Dear Friends and Family -- January 6, 2000

 
Dear Friends and Family...

I got back from Kansas City about 30 minutes ago... 2am.... can't sleep so I thought I'd write a quick message before going to bed.

We had to take Rachel back to Children's Mercy Hospital tonight. Her temperature had been fluctuating all day... near the "spike" number that would require us to take her to the hospital. When I got home from work at 10:30pm it was over the spike... so we packed some bags quickly and off we went.

The staff thinks that Rachel may just have a cold... a bit rougher for a bone marrow transplant patient, but nothing major. They'll start tests tomorrow morning... actually they'd already started the lab work as I was leaving.

I think Diana and I had been riding a bit too high of late because we both came crashing down during the evening and on the trip to Kansas City... no major emotions on the surface but I could see the physical/emotional exhaustion in Diana and feel it in myself. Rachel took it all with calmness and humor... thank God we had someone "up" in the car with us!

We've been really positive through this whole thing so I hope I'm not sounding too down... it's been a long day.

I left Diana and Rachel at the hospital and on the way back put in one of my favorite CDs (Kenny let us use his car with all the perks)... a collection of classical religious pieces sung by one of those famous cathedral choirs in England. I've sung one of the songs several times with the choir at St David's Church and it's been a mainstay for me through this ordeal.... an adaptation of the 23rd Psalm. I normally keep the "heavy religious stuff" out of these emails but I hope you won't mind if I share the words with you:

My Shepherd will supply my need;
Jehovah is his name;
In pastures green he makes me feed
Beside the living stream.
He brings my wand'ring spirit back
When I forsake his ways;
And leads me for his mercy's sake
In paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death,
Thy presence is my stay;
One word of thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes,
Doth still my table spread;
My cup with blessings overflows,
Thine oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days;
O may thy house be mine abode,
And all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come,
No more a stranger nor a guest,
But like a child at home.

We ask prayers and good thoughts for Rachel. We also ask them for another Rachael... our Rachel's cousin, Rachael S--------, who will be going in for medical tests tomorrow to determine the cause of an unusual bacterial infection.

Our best to you and yours

Bill Sowers

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