Eliana Update, August 31, 2026
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Eliana Rivera
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Eliana Rivera
Eliana is out of the ICU.
I don’t really know how else to start this one.
Our favorite ICU attending doctor, the pinnacle of this kick-ass medical team, was the attending who received Eliana when she entered the ICU and has watched this entire journey unfold. He knows as well as anyone that her survival was never guaranteed.
Towards the end of Eliana’s ICU journey, we learned that he is also a Christian.
He told us that he can’t talk about his faith much here, but he openly shared it with us and told us that he views himself as Christ’s hands as he works in this unit, and that he is humbled by that responsibility.
Today, he wanted to personally come tell us that Eliana was leaving his ICU.
And now she has.
Look at these pictures. Shar and I are scared and overjoyed.
Our daughter left the ICU today.
She still has such a long way to go. Dialysis, her kidneys, her voice, eating, walking, strength, rehabilitation. There is so much healing still in front of her.
But today she left the ICU.
My heart is overfilled at the sovereignty of God, even amidst my adamant objection to Him allowing this to happen to my family and my daughter. I get the theology of suffering. Yet I hate that all of this happened.
I hate it.
The memories of these last two weeks still make me nauseous. This has devastated me. I shared with a few of the men I trust that this has changed my DNA and changed how I see the world.
And yet I will not hide God’s deliverance of Eliana within my heart. I will not conceal His steadfast love and faithfulness from the world around me.
A friend shared Shane & Shane’s “Though You Slay Me” with me, a song born out of Job 13:15 and suffering, and I cannot think of anything that speaks more directly to the state of my heart right now.
“Though You slay me, yet I will praise You.”
Job 13:15:
“Though he slay me, I will hope in him;
yet I will argue my ways to his face.”
That’s where I am.
I hate what happened.
I will argue my ways to His face.
And I will hope in Him.
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