36 hours can turn your world upside down. Yesterday morning we were excited about the baby and planning a return to Israel on Sunday. Yesterday afternoon a problem in Timothy's heart was detected and he was transported by helicopter to UCLA, where they have a leading neonatal cardiac unit. Since then we have gotten a full course in the heart anatomy of infants.

Everything is not yet clear, but Timothy has some problem with his aorta leading from his heart. The aorta valve is small and there may also be an obstruction in the aorta. (This gets complicated and I'm not going to spell it all out here; maybe on the web page when I get a chance.) Tomorrow they should know more but it seems very likely that Timothy will need surgery to correct one or both of these problems. Meanwhile he will remain in ICU there.

Outwardly Timothy appears fine. He is eating well and looks healthy. But the tests have indicated that when a duct closes after birth (they've artificially kept it open with drugs for the time being but will stop the drugs tomorrow to see what happens), blood flow through the aorta to his lower body could be severely reduced. Thus the need to monitor him closely.

Here is how you can pray:

1. Doctors will find out exactly what is wrong, maybe tomorrow (Wed.)

2. Doctors will make right decision on what to do. One of the surgeries (balloon to open the aorta valve) is high-risk on newborns. That any necessary surgery(ies) would fix Timothy's heart.

3. Strength for our family

4. Practically, we need to drive to UCLA daily but we don't have a car. We also need help to watch the boys at my parents' house in Camarillo when we are at UCLA.

Yesterday everything seemed very bleak. Today we have some encouraging praises:

1. We are very encouraged with the competence and care of the doctors and nurses at UCLA.

2. The massive bills will be nearly entirely covered by our insurance (I imagine the entire bill will be in the hundreds of thousands but we are responsible for only $2k).

3. The Master's College has come behind us in a big way and has released me from responsibilities (or the concern of such) through this ordeal. We are free to focus on our family and will return to Israel only when Timothy is recovered.

Because of the random nature of our mailing lists and the frequent changes in this situation, we're not planning to do future general email updates on this, but rather to post updates as frequently as possible on our website (www.todd.bolen.com). If for one reason or another, you want such updates by email instead of the web page, you can reply to this email and tell us and we will do that.

Hoping in God,