Yall are amazing!!! I received the sweetest emails and messages! But more than anything I know that the Lord used yall in a mighty way! I sent the email to yall and my small group here and my dad's family and I spoke to mom today and she said around 7:30 last night there was a darkness that lifted from the room and you could feel the very presence of the Lord from that moment and into today.

The scan came back and everything looked good except for a cyst on his prostate that his urologist has record of and has been watching. This was a major relief that there wasn't a need to open him back up! They took out the catheter, the PIC line and the IV and that seemed to be a major relief.

This news is such a breath of fresh air! Here it is in Mom's words:

"Earlier and all of a sudden Hamp said "I am starting to feel better." They took him off IV meds and now on oral pain pills and that has helped immensely. The scan results show that all is good with Hamps surgery site . The elevated white count could be from something else but they were all encouraged that his body is fighting and it is nothing serious! They are waiting on some blood work about that but Dr Voeller is not concerned and was really upbeat. The scan gave everyone a sigh of relief. The prostrate thing that showed up is a cyst and is already on the Urologist's chart and he has been keeping an eye on that already."
"We feel so like a battle line was crossed today in victory! We just wept with joy together. Thanks so so much!!!!we both believe it was God at work !!! Hamp is so so improved! Even nurses can't get over it!!"

THANK YOU THANK YOU LORD JESUS. Thank you for standing in the gap and hauling that line with us!

Keep praying for all those things before just know that we serve a MIGHTY God who LOVES nothing more than to show off!!! The Lord sent me to the verse about His ways being unsearchable and then later in the week I read from Mark Batterson's book, Circle Maker, "If you seek answers you wont find them, if you seek God the answers will find you." In relation to my mind's desire TO KNOW what is going on it can only be at peace until I know I am seeking the Creator of the intricacies of our mind and certainly our feeble bodies.

My Grandpa is not doing so well with what seems to be dementia or some other altered mental state and after an evaluation at the hospital they are sending him to a mental health facility. He is angry and fearful. Please pray for him to improve and be comfortable, it would so grieve my family for Dad not to be present.

Much more love and gratitude thank I can convey!

To God be ALL the glory for the things He has done and will continue to do,

Clare

On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 6:27 PM, Clare Richardson wrote:

Hi Dear Ones,

Thank you for those who are updating and certainly for praying, I am super grateful. It has been super hard to not be there and know for myself the extremity of what is going on. Mom is mostly upbeat, with a lump in her throat for sure, and Sam has been Mom and Dad's constant companion and caregiver and Drew, equally intense and compassionate all at once. No sister could be more proud.

I spoke with Mom at 1pm and then with Sam just a bit ago. If you have been following what has been going on since the 2nd surgery he has had a some pretty bad days and few good hours in between. Today it has been 3 weeks in the hospital. His white blood cell count is beginning to rise again, indicating that there is an infection of some sort, somewhere. Fighting infection with so much pain seems almost unbearable.

His body is basically exhausted. That is some major trauma to the body and the pain has kept him from resting well. Mom said that because of this he is basically talking out in his sleep and hallucinating. Sam described him as in a mummy state, fighting the pain. He is barely speaking.

They did another scan this afternoon. This will be the 3rd, the first showing the original abscess on the colon. The second showing there was a leak after the first surgery and this last one we will wait and see what comes back. There are a few possible scenarios, but he has been frequenting the "worst case scenario" position.

I am coming hopefully on Thursday with my older 2 girls to be present, available, helpful, and a reprieve. And I wanna see my daddy, momma, and 2 of my brothers! (Certainly crossed my mind many times thinking about Jay waiting at the very gate of Heaven...sorry Jay Bird, but we are fighting ya on this one for a while!)

The Lord has spoken sweet words to each of us, but my greatest prayer is that as my dad is calling on the Lord, which I know he is, but that the HE will tell him great and mighty things in this strange state of mind....to share with us and to continue his legacy. This hedge is much wider than I had imagined it would be and quite honestly, I am in disbelief, but I know to well that we serve a mysterious yet wonderful God. I know He makes not one mistake. "Be assured, the testing of our faith leads to power of endurance." James1:3

Pray for Rest for his body
Pray for Peace for his mind
Pray for Pain to subside and cease
Pray for wisdom for the doctors
Pray for tentative care from hospital staff
Pray for a leak free colon
Pray for a larger than normal prostate to me normal
Pray for "best case scenario"
Pray for stamina and clarity and rest for Mom
Pray for Sam as he is the first Mom looks to right now and that He would be filled with wisdom.
Pray for Drew and I to know how and when and where to help and be available and discernment.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to pour on each of us, staying attached to our Heavenly Father, especially Mom as she tends to Dad.
Pray for anointed hands to be laid. I can totally see the very hands of God slipping into the glove of each person that touches Dad.

Amen!!!!!!

Grateful we fight not in vain and fight not alone. I love each of you and one thing I know is that Hamp loves each of you!

I will update when I can...what we hear. (Add, insult to all this and my dad's dad has been in the hospital since before dad. He is 94 and has a list of complications and he is home now getting as comfortable as my grandmother can make him. Please pray he hangs on for a bit. He basically took himself out of the hospital a few days ago.)

Blessed, yet bleeding,
Clare (for all of us)

"At first when smarting from the shock, complaining of wounds that freely bleed,
God's hedges of severity us paining, may seem severe indeed.
But afterwards, God's blessed spring-time cometh, and bitter murmurs cease,
The sharp severity that pierced us bloometh, and yields the fruits of peace." - Streams in the Desert today