Asking For Your Prayers

A couple days ago I received an email from Matt Reisetter. Matt is one of my best friends and someone I respect, admire, and look up to. He is a man of integrity and one of the best guys that you could ever be around. His wife Jen is one of the greatest women I have ever met. She is a great woman of faith, a great wife, a great mother, and a great friend. She is basically a Proverbs 31 kind of woman. Matt and Jen have the kind of marriage that I strive to have. I love these two people.

As I read the email my heart was saddened to hear that they had received some disturbing news. Here is the email that Matt sent me.

Hello friends and family!

Most of you probably know by now that Jen is pregnant with our second child – a daughter, who is due to be born on August 3.

On Monday Jen received results from a run-of-the-mill blood test which indicated that our daughter is at an increased risk for Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome (that’s a mouthful …SLOS is easier!) and Trisomy 18. Both are serious genetic disorders. The first leads to significant mental retardation and other serious physical defects, and the second leads to death – either before the end of pregnancy (miscarriage or stillbirth) or within the first year of life.

Based on what the doctors are saying, the chances that these disorders will inevitably occur, with blood test results like Jen’s, are 1 in 31 for SLOS and 1 in 10 for Trisomy 18. So far, based on our first ultrasound, there are no symptoms evident for either disorder, which is initially good news. We’ll be heading to Iowa City for a more specialized ultrasound next Tuesday, which may reveal more clearly where we’re at.

Regardless of the results of these tests, Jen will carry this baby to term or until the pregnancy is naturally terminated … we are decidedly pro-life with our words and with our actions, and I’m proud of Jen for that.

While we trust that the Lord has a plan, and while we believe that his plan – regardless of the outcome – is best, we’ll be spending much time in prayer presenting our requests to him until we know what that outcome is, and we invite you to do the same on our behalf. Here are a few of our specific requests:

1) That our daughter would develop normally and healthily; that neither of these disorders would affect her.
2) That the doctors would have wisdom and knowledge to come up with correct diagnosis and proper administration of tests
3) That God would give us the physical and emotional strength – especially Jen – to face whatever comes
4) That we would have wisdom to communicate as clearly and as appropriately to Mason about all this as possible – he’s pretty excited about having a baby sister, so this could be hard on him
5) That we and others close to us would learn from this experience and grow spiritually in the ways that God intends

Other than being a little anxious about what may come, we’re doing well – so don’t feel like you’ve got to walk on pins and needles around us!

Thanks for your prayers – I know I've forgotten several people who I should be sending this to ... sorry. Please pass this along to anyone else who may be interested.

The Reisetters

I am not writing this post in order for you to feel bad for Matt and his family. In fact in talking with Matt, that is the last thing he wants. He knows that many people have dealt with far greater problems. However, I am writing this to ask for your prayers and encouraging words for the Reisetter family.
God is a God that can heal and is a God of miracles. As you can see from Matt's letter, all the Reisetter's want is for God's will to be done, whatever that may be. Let's pray for that. Let's pray for the five things that Matt listed above, and if you can please leave some encouraging notes for the Reisetter's in the comments section.

Be a difference maker today. Pray. Leave an encouraging word. God has blessed us. Let us bless others.

Thank you.

technorati tags: Matt Reisetter Proverbs 31 Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome Trisomy 18 Prayer Encouragement