Monday, January 26, 2009

Gung Hei Fat Choi!!

Happy Year of the Ox!

And they're off...

As I type this, Ashley and family are on their way to China to get Piper (or PerPer) as M calls her. You call follow along here.

We can't wait to meet PerPer!!!:):)

Friday, January 16, 2009

Give me a T!!! Give me an A!!!

Piper is coming home. Ashley got her TA today in record time. Looks like she's leaving next week or so. This time next month both our girls will be home!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Our Little Miracle - Part Two

So, here's the thing.

After I came to terms with the holes that had opened up in M's palate...the ones that were rather large...the ones that two different doctors told me were highly unlikely to heal...God did something miraculous...

He healed her.

That's right. All of the holes have closed up and completely healed. She has no holes in her palate anywhere. The surgeon searched thoroughly on Thursday and could not find even one tiny hole!

This is what I thought, as I hinted in this post, but I didn't want to put it out in the blogosphere until I had official confirmation.

Literally, one day I looked in M's mouth and the holes were there, and the next day I looked and they were gone.

Plus we got a bonus miracle when we were in St. Louis Thursday when we saw the infectious disease doctor. She said she found the bacteria that likely caused the infection. It is one that is commonly found in the mouth and usually harmless, but when there is mouth trauma - like surgery - it can cause bad infection. It is particularly hard to get rid of with 4-6 weeks of iv antibiotics and then 6 months of oral antibiotics. She said she told herself before she came in the exam room that she was going to have to be completely convinced there was no more infection or we would have to do the antibiotic therapy. She said M looked great but she did a CT scan, chest x-ray and blood work to make sure and she found no - as in zero - signs of infection.

Not only did God close up the holes in her palate, he completely healed her infection. No iv or oral antibiotics!

This is exactly what our prayer circle had been praying...that God would close the holes in her palate and heal her. I get goosebumps!

I am absolutely and completely amazed by our God. He has shown me his power to heal in an amazing, powerful and humbling way. This has been one of the most incredible years of my life as I have earnestly prayed for miracles and God has shown me his ability to perform miracles big and small.

He hasn't answered every prayer, but he has answered some of them in a very real and very extraordinary way. For those who haven't seen healing, I have cried, but I have also praised God for the little miracles he performed in even those situations. It makes me wonder how many miracles go on around me every day that I am unaware of. My prayer for this year is that God will open my eyes to more miracles and more opportunities for miracles and that God will help me to see even the tiny miracles are amazing displays of his love.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Our Little Miracle - Part One

Well, I have some miraculous news to share, but first I feel like I need to give some background info, so here goes:



A year ago, after M had finished what we thought would be her last surgery, I stumbled across this video on the internet. I don't even remember how I ended up watching it, but I was deeply moved. I found blogs for other families with the same diagnosis or for other diagnosis that were incompatible with life. What I found was a community of expectant parents praying for miracles, or at the very least for their children to be born alive so that they could spend some time with them. The outcomes varied. Some lived only minutes, or hours, or days. Some lived months. One survives still despite his parents being told he could not survive outside the womb. One was healed completely. The common denominator in these families was their thankfulness for the opportunity to bring these children into the world, even though they knew the odds were overwhelming that they would not survive. Through this time, I found CF Husband and Bring The Rain, which are two amazing and humbling sites. I've seen God work some major miracles through CF Husband and Susannah. All in all, I've come to realize that to have children who are here and healthy is a tremendous blessing.

You may remember this post where I touched on this subject when M's infection was so bad. At this point, I just accepted that this was God's plan and more importantly that God had formed M when she was in her mother's womb and he knew she would have a cleft palate and if he took care of these other families with such large needs and life threatening issues, surely he would take care of M. Things were better than before the surgery and if it took more surgeries, that was okay. I knew God would take care of us and show us the way. So, at that point, I just gave the whole thing over to God and trusted him that he would heal her in whatever way he saw fit to do so, and that was okay. I prepared myself for the visit with the infectious disease doctor and for further surgeries and I was okay with it.

But sometimes, when you let go of something and truly trust God he has other plans...really good plans...