So many miracles!

Friday, September 9th we received a call from Covenant HQ in Chicago (central offices for the Evangelical Covenant Church-ECC) informing us that the director of strategic giving for the ECC had made a connection with a doctor in Oklahoma City at the Hough Ear Institute. Dr. Stanley Baker had expressed interest in helping Ana as a humanatarian effort and wanted to see her records right away. Needless to say they were faxed to him within hours! Yesterday we had a phone "appointment" with he and his nurse, Ginger, to further discuss her case. We were told that according to her testing from this summer in Chicago, she is indeed a good candidate for cochlear implant surgery and they wanted to move forward with her case. Financially however, they were only able to get the costs down to ~$35,000-$40,000. While this is still a huge sum of money, it is significantly less than what we have been quoted elsewhere. When I asked Ginger what they were thinking timing wise about the surgery, she said "yesterday", so it seems that if all goes well she could be in soon.

One thing for us to consider is how long we (most likely Ana and I) would need to be in OK. Contrary to what other hospitals have told us, we could do a "one stop shop" in OK, but need to be there for six to eight weeks. While this is an enormous time commitment, it is better than having to commit either to one full year somewhere or flying each month for adjustments. We don't know exactly how this would pan out as far as housing, etc. but know that it is a small detail in the grand scheme of things.

After speaking with Hough Ear Institute I hung up and called headquarters again in Chicago and was able to talk with Glenn, the president. He has been a wonderful advocate for Ana and he promised us that he would look into what financial assistance the Covenant might provide for us since Ana is not on our insurance at this time. Needless to say, when we arrived home last night from a date, we were delighted to see wonderful news from Curt Peterson (executive minister of the Department of World Mission). Here is a snippet:

"I wanted to write to you to let you know that we have secured $30,000 in benevolence fund money for Ana. This is great news thanks to the larger Covenant for their generosity. We would still like you to pursue any discounts you may be able to secure from the implant company that Lisa mentioned. The funds will be used as needed but if not all is needed we will direct it to further needs you may have or to others for health care needs. I know this doesn't meet the $35,000 we were told was needed but at this time, these are the funds we have available for you."

We hadn't even had a chance to send out a prayer request about this and yet God had already heard the prayers from the few we had spoken with yesterday.

This brings us to the here and the now. The Institute said that Ana needs to have a CAT scan ASAP to rule out meningitis as an infant. If an implant candidate has had meningitis, there is a window of about one year after the fact before the cochlea becomes too hard to insert an implant into it. Knowing we have already had Ana for ten months and not having very clear medical records for the first five months of her life we don't know what to expect but are prayerful that everything will show all clear. We are trying to get an appointment for her for this coming Tuesday, September 20. Would you all please pray that this happen and again, that it comes out clear? It is our hope and intent that if she passes with flying colors that we will be to Oklahoma and back again with a little girl that can hear before Christmas. Can you imagine?? God can! We can!

If you would like to know more about the Hough Ear Institute, you can find them at http://www.integris-health.com/INTEGRIS/en-US/Specialties/EarInstitute/ You will notice that we have adapted their "motto", Matthew 11:15: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

We will post an update as we get information and hopefully travel! Thank you for your faithful prayers for our family.

~Lisa - on behalf of the family :)