Remember Ellie?

She needs your prayers again friends. You prayed for her adoption to be pushed through so she could get proper medical help. She made it home with her new bothers in record time. And now she needs you to pray for her as she faces very serious and complicated surgery. Here is what her mom, Denise, wrote to our homeschool group.

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I've been asked to explain what Ellie's condition is...here goes:Ellie has Potts Disease. It is basically a name for TB of the spine. Ellie contracted TB while in Liberia. TB can go to the lungs, the most common form of TB, and the contagious type. OR, after it goes to your lungs, it will leave the lungs and go to a bone. This is the Non Contagious type. (Ellie is non contagious.) It is what the hunchback of Notre Dame was said to have...just some trivia for you. The TB eats away at any soft tissue around the bone. In her case, since it's in the spine, it has eaten away at the tissue between the bony discs of the spine. Not only has her spine collapsed at the point of the TB, but it has grown(and here is the miracle, seriously, a miracle) to compensate. Bad thing, it has grown inward in a v. Some kids with this have their spine grown outward in a v.

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Ellie's biggest problem is that the area is so high up on her cervical spine. It's right where the "nerve" center is for paralyzation of the legs....bowel, bladder, etc... happens.

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Ellie will have to be in traction in a halo as an inpatient for a week, then the following week she'll have two surgeries at the same time. She will have a neuro surgeon, the orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Mooney) and a Cardio Thoracic surgeon (someone that they'll bring in) to do the surgeries. They will go in the front of her neck(up around the lungs and the heart) and take out the TB from her spine, then they'll do the reconstruction through the back of her neck/spine.

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We'll know so much more after our pre op appt. As soon as I get dates, etc... we'll be updating. Here's the truth, and I ask that you ONLY share this with your children if you're SURE they will not say anything to my younger children about it. Ellie may come through it and live a very normal life. Ellie may be paralyzed. Ellie may die.

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We knew this going into her adoption. We are resting in God's plan and purpose for not only Ellie's lives, but our lives, the surgeons' lives, the nurses' lives, our friends, family, the World wide web...anyone.

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Am I scared, yep. Do I trust God? Absolutely. I can't trust myself. I can't trust Greg, the surgeon, etc... God's sovereign hand brought Ellie to the USA. Am I asking that she'll be healed, oh yes. We ask that you pray for her, and put her on every email loop, yahoo group, address batch, church website, etc... We grow to love her more and more everyday, but God loves her eternally more than we can ever imagine. Ellie's birthmother gave her up only for this physical reason. There was no hope for her in Liberia. We pray that her mother knows Christ, and that someday we'll be able to meet her when Ellie is an adult. Her birthmother loved her so very much.

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Please pray for Elliana Horrocks. Ellie is 3. She'll be 4 in May. Copy and paste, forward this, or send people to my blog please? Thank you so much!!!--Love,Denise