Dakota

Many of you have seen the link on the right to pray for Nate, a sweet little boy with cancer. Let's get on our knees right now for this request his Dad just sent out for all of us:

Hello this Wes Oxford, the father of Nate. As you all can imagine, in our time at Children's we have seen lives ended early. We have come to know many families and their stories.

Right now, I need all of you prayer warriors out there to rise up once more for a little boy named Dakota (8). Dakota was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of five. He went through three years of chemo and other treatments and became cancer free at the end of last year. After three months of being clear, it came back stronger than ever.

Dakota's only chance now is to get a bone marrow transplant. He was matched with a donor last month and the culture has been cultivating so that it could be placed in Dakota.

As with all chemo drugs, the body can decide to reject them at any time even after taking them for years. We saw how Nate had problems with Methatrexate the first time and seemed to be okay with it after that. We also saw how Cisplatin seemed to affect him worse this time. The point being, all chemo looks to kill something and sometimes it turns on good cells.
Dakota's body needs at least one of two known chemo drugs to keep fighting his blood cancer so that he can be at the cancer free point necessary to get the bone marrow transplant. He had taken one of these chemo drugs for years before and it was effective in killing the cancer. For reasons unknown to the doctors, his body will not accept it anymore. He recently spent 9 days in ICU recovering from septic shock due to the drug, which left him in a psychotic state for days screaming, hitting, and not even recognizing his mother.

After recovering from the septic shock. Yesterday they tried the alternate chemo drug. Again, his body rejected it and he is now back in ICU. His mother and Jackie were talking this morning and Dakota's mother said that Children's has asked her if she just wants to take him home and let him die peacefully, there is nothing more that they can do.
Children's has been a wonderful place for Nate and for Dakota also, but man's wisdom has a place that it can not go any further. Brothers and sisters, Dakota and his family needs your prayers. This is the end in the world's eyes. I am not saying that every child at Children's will be saved from death, but I do know that this child and his family have come to know us and I know that God wants me to send Dakota's story out to you all. Pray for his family's hearts, souls, and the peace that God can give them. Pray that God will use Dakota and his family to bring glory to our LORD in the Gainsville, Texas area that they are from.

So many people have been behind Nate, Jackie, Jake, Luke, and me. We get emails constantly from people who you all are making a difference in their lives just by telling others about your faith in God to heal Nate and how good God is. Dakota can make this same impact. Pray that Dakota and his mother become vessels for Christ and that they turn into instruments that our LORD uses to impact their hometown. Remember that with God all things are possible and we pray that it is HIS will to heal Dakota and for his and his mother's faith to become a testimony for others.

May God be with you all and bless you all today. Do not forget Dakota, please pray for him this very moment, spread the word to pray to everyone you know - it could change their spiritual life, and do not forget to sign up for the National Bone Marrow Donor's List at www.bethematch.com promo word childrens, completely free and can save a kid's life. Nate, Jackie, Dakota, his family, and I thank you all.