.Good news, Good news and Hard news.

Good news: Joel and I did not go to Minneapolis to have a baby today! No signs of heart failure within our baby, so, thank you, Jesus!

Good news: June Bug has a new name! May we introduce Emily Grace to you. Emily means 'to strive, to rival, to excel'. Emily (June Bug) has been striving to survive, striving for life but only with the empowering grace of our God. Joel and I have been striving to trust, to believe, but only by the empowering grace of God. We felt that this name fit perfectly.

Hard news (not bad news, just hard): If you haven't been keeping up to date on what is going on here is a quick summary, Emily Grace (June Bug) has been diagnosed with Ebstein's Anomaly. In short, the valve on the right side of the heart has been formed in such a way that blood sloshes back and forth. The heart is not able to pump blood as it should to the lungs and throughout the body. There is a medication that she can take after she is born which will help (it is far too complicated to explain) to fix this problem, delay surgery and maybe even no surgery at all! Ok, here's the hard news that was brought to our attention today as we spoke with the doctor. The heart takes up 70-80% of the chest cavity. A normal heart of equal age would only take up 50%. Big difference! The concern is now of the lungs. The concern is NOT of the maturity of the lungs but if there is enough lung mass to support Emily. In other words, the lungs at 38 weeks will be mature, able to handle oxygen and be perfectly normal except for the amount of lung tissue. Since the heart is taking up so much space within the chest cavity, the lungs are forced at a standstill in reaching the desired size. There is no way of knowing how much lung mass is needed for Emily.
The doctor said, optimistically, there is a 50-50 chance that Emily's lungs will sustain her once that umbilical cord is cut. If the lungs DO sustain her, then we 'worry' about the heart. But if the lungs do NOT sustain her, then she goes home to be with Jesus.