BABY ASHER UPDATE

Hello all,

Matt here. For those of you that don't know, we just had a baby boy named Asher Amos Bond last Monday at 10:45pm. That's the goods news, the bad news is that we took him to the emergency room today because he almost stopped breathing this afternoon. He was limp, barely breathing and blue by the time we got him into the emergency room. The doctors told us that if we would have gotten him here any later, he would have surely died. It turns out that he has a hole in his heart as well as another heart disorder that prevents blood from flowing to his lower extremities and organs. His life still hangs in the balance even as I type this e-mail. He is in the CICU at Arnold Palmer Hospital. We have been praying and weeping to the point of being just kind of numb and overwhelmed by it all.

We just saw him. In the natural, he's in rough shape. He has a machine breathing for him and keeping him alive. They have him chemically paralyzed so that he doesn't move and remove any of the tubes and needles and whatchahobles. They are going to have to do some type of surgery to fix his heart unless the Lord intervenes. Because of the lack of blood flow that we weren't aware of before tonight, He may have some damage to the organs in the lower part of his body, for example; his liver, kidneys, bowels etc. Pray that his bowels, liver and kidneys would be totally made whole and that there hasn't been any bleeding in the brain which may cause learning disabilities later in life.

There is a lot of information about Asher that I am having trouble processing and getting into this e-mail right now. We are really in need of prayer as the doctors are saying that we can expect to have him in the hospital for 2 weeks to a month to recover from the surgery. They are definitely expecting his hospital stay to be close to a month if The Lord doesn't intervene. We are believing that He will though and we need prayer so that we would have strong faith.

Please, have the intercessors pray for our faith and our hearts in addition to our baby boy being healed. We are also going to need direction as to how to manage Joel and what we are going to do as far as Erika and I staying at the hospital. They are saying that we can stay at Ronald McDonald House for $15 a day which includes meals...the fee may be negotiable for those unable to pay. Erika wants to stay close to him and I'm not going to leave her. We are going to be staying at the hospital tonight so that we can hear of any changes that may take place and be close if they have to rush him into the Cath Lab if the meds don't work to open up his little artery.

Our entire life just changed dramatically within a few hours and our heads are spinning. We have a lot of big choices to make and need God's direction to make the right ones. Pray out of Colossians 1:9-11, Ephesians 1:17-19, Acts 4:29,30.

Thank you for all of your intercessions and prayers. Erika and I are thankful to you all for everything. Keep the fire burning and incense arising to the Throne on our behalf. I'm sorry if I seem scatterbrained but my boy's life is on the line. You guys are amazing.

Blessings in Jesus' Name.

M@ and Erika Bond