Vacation Time

Leslie and I are fortunate to be able to take a little vacation before returning to Lesotho. Evi and Caleb are staying with my parents and are going to have a great time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We are going to be taking a cruise on the Mexican Riviera. We are looking forward to the break, but it is difficult to leave Evi and Caleb at home after everything we have gone through these last 8 months. Please pray that we would be able to relax and spend some time together as a couple. We look forward to sharing about our trip when we return.
Danny & Leslie

Countdown to our return....

It is hard to believe that almost 8 months ago we began our journey from Africa to the hospital in Dallas, Texas. We can look back now and see how God has provided for and blessed our family in so many ways. Here is a list of just a few amazing things that God has done since Evi's accident
1. He saved our precious daughters life.
2. He provided a instant church home and a place to live for our entire stay in Dallas.
3. He provided the worlds best place to be for pediatric orthopedics, to accept Evi as their patient.
4. He provided an army of prayer warriors around the world to pray for Evi and our family
5. He provided a vehicle for our entire stay in Dallas
6. He provided a great Sunday School class who adopted us and helped us out in so many ways

As you can see, we have a God who is our provider. As tough as this experience has been, he has held our family is his arms and held us close. What a mighty God we serve!!!
We leave for Africa on May 15th, and are anxious to return to Lesotho. Please keep praying for us and praise God for the miracles in little Evi's life.

Farewell Dallas!!!

Hello – We are writing this on the eve that we leave Dallas and begin our trip back to Lesotho. Well, at least we are almost on our way back to Lesotho. We will be traveling to Arizona for the next several weeks and will be departing for Lesotho on May 15^th. This last week has kept us very busy.

On Easter we were spending the afternoon with some friends. Evi was having a great time eating some cake and a chocolate chip and walnut cookie. The trouble started about an hour later when she started to feel a little sick. We left and in the car on the way home, Evi started to experience some major wheezing and breathing trouble. We assumed it was asthma because of some previous problems. We hurried home and gave her a puff on her inhaler and were able to get her breathing under control. Shortly after that she began to itch, and it got worse and worse as the time went on. We took her shirt off and noticed that she was almost completely covered in a rash of some sort. We then made a trip to the emergency room and spent 3 hours on Easter at the hospital. After a shot of Benedryl and some steroids, she started to feel much better. Yesterday we took Evi to the doctor and she was tested for allergies. We learned that Evi is allergic to walnuts, pecans, pistachios and hazelnuts. We are very thankful that we were able to determine what she was allergic to and that her reaction on Sunday wasn’t even worse.

The rest of the week has been stressful and busy as well. On Monday I awoke to write all of you an e-mail. I turned on the computer and all I got was an error message. After a couple days of troubleshooting and the advice of others, I was able to locate the culprit and was able to replace the broken parts. Then I had to reinstall everything on my computer. We have spent much time saying farewell to new friends, packing our bags, and numerous other things. This morning we also got word that our cat in Lesotho got run over by a car. Leslie and Evi were very much looking forward to returning to Lesotho and seeing our cats again, so they were of course saddened by the news that Calico had died.

We look forward to visiting with all of you while we are in Flagstaff and are planning on a farewell get together on May12th, the Saturday before we leave. We’ll pass along details about time, location and other info once we get it all planned..

Please continue to pray for us this next month.

1. Evi’s leg still has some wounds and needs some additional healing.
2. Travel from Dallas to Phoenix on Saturday
3. Plans as we prepare to return to Lesotho
4. Finances to cover our return airfare to Lesotho (let me know if you have any questions about how to help us raise money for our airfare back to Africa)
   

We once again are reminded about how God has blessed us with a group of people committed to praying for us. As we prepare to leave Dallas I am thankful for the abundance of prayer on our behalf.

March 23, 2007

Hello from Dallas. Our family is enjoying the warmer weather and the many things to do in Dallas. Evi is also continuing to do great with her new leg. She is progressing to the point where she can almost wear it all day long. This is great news and means that we are close to being able to leave Dallas. Yep, after over 6 months in Dallas, we are now beginning to plan our departure to Africa once again. Our current plan is for the hospital to release Evi for good sometime in early to mid April. We will pack up and fly to Arizona in order to spend some time with family and friends in Flagstaff. Then we are hoping to depart for Lesotho sometime in mid May and are already looking for our tickets. God has continued to bless our family and our time here in Dallas. Leslie especially has had lots of time to get involved with women’s groups at Park Cities Baptist Church, and we will both miss all of the new friends that we have made here.

