Wednesday, February 26

...approx 10:00 AM:

Hey! Dwight is still doing well, medically speaking, from his surgery. It is terribly painful when he coughs the phlem up from his lungs but he's hanging in there. PRAY PRAY that he will sleep!!!!!!!!!! Two nites ago they gave him one of the strongest sleeping meds and it did not phase him .... in the last 3 nites he may have slept 6 hours .... and only cat naps during the day .... Joe has spent the last two nites with him and he is exhausted!!! (II will insist he let one of us stay tonite) We are in hopes to meet with the admin people at Craig hospital today or tomorrow to plead our case .... where he goes from the current hospital is still a BIG prayer request. Our Germany friends - (Air Force friends we were stationed with at Ramstein) gave me a surprise birthday cake/party last night! It was SUCH a blessing and such a charge of encouragement! We all stood around Dwight's bed last night and sang hymns and praise/worship songs to him ...... Jessica missed her flight and will leave at 0600 on Sunday morning ... pray for a safe flight then. Stilll trusting GOD ..... joan

...before Midnight:

Hello! The meeting with the rep from Craig hospital went very well. The next hurdle is with the financial/administration end of it at 10 a.m. MST tomorrow the 27th.

The doctor started Dwight back on tube feeding into the stomach today. The night nurse found seven hours of residuals in his stomach .... NOT GOOD! This means that he is not tolerating it. Back to IVs until they can figure out what to do. He still has much mucus in his lungs as well.

PLEASE pray that God will let Dwight 'step over the threshold' ..... and come 'out of it' Then he could be free of the trech and the feeding tube and things would be MUCH LESS complicated ........... The Doc gave him a double dose of the ambian (sp?) -- the sleeping med .... he was sleeping when we left at 9:30 ... Jessica is staying the night with him .... Joe NEEDS a good nights rest and he won't let me pull night shift right now when he and Jess can.......

It is so discouraging to see your son laying there so very helpless and vulnerable. Not to mention the fact that he is in pain and loosing SO VERY MUCH muscle/weight. But we continue to believe God as Jehovah Raphah and know that He is not surprised by any of this. We just truely believe God will give him a FULL recovery. Time and Wait are SO VERY HARD to deal with .... God's time table and waiting on the Lord ......... but we continue to Hope in God .....

Thank you to each and every one of you for your faithfulness to pray!!!! It is what is getting us thru this ............ Still trusting ... joan for us 4

p.s. Mediplex is no longer the addres to send things to Dwight ... just send them here at the Barkers until we know where he is going .... [ request address ] (I have been picking mail up at Mediplex...) I'll just then carry the cards to Dwight at the hospital. It is SO encouraging to receive the cards and notes ... we will re-read them when he is conscious .......... love to all!!!!!