Our 2 Month Birthday... (5/11)

Well, Thatcher turned 2 months yesterday, and he had a really good birthday, atleast in the end.  First of all, thank you all for praying, God answers prayer.  We have seen that time and time again on this journey, and it's pretty rediculous for us to ever think otherwise, or that He is not in control, or that He doesn't hear us given where we've come from and been through.  Thatcher got out of surgery on Monday, and we were told everything went swimmingly.  There were no complications, no issues, he handled anesthesia well, very straight forward.  Well, come friday we are still on the ventilator and his belly is leaking stomach contents around the g-tube.  By friday afternoon he was gagging constantly due to his ventilator tube, and his gagging had caused the leaking to turn into more of a consistent dripping.  The site grew very red and irritated, until finally the dripping turned into more of a pouring of stomach fluid.  Thus irritating his skin more, causing him to squirm, causing the tube in his throat to move slightly, causing irritation in his throat (reminding him a tube was there), causing him to gag and start the whole process over again.  It was a terrible cycle to watch, and made even worse by the fact that we couldn't really do anything to step in and help so we just had to watch and pray.  Well, Thatcher realized that that was all he could do to...

"God, please let them take this tube out... I really don't like it, and I know you can help.  You helped before, and You can do it again.  Amen."

Anyways, he threw praying into the mix and when he was calm in between these cycles he would pray.  So what can you do as parents but join him?  So we prayed, we prayed that the doctors would take the tube out, that he would stop gagging once it was removed, that his stomach would stop leaking and would heal quickly.  We prayed for strong breathing, we prayed for healing, and we prayed for God's will to be done.  Around 10 or so, a member of the surgery team came by to look at the leakage and decided that he should be taken off of feeds and his stomach vented to relieve presure and hopefully ease the leakage.  He even considered taking him off of feeds and putting him on an IV (well, he would have had to have the IV in his head, and that's the only place we can hold him to calm him down from his seizures, so we prayed that wouldn't happen).  It did help with his gagging and the leakage to stop the feeds and vent his stomach and then, last night around 11:30 Thatcher was finally taken off of the vent!  He took a second to realize what the change meant for him, that he had to breathe on his own, and he desatted twice right away, but since then he has been doing great with very sporadic yet manageable desats.  He has restarted his feeds and his G-tube looks much better.  God has answered our prayers, and He is absolutely in control.  Join us in praising the Father for his goodness!

Speaking of goodness, some of yall have been asking about our friends we asked yall to pray for.  Well, the last we heard is that the surgery was a huge success.  That Addie started producing urine while she was still in the operating room, that she was off of the vent after 1 day when they expected her to be on for 4 days, and momma is doing well too, dealing with some pain and nausea, but she is in good spirits and praising God for where they are in their journey.  Thank you all for praying with us for them.

Again, we proclaim it, we believe it, God answers prayer.  Prayer is powerful and effective.

Father, thank you for where we are today.  Two months in, Lord and you have been with us every step of the way.  Help us to remember where we've come from, what obstacles and mountains you've already carried us through, we don't want to take your mercies for granted, Lord.  Thank you.  Thank you for the answered prayers, thank you for the "little" miracles, thank you for the reminders that you are with us and you are for us, that you are with Thatcher and holding his right hand.  Thank you that we are back on nasal canula, thank you that his G-Tube seems to be working and he seems less irritated, thank you for answering our prayers.  God we pray that you would stay present, we need your presence, we desire your presence, thank you for your peace that your presence provides, thank you for the confidence we have in You Lord, that you will never leave nor forsake us.  You are good.  You are so good.  You hear us! You provide for us!  You are here for us!  God would you be glorified through Thatcher, through us, through our journey.  Be lifted high in all the earth.  Lord, we lift Thatcher up to You, we ask for healing, complete healing.  Lord would you remove the hindrance in his brain and allow it to grow and develop, would you cast out the seizures that torment him, allow his windpipe to strengthen and grow, and help his stomach to handle eating with ease, Lord.  We trust you, God.  We trust that you are healing him, we know that you are able, and we believe that you will and that you are, thank you.  Help us to rest in your will, and in your presence, knowing that it is good and perfect, knowing that you will hold us up, we can have full confidence in that truth.  God be praised.  To you be all the glory and honor and praise, to you who is able to do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine, Lord.  We are asking to be amazed... and You never fail to do so.  Thank you for who you are, thank you for what you are doing.  We love you, we praise you, and we trust you.  It is in the powerful name of Jesus that we pray.
-Amen