Please pray for Evie

Hey all--

I wanted to repost an email sent out by my sister and her husband... Please read and pray. Evie is my sweet, sweet niece and is just a few weeks younger than Josiah.

Friends--

First and foremost let me apologize for such a mass e-mail. I am sure
after you read it you will have a better understanding why...

As many of you know, Evie had a condition called ASD (a small hole
in her heart) when she was born. Apparently this is fairly common,
but the doctors wanted to have a follow-up with a cardiologist to see
if this had corrected itself. Evie had this follow-up yesterday
morning. It appears that the hole has not healed itself like the
thought it would; the doctor didn't seem too concerned about that at
this point. However, the echocardiogram found a cystic mass behind
Evie's heart. They did a chest x-ray on Evie to further investigate,
but they are still unsure what it is. The mass is approx. 4cm x 2 cm,
slightly larger than at birth (they compared the echocardiogram done
at birth to the one done yesterday). They have several guesses as to
what it may be: anything from tissue from her esophagus or lungs to a
tumor. They really need to run more tests to determine what it is and
what the next step will be.

Next Friday at 11 am, Evie will be having an MRI at the Hershey
Medical Center (where she will be treated from here on). The doctor
seems pretty certain that no matter what it is, Evie will most likely
need to have surgery to correct the issue. As you can imagine, this
news is a huge shock and an emotional drain on Melody and me. We
have been encouraged by many promises the Lord gives us in Scripture,
including:

1 Peter 5:6-7 "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand,
that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him
because he cares for you."

Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in
everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Lamentations 3:21-23 "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have
hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His
compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is Your
faithfulness.

We covet your prayers! A few specific areas that we would ask for
prayer:

• Pray for the MRI next Friday. Evie will not be able to eat for
several hour beforehand as she will need to be sedated; like her mama
and daddy, she is a big fan of eating! As a dear friend prayed this
morning, pray that God's grace would fill Evie's belly.

• Pray that the Lord would heal Evie and have a hedge of protection
upon her.

• Pray that the Lord lifts the anxiety and fear off the shoulders of
Melody and me. Pray that the enemy would not be allowed to speak
fear and lies into our hearts, but that we would trust in our God.

• Pray for the doctors, that they would care for Evie with wisdom and
compassion. Pray that they would quickly be able to find the problem
and come up with the best solution to fix it.



We are reminded of something Charles Spurgeon wrote, which has given
Melody great faith: "Remember this, had any other condition been
better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have
put you there." While our hearts ache for our little girl, we know
our loving Father has hand-selected this path for us. We know that
He is sovereign and we trust that He is good. Thank you for your
prayers and your care for our family.



Love never fails,


Chris & Melody