Thankful for "Friends"

Granton and I are going back to Seattle on Oct. 17th for the second part of his procedure and we should have results about eight weeks or so after that.  He is not as excited this time but said it will be fun if we eat pizza again when we get there.  So I think I can handle that.  He is doing great.  We are praying a lot for his little brother, Carver, who is just about here.  If he has SCIDs, the kids will have to move to Kansas with Me Me and Papa for a while while Jenni and Carver will live in KC where I will be most of the time.  Once Carver's liver is ready for chemo, he will have a week of it and then a transplant.  Best case scenario is that he gets out of the hospital 100 days later.  If Carver is SCIDs free we will just keep him here and have a "normal" baby and take care of him like any other kid.  Obviously, we are doing A LOT of praying about this.  We know many people are and this is very comforting.  I have past student who is a solder in Afghanistan and has been and is in a lot of very dangerous situations.  His mom keeps me, and many others, updated about what we can pray for.  Her last e-mail had a quote from Todd Burpo, author of Heaven is for Real  It really touched me after everything we went through with Granton and everything we are praying about for Carver.  The quote is, "I thought of the times where the Scripture says that God answered the prayers, not of the sick or dying, but of the FRIENDS of the sick or dying--the paralytic, for example. It was when Jesus saw the faith of the man's friends that he told the paralytic, 'Get up, and take your mat and go home.'"  We know we have many friends praying.  Thank you all.

We're Back

I don't have much time to write.  Just want everybody to know Granton and I are back from Seattle and everything went without a hitch.  Beautiful city and good experience.  We will not get any results back for quite some time.  Jenni is doing well with the pregnancy.  She says Carver is by far the most active baby she has had.

Update

Well we are still praying very hard about many decisions that we are facing.  We know God will open and close the doors and lead us down his path.  We think we have everything lined out for the Carver's Cord blood banking.  We are still going over with our selves and the doctors the best plan for when he arrives.  Jenni was scheduled to have amniocentesis tomorrow (Friday) but it has been called off for now at least.  We still don't know if we will do it or not.  Cord blood testing can determine H.L.A. but this is not as important as we thought earlier.  We are just praying Carver is SCICs free.  We have a place for Granton and Kaylynn to stay as long as they need to be separated from Carver.  Of course this means they will be separated from their Mama as well.  That is something we would love prayer support for because I know it is going to be very hard on Jenni.  However, if the baby does not have SCIDs be can all be together much sooner.  This is our prayer.  We have had another prayer answered and on September 5th Granton and I Fly to Seattle.  He gets his procedure and we will fly back on the next day.  He is looking forward to the plane ride but not very excited about more pokes.  Please keep praying for this little man.  If he gets good test results from this procedure, he will not have to get many pokes anymore.  Thank you all for keeping up with everything going on.  We are always looking up and thankful for all your prayers.  I will try to keep everyone posted to all the developments.

Lots of things to pray about

Jenni and I have been communicating with several doctors, counselors and coordinators concerning our new baby's testing, cord blood banking and hospitalization. We are also considering testing in Seattle for Granton as soon as possible.  We would appreciate your prayers for the complicated decisions we have to make including: amniocentesis for H.L.A. donor testing and care for Granton and Kaylynn (away from Mom) if the baby has SKIDs.  We are also praying about the delivery location of Carver if he has SCIDs.  We are especially praying for the baby to not have SCIDs and strength and wisdom to handle the details we are weighing. 

Summer Pictures

The kids had fun camping over the fourth and swimming in Branson! We have postponed our trip to Seattle until next summer for Granton's b-cell testing.  Right now we are praying about testing for new baby Carver and the details of where the delivery will take place. We are hoping to deliver in Bolivar and are communicating with doctors in Kansas City about the process.

Happy Transplant Birthday Granton

Today is Granton's transplant birthday!  I can't believe it was only three years ago we stood in his PICU room and all the Doctors and Nurses were quiet as I prayed for the new lifeblood Granton was receiving and that it would be used to save his body and make him healthy.  I have since been told that his chances were not much better than 0% at that time.  However, the little guy runs all over the place now and is walking proof of answered prayer.  As for his possible trip to Seattle, we still don't have any new news.  I think we are still waiting for some things on the Seattle end.  Of course we are still praying about this and we still have all the options I discussed in the last post.  However, for the other big news from the last post, baby # 3, we have big news.  Bayless baby # 3 is a boy!  We can't wait to see him in person.  Of course this makes SKIDs a bigger factor.  I can tell when people find out we are having another boy they have questions but most of the time are embarrassed to ask.  Don't be, we are totally fine and open to discussing this kind of thing.  Living in fear of what the future could be does not make the present any better.  It does not make the future better either for that matter. That is something God taught us with Granton and we have not forgot it.  Fear looks behind, worry looks around, but faith looks up.  We always want to look up.   Ok so here is the deal, the new baby has a 50% of having SKIDS.  I have to admit that every time I say this I remember the day one of the first SKID's survivors came to visit us in Children's Mercy.  He said he would like some kind of study done on this half chance of having it.  Because he said everyone in his family and extended family that had any chance of getting SKID's got SKID's.  Anyway, according to science, the chance is 50/50.  Keep in mind that if he has it, it would be different from Granton because then we did not know until it was about too late.  But this time we would be more prepared.  Here is how.  We will do a test at birth.  Babies get all their immune system from their mother's for the first few months if they are breast fed.  Obviously, he will be.  If the test is positive, we will look for a match and give him a transplant while he is still using Jenni's immune system through the milk.  Their is a 25% that he will match Kaylynn's cord blood which we have saved just for this kind of thing.  However, we have not had Kaylynn tested yet to see if she is a carrier.  This is something we will be talking to the Doctors about very soon.  I do not know for sure but I think her cord blood would not be useful if she is a carrier.  We will find all of this out on our next visit as it has become more important now that we just found out we are having another boy.  Of course, we ask for and appreciate all your prayers over Granton and the new baby.  The other big question about the new addition is much more fun.  What will we name him?  The first name is a done deal.  We have been saving it for a while and if Kaylynn was a boy we would have used the name on her, in fact, we probably would have used it on Granton had we thouht of it back then.  He will either be Carver Luke Bayless or Carver James Bayless.  As long as I can remember, George Washington Carver has been one of my biggest American heroes.  People, always say, oh yea, the guy who made peanut butter!  Peanut butter is not even the tip of the iceberg on what this man accomplished.  If I explained everything he did, you could still be reading this post tomorrow.  The thing that is most fascinating to me is not only his accomplishments but how he overcame so many things to do what he did.  He started as a poor, sick (actually he never was in good health) orphan slave with no education.  As a kid he taught himself to read by staring at a Bible and the rest is history.  Anyway, he was an amazing man and has always been one of my hero's.  We are still up in the air on the middle name.  I would like it to be a biblical name and we have always liked the sound of Carver Luke.  My brother Dustin's middle name is Luke and he is pulling for this name.  However, I have been reading in James lately and I commented to Jenni how much I like that book.  She said, maybe we should name the baby Carver James.  I really like this name also, it is a biblical name and one of my biggest personal hero's is the pastor I had growing up, Bro Jim.  His actual name is James Hardin.  One way or another, the kid is going to have a cool name. Wow, I wrote more than most attention span's can handle.  Thank you for still following the blog and all the prayers.  I hope you enjoyed the picture and videos.