To Our Chosen One:

To Our Chosen One,

Your daddy & I waited a long time to have a family. We prayed for you before we even met you. We had no idea what a wonderful surprise God had planned for us. When we got the call, I was at school and started crying immediately. We were so excited to meet you that we drove 24 hours straight to your hospital. We met you at the hospital for the first time and we loved you immediately. You were sound asleep and your daddy & I held you, stared at you, and were amazed at how beautiful you were. “He’s so perfect,” is all we could keep saying. We couldn’t wait to take you home. These last 3 months have been the greatest times of our lives. You brought us and your family so much joy.

You have an amazing love story, Eli. It started when your birth mom loved you so much she let you go. The one thing she told us when we got to meet her was that she never wanted you to think you weren’t loved. She gave you to us because she loved you so much. And then we got to love you. You allowed us to experience love in a whole new way. But no one loves you more than your heavenly father. Our time with you was so short, and we will always want more, but this was God’s plan for you, and we will trust Him and know that one day, we will hold you again. I am so thankful and feel so lucky that we got to be your mom and dad. We were blessed take care of you, and I am glad that we could be the ones to comfort you when you were sick.

You had an amazing way of communicating with us by just looking deep into our eyes. We could always see straight through to your heart through your eyes. You were mostly asleep at the end and we didn’t see you awake very much, but for some reason the day of your last surgery, you were awake more than you had been in weeks. You would open your eyes and look right at us. We were so happy to see you awake again and I like to think you were saying goodbye to us and letting us see your beautiful brown eyes one last time.

Eli, we are so proud of you, you were so strong and so brave. You amazed all of the doctors and fought so hard. We wish you wouldn’t have had to go through all of that pain, but we know that you now have a perfect body. There are no more needles, no more pokes, no more tubes, and no more surgeries. You are in our hearts and we will think of you and be filled with memories of smiles, coos, cuddles, & love. We have hope because Christ has conquered death. We have hope because Christ died so that those who trust Him would be with Him again someday. Our hearts are broken, our arms are empty and we don’t understand why this could happen, but God is sovereign. He loves us more than we can understand. You will always be our son, our first born, and we will always be your mommy and daddy.

Love Always,

Mom and Dad

Funeral is saturday at 11:00 am

Funeral at 11:00 am in fergus falls. viewing on friday at 5:00-7:00 pm.

Surgery has been pushed back until at least 10:00am

Liver Transplant

we just heard that, as for right now, we are going ahead with the liver that became available today. We were told that the other hospital would be taken from the donor at 4:00 am. We are supposed to get some sleep and to be back at the hospital at 8:00 am, which is when everything will get started. Please pray that everything goes well with the operation, that eli is able to keep stable throughout everything & that his body will accept the new organ. Thanks for all your prayers.

Possible Liver

We may have a liver for eli. One has come available locally. They are doing tests right now and we will know around 5 pm this evening if they will proceed with the transplant. Please pray for strength for eli so that if it happens he will be ready. they are beginning to prepare him and are giving him lots of blood products to help his blood to be able to clot. If he transplanted, it won't happen until around midnight they are saying. We will keep you posted.

love, kip and cat

Thank you!

Dear family and friends,
We are overwhelmed by the love and support we have felt since Eli became sick. The avalanche of cards, messages, and gifts have been a bright spot during very difficult days. Many of you have given us Bible verses and many of you have sent monetary gifts. Many of you have brought us meals, snacks and treats. Many of you have called and emailed us. Some of you have sent praise CD's. Some of you have taken care of details that needed to be done when we left Moorhead so abruptly. Many of you have put Eli on your church prayer chains. Our hearts are filled with your support. We feel the power and strength of your prayers during the day and the long hours of the night.

With love and gratitude, Kip, Cat, and Eli

new update

Praying Friends, I talked with Kip for awhile today. Since Saturday there haven't been many wide swings in E's status. They were not able to continue with 24-hour/day dialysis and he has returned to daily 4-hour treatments. Please continue to pray that his kidneys' function would return.

He remains on medicine to maintain his blood pressure (Epinephrine). There have been some highs and lows here. Pray that his blood pressure status would become stable without needing medicine. This would be an improvement.

The surgeon pointed out a non-major infection in his abdominal incision. Pray that it would clear. His blood clotting values were more vulnerable today for awhile which caused some bleeding. This may, perhaps, continue until his liver heals. The biopsy results of Saturday have not been reported to them yet.

K&C are sleeping okay. Praise God for this! Kip's parents went back to Wadena on Sunday and will return this weekend. Kip said he hopes to begin working from Minneapolis soon. Pray for God's continued provision for their finances during this tremendous journey they are on. Praise God for the many gifts they have already received from those who love them.

I asked Kip about visitors as well as correspondence. He said they don't mind visitors, but they don't question people not coming either. He said he, personally, really enjoys snail mail, but also reads and appreciates all electronic updates. Since there weren't a lot of significant changes, I wondered whether I should send an update. However, I chose to send this because we who are close to K&C are all, I think, kind of daily (metaphorically) sitting on the edge of our seats wondering E's status. Knowing God is Sovereign, Trena

Holding On!

They are continually trying to get Eli more stable, and he is really needing a new liver. The sooner the better! I know we have been asking for a lot of prayer, now we need more! Thank you to everyone who is praying!!

So thankful

we are so thankful that e made it through the night. His numbers are looking much better (there is still a long way to go). His is scheduled to go back to surgery at noon to get his stomach fluid emptied and have his stomach sewn back up.

We know that he is doing better because of all of your prayers. We ask that you continue to lift up our precious boy through prayer as he still is very critical. we are so proud of him.

Please pray for 'e' and a probable surgery tonight. !!!!!!!!!!!

Going to the operating room right now for central line and biopsy. 2:36