No More Medicine!

Well, we received the call from the doctor yesterday letting us know that all the required tests for Elsie's HIV were negative! So we were told she no longer needed her medication, and wouldn't need to follow up until she is 4 months old. At this time, and again at 1 year old, we will have the same test done again at the doctor's request. However, they felt the diagnosis (or lack of one) was sure enough that meds are no longer necessary.

We are happy to finally get a good look at Elsie's personality. In the last 24+ hours that she has been without medicine, she has become instantly more alert. She looks around and focuses more on people and objects, and her huge brown eyes are SO gorgeous. (I guess you can see that from the picture above. It was taken on Easter Sunday.) Anyway, some of you have heard the good news already, but for those of you who had not, here's your update! We still ask for your prayers for our family. Jason and I are two sinful, selfish, impatient people who are trying to "train up" 4 sinful kids. That mix will always require prayer!

"Consecrated To God"

That's what Elsie means. Our desire is just that: we want each of our children to be fully dedicated to serving and glorifying God. And early on in this adoption process, we decided that God would choose how Elsie would best glorify Him. We knew the about the "risks" and "possibilities" that might be posed to her as a result of her birthmom's HIV, and we also trusted that God was in control of these very issues. So since birth, Elsie has had a dose of medication every 6 hours to keep her possible HIV in check (4 AM, 10 AM, 4 PM, 10 PM, etc.). The doctor informed us that there are 2 types of testing to find out if she is HIV positive. First is the 'antibody' test--this will test positive for a certain amount of time because Elsie will carry her birthmother's antibodies for up to 18 months. The second is to test for the virus itself. They require that she has 3 negative tests before they will consider her HIV negative (even if the antibody test is still positive, they feel this one is more reliable). Today we received the news that her first test came back NEGATIVE! We are very excited that she may not have to go through life with these medical issues. However, we are still praying because false positives and negatives occur frequently. We will have an update on her 2nd test in 1 to 2 weeks.