times Jonathan suddenly descended into such heaving sobs that he was left with hiccups afterwards. The apparent causes were the appearance of a piece of cucumber and a green bean on his tray. If you know Jonathan you know that this is *not* his normal response to something like this. Please continue to pray.

We also need wisdom. Each step along the way has been a step down, it has seemed. We thought perhaps it was a miscarriage and doctors suspected ectopic pregnancy. We returned for ectopic and it ended up being molar (requires much longer follow-up). We thought a few days and it ended up being 7-10 days. We hoped for 6-7 and it is now at 11 days. There are 2 patterns here: (1) a consistent not knowing what is really going to happen and waiting "in limbo" for the next step and (2) things seem to be getting worse step by step. Would it be better for the boys and I to return to the states now rather than going through the stress of another week-plus of being separate if the downward spiral is going to continue? Please pray for wisdom. And encouragement too, I guess. This probably isn't the most uplifting of updates, huh? Sorry...

Thanks.

-Peter

PS For those of you who are blogging fans we now have our own blog. It will have probably more up-to-date information on this situation as well as being mixed up with some lighter fare along the way... Check us out at this address: www.p-n-m.blogspot.com