Thank you

This is from Alan and Joy, Leslie's parents:

"Words cannot express our gratitude to all of you for your kindness, love and support to our family during this very difficult time. As many of you already know, Leslie was our only precious daughter and we love and miss her so much. We have been amazed how God has used so many of you to touch our lives with your compassion. Thank you."

Yesterday

Leslie's service yesterday was beautiful. Rusty Tugman, the preacher at Alameda, performed the service and did a wonderful job. He was able to capture who Leslie was in the words he said. She was a beautiful, JOYful person who loved the Lord. She loved with all of her heart. Leslie would tell Mark that she loved him and he would reply with "I know." She would then say, "good". She loved knowing that he just knew. Leslie loved him so deeply. We all should love in that way.Leslie loved, but she also was loved by so many. If only we all are blessed enough to be loved as much as Leslie was.

This blog has now had 327,000 page views. The Loving Leslie Facebook page has 2,458 fans. Her story has spanned the globe. She has touched thousands of people, without even meeting them. She IS loved.

Here is the video that Pam, a friend of the family, put together for the service yesterday. You can see her beauty- inside and out.

Remember

Please remember the Evans and Bond families in your prayers today. Pray for comfort, for strength and for peace that only comes from our Heavenly Father above.

Leslie and the twins' service will be at 1pm today at Alameda Church of Christ in Norman.

Cry Out to Jesus by Third Day: "To everyone who's lost someone they love, long before it was their time. You feel like the days you had were not enough, when you said good-bye. And to all of the people with burdens and pains, keeping you back from your life, you believe that there's nothing and there is no one who can make it right. There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary and love for the broken heart. There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing, He'll meet you wherever you are. Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus."

Singing

For those that may not know, Leslie had an amazing voice. She loved to sing and used her voice often to praise God. Here is a video that Leslie's friend Christine put together. The two songs being played are sung by Leslie. Click here to see and listen to this beautiful woman with a beautiful voice.

Obituary

Click here to view Leslie's obituary from Havenbrook Funeral Home.

Donations

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked people to make donations to:

Life Tools for Kids
c/o LifeCare Ministries- Crossings Community Church
14600 N. Portland
Oklahoma City, OK 73134

This is a group that Leslie volunteered with when she was a member at Crossings. LifeTools offers support and education, through the use of a faith-based curriculum, for kids, teens and parents experiencing challenging life circumstances. These include divorce, remarriage, death, addiction and chronic illness.

Services

Services for Leslie Joy Evans and her infant twins, Marisa and Mac, will be held on Tuesday, October 12 at 1pm at Alameda Church of Christ in Norman, OK. The address is 801 E. Alameda, Norman, OK 73071.Visitation times are as follows:

Greeting with friends:

Sunday, October 10 from 1-8pm at Havenbrook Funeral Home. The address is 3401 Havenbrook St., Norman.

Greeting with family:

Monday, October 11 from 6:30-7:30 at Havenbrook.

Saying thank you is not enough. So many people all over the world have been praying for Leslie and the family.

From the song "My Savior, My God" by Aaron Shust:

"I am not skilled to understand. What God has willed, what God has planned. I only know at His right hand stands one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word and deed. Christ died to save me, this I read. And in my heart I find a need. Of Him to be my Savior. That He would leave His place on high. And come for sinful men to die. You count it strange, so once did I. Before I knew my Savior. My Savior loves, my Savior lives, my Savior's always there for me. My God he was, my God He is, My God is always gonna be."

Gone Home

Leslie Joy Evans left us to be with the twins and her Heavenly Father this morning. She was at peace and surrounded by family. Her family appreciates the love, support and prayers you gave them during this difficult time. Please continue to check this blog for current updates regarding services for Leslie and the twins.

Address

Many of you have asked where you can send a card to Leslie, Mark and her family. You can send them to Alameda Church of Christ, 801 E. Alameda, Norman OK 73071. Thank you for all of the sweet thoughts and continued prayers for Leslie and her family during this extremely difficult time.
Please, no visitors again today. Thank you for your respectfulness and understanding.

No visitors again

No visitors again today. Please respect the family during this time as they are exhausted and want to spend time with Leslie. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. We will be posting more information in the coming days.

No visitors today

There have been so many visitors to the hospital to be with the family over the last week. It has been wonderful to see the support from so many people. There has been family, friends, co-workers, and even people who barely know Leslie and Mark who have gone up to see them. But today the family is requesting no visitors. They appreciate greatly the prayers and support, but please honor their request to support them and pray from your homes today. They just need time to be a family right now. Thank you.

(This is Leslie and her brother Jay)
(Leslie's parents with the kids)

No real news

Just a quick update that there has been no real change on Leslie's status. The family is still with her at the hospital and appreciates all that you have done. Please continue to pray for Leslie, Mark, and the rest of the family.