For those of you in northern Arizona, we can’t wait to visit with you before we return to Lesotho. We are anxious to return to Lesotho and return to some normalcy in our lives. Lately we have enjoyed spending time with the Westom family. They are an MAF family in Lesotho that are currently in Dallas for furlough. They have three young girls and it has been great for Evi to play with some friends from Africa. We also covet your continued prayers during this next transition.

Prayer:

• Evi’s leg still has to heal completely before we can leave Dallas. There are still several small open wounds that have not closed up yet.
• For travel to Arizona and then to Lesotho. We have to purchase airfare, pack our bags and complete many other miscellaneous tasks.
• Finances to help cover our return airfare and cover other costs related to returning to Lesotho.
• Health of the entire family. We have all been sick this last month.
  

Praises:

• Evi is able to wear her foot longer every day.
• Park Cities Baptist Church has been a HUGE blessing to us; thank God for their willingness to adopt us while in Dallas.
• We have already located two prosthetists for Evi that are within a two hour drive from Maseru. Scottish Rite Hospital will also be helping us out while we are in Lesotho.
• A great apartment that has tons of places for Evi to play and walk so that we can do her physical therapy.
• A great team of people standing beside us lifting us up in prayer when we are weak.

Evi's New Foot!!

February 21, 2007

February 12, 2007

The last few weeks have been extremely busy. We drove 1000 miles with the kids to Tennessee stayed for a couple of days and ten drove 1000 miles back to Dallas. We enjoyed spending some time with Leslie’s family and visiting friends in the area. Once again we are in a holding pattern here in Dallas as we continue to wait for Evi’s leg to heal. There are still some areas from the skin graft 5 months ago that are waiting to heal. We are continuing to pray that these spots will stop fighting and begin to heal.

Last week the Orthopedic Surgeon, physical therapist, wound specialist, Prosthetist and others met together with us to talk about how they are going to proceed. They were able to talk about Evi’s leg and the best path to take for her ultimate healing. As a result, they decided that maybe we should go ahead and make Evi’s first prosthetic so she can begin to use her knee that has been kept straight in a cast for over two months. She is so excited and can’t wait to get her new foot, and has already asked if she can paint her toenails. After getting her new foot, we are scheduled for physical therapy twice a day until she learns how to use this foot. We also have to wait until her wounds completely heal, as this will change the size of her leg. After these heal we will make Evi’s next prosthesis and hopefully leave Dallas for good. As much as we have enjoyed our time here in Dallas and have made some great new friends we can’t wait to get back home.


Please continue to pray for us and for the MAF family that is in Lesotho continuing the work in Africa.

1. Pray that the wound would heal completely
2. Pray for Evi as she learns to use her new foot
3. Praise that the end is in sight
4. Praise for how God has provided friends, a car, an apartment and met all of our other needs.
5. Pray for Lesotho, Elections are held on the 17th of this month
6. Pray for Lesotho, only two pilots are in Lesotho to fill the flight needs
7. Praise for Evi’s spirit during the last 5 ½ months

We so appreciate the love and support from everybody. God has truly blessed us through your prayers and love of your families through this experience.

January 29, 2007

Hello – Leslie and I are writing you from Leslie’s sisters house in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Because Evi’s wounds had to heal, we were given a week break before we can think about fitting her for the prosthetic. We decided that this would be a great time to visit family and friends in Tennessee, although it was a little last minute. We left Saturday morning and arrived in Tennessee on Sunday afternoon. We had a safe trip, and the kids did great throughout the journey.
Please continue to pray for Evi. The bandage changes have returned and Evi is struggling with the open wounds. Evi is still doing great and practically running everywhere she goes. The removable “cast” that the doctors gave her has improved Evi’s spirits dramatically. We will be departing Tennessee for Dallas on either Friday or Saturday of this week. Please pray for safe travel for the entire family.
On Friday we had a chance to visit with Brad and Kristian Westom, fellow missionaries with MAF in Lesotho. They have three little girls and it was great to see Evi playing with them again. Please continue to pray for MAF Lesotho over these next several months. There are currently three of seven MAF staff that are out of the country. This is leaving the four remaining staff with high workloads and keeping them extremely busy. Once again thank you so much for your prayers and your commitment to lift up our family before our Lord Jesus Christ.
In His Service,
The Hulls family…

