Happy SECOND YEAR Woodbull Anniversary... well...

Tuesday afternoon we Woodbulls got together to brainstorm about what to do for our Woodbull anniversary. Two years of being family, we needed to do something fun to celebrate. We made up our plans and decided on dinner out and a picnic lunch the next day. Everything was set and we were all looking forward to celebrating! Until.... Ian got sick. Thursday Ian was feeling really tired and sick. Mom and Dad tested him for malaria that night. As soon as the blood hit the test it showed that he had cerebral malaria. (the brain kind) Dad and Mom started him on the malaria medicine but it didn't seem to be working. The morning of our Woodbull Anniversary dawned and Ian was getting worse. He started hallucinating so Mom and Dad brought him to the clinic down the hill from us at around 5:30am. Uncle Charles met them there and helped look over Ian and see how he was doing. 

 

As the day progressed Ian became worse. The Wood side of the family came by the clinic after church and went in to see Ian. Ian was out of it due to sedatives that he had been given to dull the pain. The Woods left and us Bulls stayed home. We were all praying hard and sending out updates on Ian like crazy asking everyone to pray. Uncle Charles went back to the clinic later and stayed there with Mom and Dad.  Ian wasn't doing very well. He had puked blood several times. The Doctors then thought something might be wrong with his kidneys because they were pumping him full of liquids but he had never peed. They stuck a catheter in him and that helped a lot. Unfortunately, they couldn't give Ian meds for the pain (they needed to make sure his brain was still functioning) so Ian was in a lot of pain. Back at home we Bulls and the Woods too were praying hard for Ian. Around 9ish... or 10ish... Dad called again and said that Ian had taken a turn for the worse and they were going to evacuate him out of mozambique and bring him to South Africa. Dad came up to the house to pack stuff and we prayed together. Dad went back down to be with Ian and us kids prayed and cried... it was hard! The Woods (what awesome sibling we have) kept sending encouraging texts saying they were praying and sharing different verses with us. Isn't it SO great to know that we can trust in an all-powerful, all-knowing God!?! Around 10ish... we Bulls went down to the clinic just to be close to Ian, Mom and Dad. While we were there the Woods came too. Thank you Lord for family!!! It was so comforting just to be around family! :) The LePoidevins (a missionary family here working with MAF *Mission Aviation Fellowship*) live right across the street from the clinic and they generously opened up their home to us Woodbulls. They let us crash at their place so that we would be close to the clinic. The showered us in comfort. The Woods as well. :) We are so blessed. It was so nice to be with other believers and pray together for Ian. We also sang and different people shared encouraging verses. It helped all of us a lot. After a long night with no sleep for some and very little for others the med plane flew in. They came at 4:33am and went to the clinic and got Ian stabilized. It took them a long time! We went to the clinic to wait in the waiting room and while there we could hear Ian screaming in pain. It was really really hard to hear. :'(  After we found out it would take them a while to stabilize Ian we left the clinic and waited outside instead.

(Dot, Lil' Andrew and Kent are missing in this pic)

Around 7ish they got Ian stabilized and the ambulance drove him to the airport. We Bulls got to go onto the tarmac and watch them unload Ian. (we also got to touch the wing of an airplane :) )

They unloaded Ian and I was not expecting him to look like that. He was covered in wires and tubes :( It was really hard for all of us to see him like that. Especially Lil' Andrew. Please pray for Lil' Andrew as it is really really hard on him to see Ian (his big strong older brother) so sick. Thank you!

They loaded him up into the airplane. (and the pilots were all saying how light he was and it was so much easier to lift that the 300lb. person last time :P)

And away they went.

Ian has been at a pediatric clinic in South Africa with Dad all today. Tonight we got word that Ian had jaundice. We thought it may be because of liver failure. We packed up our bags and got ready to fly out tomorrow. About an hour later Dad called and said the results of Ian's liver tests came back and they were good. Oh thank you God!!! So what's with the jaundice? Well, the jaundice is because... (I may get some of this wrong but I hope you get the gist) the malaria kills all your blood cells and the liver produces blood cells, but because the liver is producing so many blood cells trying to refill his body, there is a "traffic jam". Which caused the jaundice. The Dr. said that everything is looking how he expected and that there have been people with a LOT worse cases of malaria than what Ian has and they have all walked out of the clinic with no problems! Oh thank you GOD!!!!! Right now Ian is hooked up to tons of machines and whatnot. He is on a respirator, has a catheter, and loads of tubes sticking in and out of him giving him all kinds of fluids and meds. Please keep praying for him!!! Right now the plans are that Mom will fly out tomorrow to be with Dad and Ian and us Bulls will stay with our family :) The Woods. Please pray for our brother. That God would heal him and make him well again! We are trusting in the all-powerful, all-knowing God and we know that He is in control of everything!! What a wonderful thing that we can trust in Him!!! Thank you again for your prayers!!! It has definitely been a rough last couple of days and a very unusual Woodbull anniversary. :) Thank you!!!