Tears

Joel and Renee don't have access to the blog right now, but they have asked me to post this:

They decided not to do another ECHO. They were putting an IV in Emily's neck when we arrived, but we couldn't watch. She's still scheduled for noon but may not actually have surgery until 1 or 2.

Please pray! For what happened yesterday, see here

James for Joel and Renee

.Blue eyes.

So as you can see from the title, the highlight of today was Emily staying awake for 45 minutes. We haven't seen her open her eyes like this since her first day out of the womb. Just wrong timing I guess, because the nurses say she opens her eyes quite a bit (at night). She has blue eyes and can sort of focus on certain objects close to her face, like Mama! and Daddy!
Clyde and Pat (our host and new extended family!) came to see Emily today also.
This morning, being Sunday and all, we went to church. Joshua and Rachel came with us, which was so nice to spend the morning with them as a family. We went to Common Ground Church located in Lake Elmo. What beautiful people! They welcomed us in and prayed for us and it felt so much like family. We were invited over for lunch at one of the elder's house and was able to meet and talk to a few more people.
Back to Emily...there seems to be some disagreement between the doctor and the surgeon about taking Emily off of the prostaglandin that keeps her heart open for more oxygen flow. Tomorrow we shall see what they agreed to do. Joel and I really want to give Emily another chance, to see if she can make it on her own without surgery.
Well, I hope all that makes sense. Thank you so much for all your prayers, for checking our blog and wanting to keep up on little Emily Grace. We will post more pictures and maybe even a video once we get the opportunity.

Good news

Well, Emily is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday afternoon. But (!) they are going to try once more taking her off the prostoglandins. Monday morning she will get another chance to avoid surgery. Of course that's what we're praying for.
Today we took the kids to the Como zoo and for a picnic bef0re going to see Emily. Renee's mom got to come with. The kids got to enjoy the excellent Sibling Play Area at the hospital while Renee and I got to hold Emily! That was wonderful, despite all her attachments and adornments!
Blessings, Joel.

Consecration

This morning Emily was taken off prostoglandin, the medication that keeps open the bypass from the arterial arch on the left side of her heart to the pulmonary artery on the right that takes the blood to the lungs. That bypass or ductus normally closes within a few days of birth. Throughout the day her oxygen saturation levels were monitered. If they fell below seventy percent there would be cause for concern. They dropped from the mid-nineties to mid-seventies over the course of the day, but seemed to be averaging seventy-five when we left her at 10pm. It was hard to see those numbers drop. She is so beautiful, and getting more so everyday. I had to remember that we don't have faith in God because he fixes all our earthly problems. We have faith in him because he has called us back to what we are created to be - godly. He has saved us from worldly, sinful, selfish living through the death of Jesus, dying where we deserved to die. Renee was reading the end of the book of Job tonight. We have come to know, like Job did, that this is all a part of a bigger plan, most of which we can't comprehend. What we do know is that everything is created through Jesus, and for Jesus. In the end everything will glorify Jesus. I don't know what the end of this story with Emily will be. But tonight God showed me that nothing else matters except that I surrender every part of my life to the authority and power of Jesus. There were a few things going on in my life that were selfish and did not honor the name of Christ that I bear. I repented of those things and was forgiven.
We drove home (Pat told us to call it home - and it is). We were showing Pat and Renee's mom pictures of Emily when the cell phone rang. It was Emily's nurse. Her oxygen levels had fallen below 70% after we left. The doctor was called and orders given to put her back on prostoglandin. She recovered to the mid-seventies. That means as her ductus closed she wasn't able to get forward flow through the proper valve into the pulmonary artery to the lungs... she will need surgury to put an artificial bypass in, a shunt.
What can I say? Please God, not this way... why? But in the end... Amen - so be it. Joel

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthen with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpassed knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all genererations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

Moving up the street again

For pictures please see the next post, and "Scenes from Minnapolis"
We don't know when we will be able to use this blog for updates again as we have been discharged from Abbott and Children's blocks this site.
Emily is doing well. They are giving her nitrous oxide to help her lungs become more flexible. The Dr said that tomorrow they will start to take her off the prostogladin that keeps her heart valves open. I thought they would be ready to do surgery but he said they could up the medication again if she doesn't do well, then plan for surgery. Tomorrow all the pediatric doctors, cardiologists and surgeons get together to discuss each patient, so the plan could change with the input of the whole group.
We will be staying with our new in-law in-laws, Pat and Clyde; with the kids and Renee's mom. The kids do really well there and we will be able to be together and still see Emily each day. Pat and Clyde have set up a tent in their living room and they go camping with Joshua. He fishes and has a campfire, and is very detailed in what he does with the fish and how he puts out the fire! What a kid! We are very thankful to this family we've become a part of.
Josh and Stephanie reminded us of our Father in heaven who knows how it is to greive over a suffering child. We too wept at the thought of Emiy having to go through open heart surgery. But once again we laid aside any claim on Emily Grace, as we have done with the other kids, and committed her into the hands of our loving Father in whom is life. We slept very peacefully last night, because as Psalm 4 says, our peace is not in circumstances or success, but in the goodness of our God. May the life of Jesus continue to spread through all of us in all of this. Grace, Joel.