Evi Update: Jan 17th

Yesterday Evi went to the hospital in order to remove her cast and begin the molding process of her “little foot” in order to fit her for a prosthetic. When we first got to Dallas on the 4th her wound was looking great, although a little bit dry. Because her skin was very dry, the doctor put some petroleum embedded cloth underneath the cast, on top of the skin to keep it moist. We have often used this in the healing process. As we removed the cast yesterday the leg looked much worse than it did a week and a half earlier. As a result we will still have to wait until we can fit her for the prosthesis socket. We think that Evi may have had some sort of allergic reaction to the petroleum cloth. But once again we have reason to praise God that we are here in Dallas. Evi’s surgeon and prosthetist were both able to visit with us together as we make another plan to help Evi’s leg heal. We are going to be making a removable cast for Evi to wear at home and when she wants to walk. We are also going to begin twice a day physical therapy. They will be able to remove her cast, while working with Evi getting used to seeing her leg and gradually being able to touch it. This will also open her leg up to open air, and allow the wounds to heal faster as well.

The rest of the family is doing well. We are keeping busy keeping track of Evi and enjoying our time together. Leslie and I are both anxious for me to get back to work. =) The latest news of Evi’s leg turning back into an open wound is discouraging, but we are thankful that Evi is doing so well in her cast. She continues to await the day when she can wear her new foot, but amazes us every day with what she can do without it.

Please pray for the MAF team that is currently in Lesotho. We have two families that are on furlough leaving only four out of seven families there. We are anxious to return and help with the workload. Pray that God would encourage us as a family as we continue to wait for Evi’s new prosthetic.

Evi's Dolphin Foot

Hello and happy New Year!! Our family made it safely back to Dallas after two days of driving. And once again the Lord has provided housing for us while we are in Dallas. We want to thank all of you who have helped us to secure this new apartment. And speaking of our new housing, what an incredible place it is. Evi has her own room, and Caleb gets to sleep in the large walk in closet. Today Evi and I were walking around the 2 lakes that our apartment borders and spent a while watching the ducks and squirrels, and even got to feed the ducks. There are miles of walking trails that will be perfect as Evi learns to adapt to her new foot early next month.

On Thursday Evi took her 15th (and hopefully last) visit to the OR. This involved removing her cast, manually stretching her knee and then putting her in another cast. Praise the Lord that Evi is making progress and the doctor thinks that she will not need additional casts after this on is removed on January 16th. The doctor was able to stretch her knee to 5 degrees of deflection. This is almost perfect and she should be able to gain the last 5 degrees after getting her new foot. Also, for the first time in 4 months we no longer have to continue her daily bandage changes. The leg has healed to the point where there are no longer any open wounds. This is a major praise and we are so thankful to be making progress.

You are probably asking about the title of this e-mail “Evi’s Dolphin foot”. Over the last month Evi has talked a lot about her new foot. Her main concern was that her new foot would match her other foot. Leslie and I were unsure exactly what Evi meant by this. Someone let us borrow their prosthetic foot so that we could take it home to Evi. We came home and showed Evi a sample of what her foot will look like. She was very excited and wouldn’t stop thanking mommy and daddy for showing her this foot. She then proclaimed loudly. “Look at my dolphin foot!” Leslie and I were a little shocked and unsure what Evi was talking about. We figured out that several weeks earlier Leslie was trying to describe what Evi’s foot would be like by telling her that it was like a dolls foot. Evi didn’t quite understand and figured it was a dolphin foot. Well, maybe that was why she was so concerned about it matching. =)

Evi continues to make progress walking on her cast. Our prayer is that this will make it easier to adapt to her new foot once she gets the prosthetic. Please continue to pray as there are still lots of steps to be accomplished. While in Flagstaff we were blessed to be able to visit three of our supporting churches, and to spend some quality time with family and friends. Thank you once again for praying with us and standing beside us on this journey with Evi.

Evi Walking!!