Thanks for all who were praying for us yesterday. Natalie started having more heavy postpartum bleeding around 8 am yesterday. She continued to bleed throughout the morning, so she called the triage nurse at her doctor’s office and was advised to go to the hospital. By the time we got a babysitter, fed Abigail, drove down the hill, and arrived at ER, it was a little after 1 pm. By the time we got there, her bleeding had already slowed considerably.

It was a very busy day in the ER. The waiting room was packed, and the ER halls were lined with beds everywhere. One staff joked that beds were going to be all the way out to the front lobby! And at one point, we overheard that there were five trauma patients being treated, including a baby.

Natalie, Abigail, and I waited a few hours in the waiting room, then were moved into the ER hallway to wait a few more hours on a hospital bed. An early blood test showed her hemoglobin count was still OK. Around 6 pm, Natalie was taken back for an ultrasound. The radiologist said the results looked very similar to the pictures taken two weeks ago when we were at ER, though the mass in her uterus appeared even a little more engorged. Nurses seemed confident at first that she would need a D&C. The waiting game continued, and around 11 pm, the doctor finally came to visit and said there was nothing they would be doing that night.

The nurses and doctor seemed to lean toward the need for another D&C due to her enlarged uterus and this persistent mass of tissue, but the doctor also said it can sometimes resolve on its own over a period of weeks or months. Since her blood count was OK and bleeding had slowed down, there really wasn’t much they could do in ER. However, if she has another bleeding episode like yesterday, we are instructed to go back down to ER and start the whole process over again. Otherwise, we just need to call the doctor on Monday, set up an appointment, get examined, and possibly schedule a D&C. Not the resolution we had been hoping for. By the time we got our discharge papers and left the hospital, it was after 1 am. We walked out feeling like we had more questions than answers. The only thing we knew for sure is God is still sovereign!

Please pray for Natalie’s continued protection, and for Abigail’s immune system to be strong after being in ER for a whole day. In spite of all the setbacks and question marks, we still find many reasons to be thankful to the Lord: that Natalie’s bleeding subsided and blood count is OK; that Natalie was in very little pain other than some cramps that morning; that we were placed at the furthest hallway away from much of the ER commotion and germs; that Abigail did very well overall; that we had an excellent ultrasound technician with an attention to detail and a willingness to explain what was on the screen; that the mass in Natalie’s uterus has not grown significantly; that we had a little time to read and pray together throughout the day; that Lila came on short notice to watch Dylan and Heidi all day long; and that we had all of you praying!

I’m attending the Resolved Conference this weekend in Palms Springs, California. It’s nice for once to attend a conference in our neighborhood rather than having to travel across the country to go to it.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Heaven & Hell.” So far, we’ve heard from Rick Holland, Randy Alcorn, and John MacArthur. All have done a great job. As Rick said last night, if death is an unpopular topic today, hell is even more unpopular. Both in our culture and in our churches, we’ve concealed the reality of death and hell in a dark closet. Even heaven rarely gets the attention it deserves. I find myself knowing very little about heaven and rarely thinking or preparing myself for it.

I’ve already been admonished that I need to conduct my life and ministry with a greater view of heaven and hell. It’s a dishonor to God and the gospel to avoid these weighty doctrines.

May all of us resolve as Jonathan Edwards did at 19 years old to “to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if, I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments” (Jonathan Edwards, Resolution #55).

Some of you have been asking how Dylan is doing since his open-heart surgery five weeks ago. We’re so pleased and thankful to report he has made an excellent recovery. He’s playing and wrestling and exploring, and seems to have all the energy and enthusiasm you would expect in a toddler. In fact, if it wasn’t for the scar on his chest, you wouldn’t even know he’d been in the hospital. Things are finally returning to normal, and this past weekend, Dylan was able to be back in the the nursery at church. Praise the Lord!

Last night during family devotions, we read the story of God commanding Abraham to climb Mt. Moriah and sacrifice his son Isaac as a test of faith. When we got to that dramatic moment when Abraham stretched out Isaac on the altar for sacrifice, Dylan informed us that Isaac was getting a “diaper change.”

We got a good laugh out of that one, and figured it was just as well for Dylan to understand this picture as a “diaper change” for now!

What a week it has been. My two-year old son was scheduled to have open heart surgery last Tuesday at Loma Linda. On Monday, we went down and did all the pre-op paperwork and exams. When we arrived for surgery Tuesday morning, we were told that the doctor was doing an emergency surgery on another heart patient (their aorta burst!). We waited for a couple hours in the surgery staging area, not sure what was going to happen, and were finally told that we would have to reschedule. Dylan’s surgery date was postponed until today.

However, on Wednesday night, Dylan got sick and threw up three different times. It seems he probably picked a virus in one of the waiting rooms earlier this week. So unfortunately, we have to reschedule the open heart surgery again. We just need to monitor Dylan for a while and make sure he is completely healthy and fully hydrated before he goes in for this procedure.

Because the surgery was postponed, I took my mom back to the airport early this morning, and she flew back to Colorado. There are many, many other details for us to work out as well. We are perplexed by all of this, but God has given us a real peace. “But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, ‘You are My God.’ My times are in Your hand.” (Psalm 31:14-15a). There is no place I would rather have “my times” than in God’s hand. How thankful we are that all of our times and events are safely in His sovereign hands. God truly is the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3).