Pray for Gracie, please!

We are celebrating the fact that Carrie returned from Australia on Thursday last week. It's been great to have the family back together.

Unfortunately, the day Carrie left (May 13), Gracie had an accident on the playground. A heavy wooden seesaw with several kids on it fell onto the top of her left foot when the kids on the other end of the seesaw quickly got off. It was pinned under there for a while before the kids realized what happened and got off. Initially, the X rays didn't seem to show any problem and we expected the pain to reduce, but over a week later she is still on crutches and the pain is not subsiding. 

She’s in agony anytime her foot gets bumped or she falls. She put weight on it accidentally this morning when her crutches tripped on something, and she said it felt like a needle was coming up through the bottom of her foot. She has excruciating pain top and bottom, all the way through the thickness of her foot. Repeat x-rays comparing both feet were sent to a specialist radiologist friend of our doctor here, and he’s the one who saw the issue.

She's smiling, but that's Gracie! She's in a lot of pain.

He has determined that she has a Lisfranc fracture and it needs to be addressed immediately with surgery and likely pins/screws into the bones (the procedure is called an anatomical reduction). If it is not taken care of, she would likely be lame for the rest of her life. Even afterwards, it sounds like the recovery is long (six months to a year) and sometimes is even then never completely healed.

We hope to get an appointment set up ASAP in Australia and then Carrie will turn around again and go back to Australia with Gracie. We don't know at all at this point how long she will be there or really any other details with the timeline, so please pray that all falls into place quickly.

A secondary prayer request is about Cheetah-Speed, Gracie's beloved stuffed cheetah, to be with her. In the chaos when she was injured, the stuffed animal was left behind and then stolen. We've tried hard to find her and have her returned, but to no avail and Gracie is pretty heartbroken. We know the Lord is always with her, but a tangible and familiar comfort would be hugely appreciated - a replacement identical cheetah won’t be as loved and worn and known as Cheetah-Speed. As silly as it might sound, Cheetah Speed being returned would be a huge blessing to help Gracie through this. She gets quite nervous, although she’s a real trooper!

Marcie and Gracie together. Gracie with her ever-present Cheeta-Speed.

Thanks for praying for the rest of us kids left behind again. We are really sad to lose our wife/mom again so soon, and we are all are concerned for Gracie. I just can’t get away from work and with Carrie being the more "medical one” in our family it makes more sense for her to go. Plus, she will get to sleep at sea level! (her sleeping issue started again a few nights ago, but it wasn't an issue when at sea level in Cairns.)

Thanks for all the love and prayers and tangible help for our family!