He's the MATCH!! Updated @5:30pm

Oh my word! We just got the call and Ryan is the bone marrow match! I can't even get my mind around it right now! We don't have many details. They're overnighting us some info and a DVD to watch. Lots of consent forms. No question about it...he's going to do it. There is a family somewhere who has been hoping and praying for this moment. That very human and weak side of me immediately thought "oh no, not right now. we can't do this right now." But we'll figure this out. We know that this is bigger than us. This is a God thing for sure!!

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Psalm 139

For you created my inmost being,

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

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I can't get this verse out of my mind. Did you read that last part? That means that before Ryan was even created God knew that this day would come. He created Ryan with this in mind. Very exciting!

Click HERE to read the story from the beginning!

UPDATE:

I'm feeling a little better now that we have a few more details. You know I love to be organized about things and it was driving me crazy this morning that I couldn't start planning for this medical procedure for Ryan. I want to know exactly when it's going to be, where, how long, who's going to watch the kids, will we have to travel for it, side effects, etc, etc, etc! So here's what I do know: The procedure will take place at a medical facility in Fairfax, VA that specializes in this sort of thing. Ryan will go there this Thursday for a complete physical. When I say complete, I mean complete! It even includes a chest x-ray and EKG! And thankfully we don't pay for any of this! There are two ways that you can be a bone marrow donor and in this case Ryan gets to make a choice of which procedure he wants to do. He can just donate his blood cells or he can donate his bone marrow. Donating blood cells is an outpatient procedure that takes about five hours. They take blood out of one arm, run it through a machine that takes the stem cells out of it and then the blood is put back in the other arm. This is probably the procedure Ryan will choose to have. It's less invasive than the alternative. Donating bone marrow is a surgical procedure where you're put to sleep and a small hole is drilled into your hip bone to retrieve the marrow down inside your bone. This involves an overnight hospital stay, a longer recovery, and greater risk for complications. Both of these procedures will involve lots of medical visits before hand and afterward and both will involve prep work to be started ASAP. They would like Ryan to donate sometime during the first week of November. We don't know anything about the patient yet, but hopefully we'll be able to find out a little something about them sometime soon. So that's the latest. I'm going to apologize ahead of time...you're probably going to be hearing a lot about this over the next couple of weeks! Sorry, but it's just where we are right now!