Update: How is Miriam doing? (and an update on our visa situation)

Hi friends,

First, we want to say how overwhelming the last several days have been - you all are SO amazing and supportive and we have appreciated every comment, email, or message you sent us to encourage us and tell us that you're praying for us and for Miriam. As parents it has been comforting beyond words to know that there are loving people all over the globe, some of whom we have never even met, praying for our little Miriam and for our family. Words cannot express how thankful we are for each of you and for your prayers. We have felt supported and loved in a time when we otherwise would feel very alone and afraid.


In the last day or so Miriam has slowly shown signs of improvement. She is eating a little more, throwing up less, and her diarrhea has been much less severe. This morning she actually stole Chrissie's breakfast and ate it, along with part of her own, which is amazing. She hasn't had much of an appetite in over two weeks!


It's nothing short of a miracle that within a day or two she went from this...

To this.

(hopefully she doesn't hate us when she's a teenager for posting a greasy-hair hospital photo of her on the internet...)

The doctor actually suggested that if she continues to improve it is possible she could be discharged this week. We can hardly believe this is a possibility since for so many days we saw no improvement at all. We're praising God for how He has healed her so far and we're praying for her continued healing. Thank you for your continued prayers and for standing alongside us in this hard time. She isn't out of the woods yet, but we are hopeful and thankful for the little improvements we're seeing.

We can't wait to have our quirky and fun little girl back to her normal self!

After speaking with our insurance company and Miriam's pediatrician in Canada we have made the decision to stay where we are and continue receiving care here in Romania. The doctors here have been very attentive and concerned, and Miriam has seen several specialists and endured many tests which have ruled out things like parasites, bacterial infections, appendicitis, and other more serious conditions. She's been a champ through it all and we're so proud of her for being so brave even though she's felt so yucky.

Despite how hard the last few weeks have been, we've had several bright moments, including a hospital visit from Darcey & Reinhard Neufeld and John & Doris Storey, missionaries from Winnipeg who live in Rasa (about one and a half hours from Bucharest). "Grandpa" Reinhard and "Grandma" Darcey have been so loving toward our girls and we're excited to get to know them and the Storeys better. We're planning a trip to Rasa to visit them soon and we were so encouraged by their visit!

This experience has been especially hard on our little Eden and we would appreciate your prayers for her too. She has missed her mommy and sister and because of hospital rules she isn't allowed on the ward where Miriam is staying. Because we don't have help with childcare for Eden, we haven't really been together as a family since Miriam has been in the hospital because one of us always needs to be with each child. We've been switching places often to give Chrissie a break and to give Miriam time with her daddy, but this means we don't get to spend any time together. Making big health-related decisions for your kids is challenging when you can never really be in the same room at the same time, but we are very thankful for FaceTime! We are so looking forward to Miriam's discharge from the hospital so we can be together as a family again.

Another challenge that has come up in recent days is the matter of our visas. We were confident that we'd be able to obtain our visas within the first 90 days of being in Romania but this now looks like it may not be a possibility. The authorities have just now approved our documents to be submitted for a visa application, and the approval process can take anywhere from 10 days to 2 months. We have only 24 days before our 90 days is up and if our visa isn't approved by then we will be forced to leave Romania for another 90 days before we re-enter. This would not be an ideal situation for obvious reasons, as we would not look forward to being displaced again, either in Moldova or Austria for three whole months. We are eager to settle in here as a family and adjust to our new life in Romania, so please pray for a super speedy visa process for our family or some other loophole that would allow us to stay in the country legally.


Thank you so much for your prayers friends! Please continue praying for Miriam in the coming days.

If you're curious about what we're doing in Romania, click here to read more about our work here, and click here to see a video of our story.

If you'd like to make a donation to our ministry, click here. 

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