The Goodwins

We were able to see her for just a minute before they took her back. Justice is doing fine.

Bonnie is having an outpatient procedure today.  She’s having Nasal Septal surgery (sinus surgery) to help her to be able to breathe through her nose.  Currently one side is about 90-95% blocked and the other is ~ 50% blocked.

We need to be there by 9:30 AM and her surgery is at 10:30 AM.  Ella is off at school and a friend has graciously agreed to meet her at our house when Ella gets home around 11:30 AM.

Justice will be hanging out with dad at the outpatient center while Bonnie undergoes her procedure.

Please keep Bonnie in your prayers.  I’ll try to keep folks updated here.  If you want an email, sign up for email updates in the top left column or use the form below in this post.

Today Polly will be under anesthesia for her angiograph to aid the surgeons in understanding where the surgery in her brain should occur.  The date of the first surgery will be set after this, but is likely to be in a couple of weeks.

Please keep her and her parents in your prayers so she will be stroke and seizure free and bounce back from these procedures and surgeries and that her parents will feel the presence of the Lord during these tough times.

You can keep up with the Marchenko’s here.  http://lintofpocket.wordpress.com/

I wanted to updated everyone on Polly, the Marchenko’s 3 year old daughter with Down syndrome. Last Sunday Polly appeared to have multiple seizures. As she’d never had seizures, she was taken to Children’s Memorial in Chicago, not too far from the church where Sergei Marchenko pastors.  He and his family are our sponsored missionaries for Bonnie and my church adult bible fellowship (’ABF’) group.

The doctors at Children’s Memorial determined that she has Moyamoya syndrome.

In Moyamoya syndrome blood vessels in the brain are abnormally constricted which may lead to clots (thrombosis). To compensate the brain will often develop “collateral circulation” vessels.  Unfortunately these vessels are typically weaker and prone to hemorrhage, aneurysm and thrombosis. Persons with Down syndrome, neurofibromatosis, or sickle cell disease have a higher rate than moyamoya malformations but some studies indicate that it may be also inherited.

Children with Moyamoya may experience strokes and/or seizures. Often these are transient ischemic attacks (TIA) or “mini-strokes” and are often accompanied by muscular weakness or paralysis affecting one side of the body, or seizures.

It appears that our beautiful little Polly experienced at least one TIA and there is some decreased motility of her right leg.  Fortunately the doctors are expecting a full recovery of that leg.

Moyamoya is often treated with medication as well as surgery. While surgery does have risk of additional strokes, in the vast majority of cases the patients are stroke free for a good period of time. Of course there are multiple types of surgery and medications available to manage and treat the symptoms of Moyamoya syndrome.

In regard to Polly, I just learned that Polly will be undergoing surgery in Mid-November.

Please keep Polly and her family in your prayers.

Our dear friends are in the process of adopting a beautiful little girl from eastern Europe. Her name is to be Evangeline. She is a child with Down syndrome, just as their youngest Polly.

As a parent of a child with Down syndrome we are blessed to have them as friends and are supporting them in their adoption quest both in prayer and financially.

Before Sergei began pastoring at the Christian Fellowship Free Church in Chicago, he and his family attended The Chapel in Saint Joseph, MI. Their former church family had a baby shower and this video was created for that shower.

For more information on their adoption process please go to http://expectingevangeline.blogspot.com/

If you ware interested in providing financial support please go to http://www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsormarchenko.htm