HE is Still Sovereign!

Hello all,

I'm sure by now some of you are thinking that we are here taking care of Emily in her new home, but that is not the case. As a matter of fact, we don't know when (again) she will be able to come home.

She had surgery last Thursday and all went well. She was recovering great and they fed her through the tube earlier than anticipated. It was looking great for her to come home on Monday or Tuesday (today [Tuesday]). I sent Dawn to the hospital on Monday with directions to ask everyone what we need to do to make sure that she comes home tomorrow (which was today [Tuesday]). She went there anticipating Emily coming home either today or tomorrow and was hit with a blow that took her breath away. The doctor told her that Emily was breathing too fast and her heart rate was too high. She then proceeded to tell her that there may be complications with her heart and she may need heart surgery. Too say the least, this took us by surprise. They never mentioned any of this before...and we spent the weekend getting the house ready for her to come home!

A brief explanation...when the baby is in the womb, it gets the oxygen for its blood from the mother. Because of this, there is a valve in the heart to divert some of the blood away from the lungs and back into the aorta. After birth, this valve closes and the lungs do the job of getting the oxygen into the blood stream. In Emily's case, it was thought that this valve was not closed; therefore, her blood was not getting the oxygen it needed and so she was breathing heavy and it was causing her heart rate to go up.

Yesterday, the cardiologist did an ECHO and determined that the valve, although not completely closed was not a cause of concern. The heart surgery would have been to close this valve, so the threat of heart surgery has been eliminated! Today, they did an EKG and we are hoping that will give us (and them) a better understanding for the increased rate of breathing.

Needless to say, every day in the [Last Name Deleted for the sake of security] household is an adventure. We never know what to expect from one day to the next. The only thing that we are sure of, is that God is in control and He knows what He is doing. He is allowing these situations in our lives so that we will continually depend on Him...and we do!

So as for now, the G-tube is installed and she is eating fine. We are still trying to feed her with a bottle, but she has been a little temperamental with this. Some days she does good and other days, not so good. As I mentioned, we will know more tomorrow when we get the results of the EKG and we can get a better understanding of where we need to go from here.

Another concern has been her weight. She lost weight over the weekend, mostly because she had surgery and was eating far less than normal. Her food intake has increased and we are waiting to see if her weight also increases. It seems that the doctors think she is really cute (just like we do) and they don't want her to go home. She will get to come home some day, we just don't know when.

I know that it seems like we have a lot of drama here in the [Last name deleted] household...and we do; but I don't want to give the impression that we have it so bad. Dawn and I were talking about how blessed we really are. In the NICU there are babies that are far worse off than Emily and parents who never get to take their child home alive. We spend time with her every day and enjoy every minute that we get with her. There are some babies that have single mothers who have to work and never get to visit their child. There are many people who have it a lot worse than we do and we never want to forget that! We can get so caught up in the pity party that we are in, that we forget how good we have it.

Today, take a look at all the ways that God has blessed you and give Him thanks and praise for every little thing...even the next breath you take, for even that is a blessing from Him.

Have a great day because this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

All for His glory,

Mike
Eph 2:4-7