January 6th, 2026

Ruth remains very sick, but not getting any worse. The nurses have been commenting on how strong she is, moving around and being troublesome with her leads again.

We got some reports in the scans—long story short her heart valve has remained open, so not really what we hoped for but we’ll continue to watch and pray. She also had an Xray and an ultrasound done on her stomach to see what might be causing the bloat. We were grateful to find that there is no obviously perforated bowel or even any gas present—it’s likely just general inflammation. We’ll keep praying for the inflammation.

She is still on pretty high ventilator settings—82% of the max they have. Part of this is because she’s outgrowing the tube, but she’s also fighting the ventilator with her own lungs somewhat. I found that encouraging, but then they said that if she gets too ornery they might have to sedate her—which I didn’t find as encouraging.

As always, thank you very much for your prayers. Please also keep Hannah in your prayers as she continues to recover from a very invasive C-section. There are lots of things she’s had to restrict herself from to avoid hurting herself, such as seeing Ruth frequently or physically interacting with Priscilla. As a mother it’s incredibly difficult for her to be distant from her two daughters. Say a prayer for her tonight especially as it’s been a rather sad evening for her.