Hi family and friends,

We wanted to give you a little life update on what’s been going on for the past few months. As many of you may already know, Jeremiah was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 4 and has been dealing with it for 26 years. In March of this year, Jeremiah started mentioning to me that his vision was starting to get a little blurry. He went to go see his optometrist, and she had told him that there was abnormal blood vessels and bleeding in the back of both eyes that was causing the blurriness, and that he needed to see a retina specialist immediately.

Once we saw the retina specialist here in Menifee, they said because of the bleeding the retina is starting to detach which could cause permanent vision loss in his eyes. They believed that with laser treatments and injections, they could try to mitigate the bleeding to avoid full retinal detachment.

We started treatment right away but then on May 22nd, Jeremiah lost all central vision in his right eye and had a full retinal detachment. They told us the left eye isn’t far from where the right eye is but the focus right now is to stop the bleeding in the right eye and get that retina to reattach so they can save his vision. He was scheduled an emergency surgery the next day to reattach his retina.

We had our concerns with this practice on their competence to successfully do the surgery and wanted to get a second opinion but were led to believe we had no time to go that route because the matter was so urgent. Since the start of Jeremiah’s treatment there, we had concerns about the quality of care. Everytime we left an appointment we felt like our questions weren’t being answered and just very rushed. We continued with them because we felt like that was our best option with what our insurance covered.

He got the surgery the next morning which was last Friday and he still has no vision in his right eye today. The doctors are saying it could be like that for at least 6 months. He will be unable to work as they work to restore his vision. We have a long road ahead of us of surgeries, laser, treatment, and injections to help mitigate the bleeding so his retina would stay attached and they can hopefully save his vision.

Yesterday we went to go get a second opinion on all that is happening with retina specialists in San Diego that were highly recommended to us by our friends and family and we truly feel like the Lord is leading us to. During that consultation, they shared with us that they really aren’t pleased with the work that was done during the surgery and they feel like the surgery needs to be re-done because there was still a lot of blood and scar tissue left in his eye that can cause permanent damage.

Before going to the consultation with these new specialists, we were praying that the Lord would give us confirmation and clarity on if we should stay with the retina specialists in Menifee since they’re covered by our insurance or switch to receiving treatment with the San Diego specialists but they’re not covered by our insurance.

We believe the information we received confirmed our hesitations with the specialists in Menifee. We truly feel the Lord leading us to these new specialists even though the costs will be out of pocket. They confirmed he will need a series of surgeries and treatment, with each surgery costing $20-$30k each.

We are believing for miracles, healing, and provision! We know if the Lord led us here, He will make a way. We’ve already seen the incredible blessings of God’s faithfulness through the immense support we’ve received from our friends and family. We’ve been covered in prayer and know we have people praying all throughout the US, South Korea, Zambia, and the UK!! We’ve receive countless messages of prayers going up and we are so humbled by God’s body rallying around us and fighting for us in the Spirit! We know the Lord is building a huge testimony here and we know healing is coming for Jeremiah. He WILL have his vision restored.

We ask that you continue to pray with us as we start care with these new specialists and pray the Lord uses them to do miracles! The total cost of treatments for both eyes including multiple surgeries, laser, and injections are unknown but we deeply appreciate your contribution as we face the challenges ahead.

With love,

Jeremiah, Danielle, Ezra (3), and Judah (10mo)