Prayer and Praise

Today at 4pm about 250 people met outside Norman Regional Healthplex to pray and sing praises. It was amazing to see so many gathered together because of one very special person. We prayed for Leslie's full recovery, but we also prayed for God's will. We prayed that we all can feel the healing hand of God through it all. God was not just looking down on us today, He was there with us. And it wasn't just 250 people praying for Leslie, there were people from all over the world praying for her at the same time as all of us. Now that is powerful.

God knows we all are hurting for Leslie. She is so many things to us all. Leslie is a wife, mother, daughter, sister, neice, cousin and friend. To some that came today, Leslie is a stranger. They have never met her, but she has somehow touched their life, and they were there, fervently praying for Leslie and her family.
On behalf of the Bond and Evans' family, they thank you all. They are humbled that so many people would take time out of their busy lives to come and pray for Leslie. Joy said she is awed and amazed at how many people love her daughter. They can't thank you enough for all you have done. Not just today, but over the course of the last few weeks. They thank you for your love, your support and your prayers.
Please don't stop praying for Leslie and her family. They can feel your love and the love of our heavenly Father.

During the week

Initially the doctors thought she had an amniotic fluid embolism. Currently they think it was a blood clot that travelled through her heart and got stuck in her lungs. This deprived her heart of oxygen and caused her heart to stop.

Sunday after Leslie was revived, the doctors were optimistic. Leslie is young and healthy and should be able to bounce back from trauma fairly quickly. So everyone waited. Many friends and family members went to the hospital to pray with the family and be there for support.

By Sunday evening, the doctors were not receiving the results they were hoping for. Due to her brain being without oxygen for 17 minutes, they realized it was not a good sign for her.

On Monday, Leslie's kidneys had shut down. They started doing dialysis Monday afternoon. She is still on dialysis because her kidneys aren't working like they are supposed to be. But the biggest problem is Leslie's brain. Her brain being without oxygen for 17 minutes can do serious damage.

A neurologist has been running EEG's on Leslie daily. She has also had CAT Scans. The CAT scan shows no swelling in the brain and no bleeding. The EEG on Monday seemed optimistic because she did have a little more brain activity than she did on Sunday. But it still isn't where she is supposed to be. In the first 72 hours, she should have shown response to pain, and she did not. To the neurologist, this was a very negative sign.

During this past week, her vitals have improved with support but she has continued to not respond to the neurologist's tests. The neurologist has told the family that he expects no chance of meaningful recovery. A second neurologist is coming to see Leslie today, but they don't expect his opinion to be any different. At this point, the only hope for Leslie's full recovery is by prayer.

Prayer is powerful

We will be meeting in the hospital on the SE side, just inside the doors at 4:00pm tomorrow- Sunday October 3rd.. We will begin with praises, prayer and singing. And then move outside the hospital, where if we have enough people, we will try to circle the hospital. Please come join us even if you have never met Mark or Leslie. Matthew 18:20 says "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." If you are not able to physically be there, please pray for Leslie and her family wherever you are.

More kids

Leslie loves Mark's kids as her own. But she really wanted the experience of being pregnant and raising a kid from a tiny baby on. Mark and Leslie both knew they wanted to have a baby and didn't want their baby to be too far apart in age from Manning.

So she was thrilled to find out she was pregnant Memorial Day weekend. Mark and Leslie went to Kansas City to celebrate their anniversary and were so excited to be pregnant. They stayed in a nice hotel and took it easy. (Mark watched a lot of Ninja Warrior.) They shopped and ate. Mark bought her more earrings. They also went to the Kansas City Zoo (without kids!)
Leslie went in for a checkup at 8 weeks (without Mark) and found out she was pregnant with twins. She called Mark to tell him and he was absolutely thrilled. They really wanted a boy and a girl. They had chosen the names Marisa Bond Evans and Mac Brodey Evans.
At 19 weeks pregnant on a Sunday morning, Leslie's water broke. They rushed her to the hospital where they immediately admitted her. They found out that it was just a tear in the amniotic sac, so she wasn't losing all of the amniotic fluid. Since they were fraternal twins, it was only baby A's sac that had torn. Baby B was fine.
The doctors wanted to keep her in the hospital, because of an infection risk and could go in to labor at any time. But they were very positive. Leslie was also very positive and would do anything it took to help her babies progress in the pregnancy. She even hung at such an angle that she joked she was hanging like a bat.
Leslie remained in the hospital for two weeks before she went in to labor with the twins. At 12:15pm on Sunday, September 26, baby A was born. Marisa was stillborn. Not long after, she started delivering baby B. Mac was alive, but his lungs were not developed enough to live. Leslie did get to see both of her babies. During the delivery of the placenta, Leslie looked as though she had passed out. But within seconds they realized she had gone into cardiac arrest. A nurse jumped on top of her and immediately started doing CPR and gave her oxygen and resuscitation medicine. Leslie was down for 17 minutes before they were able to revive her.