Eliana Update, August 27, 2026
In support of
Eliana Rivera
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Eliana Rivera
Before my update, here’s Shar’s:
“There is no exact path and there are no for sure answers. Each breath we take and each step we take, to God be the glory.
We see her eyes shine so bright, and we know that hope is here. Glimmers of her personality shine through the darkness of this illness. This afternoon, she told her nurse to ‘take her time’ in the faintest of voices. Her vocal cords aren’t quite cooperating yet, but our girl continues to show us that she is there.”
Here are the prayer requests as I see them:
Kidneys / dialysis:
Eliana continues to tolerate eight hours each day off continuous dialysis and remains stable during those windows. That is good progress, but don’t confuse this with intermittent dialysis. That is a different protocol and remains one of the major catalysts for eventually getting her out of the ICU.
Getting there depends in part on increasing her feeds and decreasing the amount of fluid going into her body. More nutrition, less fluid, intermittent dialysis, more freedom to move, more PT, more strength. It all begins to feed the next thing.
Her kidneys, however, have still not produced urine. They remain in acute failure.
Pray for urine. Pray that her kidneys wake up. Pray that she continues tolerating increased feeds and can move toward intermittent dialysis.
Pancreas / blood pressure / infection:
Continue praying for healing from the pancreatitis.
Her blood pressure has remained stable, amen. Her fever has also remained relatively stable while off antibiotics, although she still needs Tylenol to manage it.
Pray that her blood pressure remains stable, that she needs as little blood pressure medication as possible, that the fever continues to improve, and that no infection emerges.
Rest / sedation:
As Eliana becomes more aware and continues coming off sedation, the nights have become increasingly restless. It’s a double edged sword.
Praise God that our daughter is awake and increasingly aware. But that awareness, combined with withdrawal from these medications, comes with some collateral damage: discomfort, fear, anxiety, and very little sleep.
I’ve spent most of the past couple nights awake trying to comfort and console her. We wouldn’t trade the awareness to avoid any of it.
Pray for deep, restorative sleep while she continues safely weaning from sedation and opioids. Her body desperately needs rest to heal.
Movement / voice:
Today, with significant help from PT, Eliana sat up.
Look at that picture.
Pray that she continues getting stronger, moving more, and taking back what this disease stole from her.
And please pray for her voice. Her vocal cords still aren’t cooperating after the breathing tube, and ENT is monitoring her closely. She can mouth what she wants to say and sometimes produce the faintest sound, but we want to hear our girl again.
One of the most amazing things through all of this has been watching Eliana herself.
Don’t think for a second that because she is seven years old she doesn’t understand the fight she is in.
She does.
She may not understand the full ramifications of what is happening to her, but she knows she is sick. She knows she hurts. She knows she gets scared and anxious. And she knows she has to fight.
And she attacks it.
Sometimes minute by minute. Fear, anxiety, pain, irritation, whatever the next hard thing is, she marches forward.
There is a lion in that little girl’s heart.
And yet somehow all that fierceness hasn’t hardened her.
She tells her mommy, “You’re beautiful.”
A nurse comes in to care for her and, with almost no voice, Eliana tells her, “Take your time.”
We see her personality shining through. Her kindness. Her irritation. Her fear. Her courage. Her affection. Her fight.
Our girl is there.
One last thing.
I know I keep mentioning how thankful I am that so many of you continue to pray for Eliana. So many of you keep signing up for the prayer vigil, and so many of you are praying outside of that.
But I keep mentioning it because it doesn’t get old. And I don’t know how else to express my gratitude.
There just aren’t many words in the English language to explain how full our hearts are that so many of you have been mindful of our daughter.
People message us saying their friends are praying. Their churches are praying. Their friends’ friends are praying. People several degrees removed from our family, some who have never met us or our daughter, are mindful of Eliana and interceding for her.
That is not normal. We don’t deserve it. We didn’t expect it. And it is overwhelming to Shar and me.
Of course we are praying without ceasing. We are lamenting. We are placing our faith in Jesus Christ. We have anointed our daughter with oil, prayed for healing, and tried to obey God’s Word through the worst thing we have ever experienced.
But all of you have entered into that with us.
And I need you to know: how far Eliana has come is not normal.
I was in that room when she crashed. I know where she was. Percentages and probabilities didn’t comfort me while my daughter was lying there almost dying and an extraordinary medical team was fighting to save her life.
Jesus did.
Your prayers did.
I will praise this medical team endlessly. God has used incredibly gifted people to save and care for our daughter.
But let’s be crystal clear:
Jesus has sustained her.
We know she is still critically ill and this is not over, but her progress has been a miracle, and I will not withhold my praise for what God has already done.
Each breath. Each step.
To Jesus Christ be the glory, both now and forever. Amen.
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