calling all pray-ers

one week from today, at almost this EXACT time, rebekah's best friend, evelyn, will be having open heart surgery. ev and rebekah met in preschool and have been the best of friends every since. long story short: evelyn was born with a heart defect and had 4 open heart surgeries her first 3 years of life. she got a transplant in february of 2004 (open heart surgery #5) and is now getting ready for sugery #6 next monday morning (11.10.08) at 7 am. here is what her mom wrote about the surgery (i'll just use her explanation since my medical knowledge is not so vast!):

"Basically, Evelyn has a piece of muscle tissue just below the aortic valve that is causing her heart to pump inefficiently. Her pressures below that part of her heart are exceedingly high because she has to force blood past the tissue and then through the valve. This is a problem that her surgeon fixes 10-11 times a year and he said, "It was a matter of time that we'd see it in a transplanted heart." Of course, Evelyn will be the first to have it fixed in a transplanted pediatric patient. Her doctors are certain this is the best plan for her and have researched the options since discovering the problem in August.

The surgery is scheduled for Monday, November 10th at 7:00 am. She will have her pre-op appointment this Tuesday. We'll find out more as far as the surgery itself and expectations for recovery. When we met with her surgeon, he said, "Let's do it Monday, and we'll get her home for the weekend." We'll see...Evelyn plans to tell her classmates that she'll be gone next week. I asked her how she'd like to handle it and she said, "I'll just ask Mrs. Huffer for a few minutes before our morning meeting Monday." Evelyn is not fearful of this, but she knows other people may be worried about her. We told her that people pray for those having surgery and give them hugs, gifts, etc. We ask that you respect her eight year old perspective, though, and the work we've done to make certain she has positive feelings about the hospital. She knows she's had five other surgeries, and she is having this one to make her heart work better.

We thank you -- in advance -- for your support."

so there you have it. rebekah does not seem too concerned yet and is excited for the chance to visit evelyn in the hospital. the girls (it just so happens that lydia's best friend is ev's sister frances, which works out nicely for us) spent almost all weekend together. they were here on saturday and at their house on sunday. they had a great time together! these are a few pictures i took on saturday. ev & rebekah are quite a pair, as you can see!!!

please pray for evelyn, for her older brother, hugh, and younger sister, frances, her parents ing & dennis, the surgery, the doctors and all that stuff!! it's a big deal, but she's a trooper and we trust all will go well. thanks so much for joining us in praying for this great family. if you want you can also visit evelyn's caringbridge site. there is a link on the left hand side of my blog, or the address is http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/evelynmaeveryan. we appreciate your prayers so much!!