Ready or not...

This morning Layne and I made a trip to the OB Complications Clinic at Parkland Hospital. We were scheduled for a sonogram and clinical consultation with their maternal and fetal medicine specialist, Dr. Dashe. We decided on this course of action last week after discussing the fetal MRI findings with our midwives and their OB associate. This time choosing what's best for our baby involves delivering at a hospital where our little girl can get the help she needs when she's born.

Today was a day of paradigm shifts for us: We went from thinking our delivery was still a couple weeks in the future to finding out that Friday will be the day we meet our little one. They wanted to deliver her tomorrow, but we asked for a few days to make arrangements for the care of Katy Jayne, Connor, and Jordan. We have never chosen to give birth in a hospital much less chosen to do so by c-section, but that's the plan. Please pray for an uncomplicated delivery! We are used to thinking that carrying our baby to our due date is the best, but our little girl is not growing well (6 weeks behind normal in size) so carrying her longer may actually do more harm than good. It's time for her to receive some extra special care from specialists who can evaluate her condition better after she's delivered. Please pray for the team of doctors that God is preparing to walk this journey with us. Our prayer is that if they are believers they will know Him better through this experience with us, and that if they do not know Him yet that He is preparing their hearts to meet Him and learn to love and trust Him.

Though it seems one part of this journey of faith is drawing close to the finish line, there awaits a new opportunity to believe God for the life and care of our precious little girl. We are at peace in the knowledge that God is the giver and sustainer of life (Psalm 36:9, NET) and that her life rests safely in His hands. We covet your prayers that He would "do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or imagine, according to the power that works within us" (Ephesians 3:20). We ask you to continue to pray that He will have compassion on her and heal her (Matthew 14:14) specifically that He would completely develop and mature her brain, that the fluid in her brain would reduce to a normal level and allow the compressed parts of her brain to blossom, that her brain stem would function and be in its rightful place, that she would grow and thrive, and that her clubbed feet would be healed or able to be corrected.

Katy Jayne recently asked why God makes people sick. I told her that while God doesn't make people sick he allows us to experience sickness as a part of living in a fallen world in order to "set eternity in our hearts" (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and make us long to live with Jesus in Heaven where there will be no more sickness or pain (Revelation 21:4). While we will love on our precious baby girl as long as the Lord sustains her life on this earth--be it minutes or years--we rejoice that we will get to spend eternity together with her in the presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Many of you have asked how you can help us in addition to praying for us. Please pray hard and pray often! Beyond that we are anticipating needing help with meals, house cleaning, caring for our dogs and probably other things we simply haven't anticipated yet. Check back here for the name and contact information of the person we will have coordinate these things for us.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers and concern for our family!

Your ways, O God, are holy,

What god is so great as our God?

You are the God who performs miracles;

You display your power among the peoples.

Psalm 77:13-14