Thank you, Lord, that you make babies resilient!

We apologize for our lack of communicating information concerning our son. Between visits to the hospital, keeping family updated, and preparing for and celebrating the Christmas season, we haven't had lots of free time. ;) Dana and I created this blog to keep you updated and so that we could read and collect your prayers and words of comfort and encouragement. As you pray for our son, PLEASE also write comments on this blog so that we can read them.

Our son needs your prayers and he needs God’s healing. He has been in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for 12 days now and is creating quite the intrigue. Not a Curious George-type of intrigue but an upper-level-college-course-study-group-which-can’t-seem-to-solve-the-group project kind of intrigue. It seems that the doctors can’t exactly figure out why his lungs are not developing better and why they persist in a constant state of migrating collapse. (One lung collapses one day only to be fine the next. Then the other lung collapses. Add numerous permutations for each day. Cook for several days and watch parents’ emotions go haywire.)

After about five minutes in the NICU tonight, I told Dana, “You just never seem to know what you are going to get when you walk in here.” That line pretty much sums up the last three weeks of our lives.

We will try to fill you in on more details in the coming days, for now please be praying for these things:

1. Lung Development. Some of his lung problems are simply due to his prematurity. He was delivered at 31 weeks and 6 days. He is now 33 weeks and 4 days. Hopefully his rib cage, muscles, and neural connections will start figuring out this whole breathing thing and he will take off from there. Until then, though it is flattering that he is such a source of intellectual stimulation for the medical staff, I don’t really care for my son to be too interesting right now. Boring and normal would do just fine!

On Sunday night he had the best blood gas levels (Oxygen, CO2, etc.) in several days. Bascially, if he can’t breathe well or if he is fighting the oscillator (heavy duty ventilator), then the carbon dioxide will not be expelled from his lungs. High CO2 means toxicity, not global warming. Sorry, I meant climate change. Oh wait, it is snowing in Texas. Warming?! What? Oh, sorry, I got off subject. My apologies, I was simply reminded that the world needs more CO2 for my son to live. Someone please tell the “smart people” about my new discovery; it’s probably Nobel Peace Prize worthy.

2. Genetic Screening. On Monday a blood sample will be sent to a lab for genetic screening for any disorders. Currently, none appear to exist. The doctors are mainly doing this to “rule things out.” Not exactly a comforting phrase, as you can imagine, but sometimes that’s how the practice of medicine goes. The results will be back in anywhere from 5-10 days. You should be able to figure this one out on your own; but for the slow ones out there, please be praying for no disorders, etc. Couldn’t resist.

3. What Looks Good? So far his heart looks good, he is back on feedings of breastmilk (through a tube), and brain scans look good. I am sure I have forgotten something.

If you are family or friends and want to share more details about Will’s condition in the comments section, please feel free to do so.

The doctors and nurses taking care of him love his spirit and have positive comments just about every time we talk with them so we are encouraged by that. We greatly appreciate all of their efforts. Many of them are believers as well.

Psalm 27 encouraged me a few days ago. Not all of it relates to William's circumstances, but it's a pretty apt verse for right now.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread?

That’ll preach!

I have a new appreciation for parents who have, or have had, children who struggle with sickness, etc. This has to be one of the most helpless feelings in the world.

God is good and sustains us each day. We love our families and we love the church. We thank Christ for holding us together and making us His bride. We pray that William’s circumstances bring glory to our Father, the almighty God, and maker of all things new!