End of 2009 update

Logan loves going to Nathan's hospital. Here are a few pictures of his enjoyment. If you look closely you may start to notice a theme: wagons.
Nathan is recovering well. The biggest thing for him right now is just time to heal. We do ask for your continued prayer support for God to heal him and not need another surgery. He does have some spells where his heart rate and oxygen saturation drop (which is normal), but we also ask you to pray for strength for his lungs. Nathan is really enjoying our visits (our voices more than touch, lately) and enjoys it when they play the recording of us to him.

Owen is doing very well lately. We praise God for strengthening Owen and continuing to heal him. Owen now rotates between his CPAP and nasal canula. He is doing well on both. He is also up to 12 ml of milk every 3 hour! He is very responsive to our voices and loves to be held.

Update (sorry I will upload my pictures soon)

The past few days have been good days. Nathan is recovering well from surgery. His tummy is a good color and soft. His incision looks good. He pooped yesterday out his bottom and had nothing out his fistula. (This is a great sign because this would be one of the first steps of healing....now it may also be old stool that he is just now passing, but we are praying that it is a sign that God is healing him). We go and visit him twice a day and read stories to him. Tonight Preston and I took an mp3 player to both boys that has us reading a few of their books on it. The nurses are putting it in their beds so they can hear us a little more often.

Owen is doing well. He is up to 10ml of milk every three hours. He continues to stay on the CPAP machine and is doing very well on it.

Recently both boys have had eye exams. Preemies are at a high risk for having eye sight problems. They will get this test every two weeks for a while. Both of theirs came back looking good for now.

Logan had a good weekend. He spent a lot of time up at the hospitals with us. He loves going to Nathan's hospital (Children's hospital) because they have radio flyer wagons and he can ride in them all over the hospital. Plus there are lots of exciting things for him to look at, like giant Lion statues. He also enjoys going to Owen's hospital (Brookwood) because he can usually talk us in to getting him chocolate milk. He knows his way around the hospital so well, he could actually get it himself if we let him. We spend lots of time reading him books while at Brookwood.

Today our friends Song and Christina came in to town with their family. We had a great time visiting together and the kids really enjoyed playing together. It was nice to get our minds off of everything and just enjoy company of some great friends.

Very Specific Prayer for Nathan

Nathan is doing well but as all of you know he had surgery a few days ago. In light of his surgery being unsuccessful (since they weren't able to fix the small intestine) Preston and I have a very specific prayer request we would like for you to lift up. All though highly uncommon, every once in a while the doctor sees this kind of problem fix itself and the child no longer requires surgery. This is our prayer, that Nathan's body would heal itself (be healed by God's hand) so that he will not require surgery, will be able to begin eating and growing.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with all three boys. Preston and I woke up earlier than Logan (he was not up until after 8:00) so we had a wonderful prayer time for our family. Once Logan woke up he was not very excited to open Santa presents but instead wanted to go up stair and eat breakfast. We had a wonderful pancake breakfast Marc made for all of us. Once we finished and played up stairs for a while, we were able to convince him to come and open his presents. He enjoyed opening his presents. A little later my parents, sister and brother-in-law come to get Logan to watch him for the day. Logan was very excited to spend time with them.

Preston and I headed up to visit Nathan. We brought his Santa gifts with us. He received a wonderful Max Lucado book that we read to him. He really seemed to enjoy it. He also got a few other wonderful presents that helped personalize his space). Nathan was pretty alert during our visit.

After our visit with Nathan we headed to Preston's Grandmother's house to spend some time visiting with his family. We had a nice time.

Then we were off to the hospital to see Owen. Owen was taken off his ventilator today and was put on CPAP. He was doing a good job with it while we were there. Owen has a purple paci that he loves. It is hard for him to hold it in by himself so I helped him hold it in for about 45 minutes. He also tried to hold it in himself. Owen is growing strong and is now up to 2 lbs 1 oz.

Finally we made it to my parents house for Christmas dinner and had a great time. Logan enjoyed spending the day with them.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

This morning Preston and I got up to the Children's NICU at 8:00 to spend some time with Nathan before he went in to surgery. The surgery was to fix a perforation he has in his small intestine. Right now he is not able to eat or pass any waste (poop) through his body but instead it comes out the side (where they had a drain for draining at his initial infection). The plan was to find the dead intestine and take it out. However, when the doctor went in the small intestine was glued together. It got this way from all the waste he dumped into his abdominal cavity when he first got sick. The surgeon would have damaged the entire small intestine if he had tried to separate it. So, for now we are waiting a few more months to try the surgery again. The plus and negative of today. The negative: Nathan really needed this surgery to get better and now that is on hold. He is still at a high risk for infection. He will not be able to start feeding for at least two months (something that is very crucial for their growth at this time. Positive: they did not find an entirely dead intestine (in fact what they saw looked good and they weren't able to get to the bad part) and he will be a little bigger the next surgery go around, so that will be good for him. He tolerated the surgery well and has been recovering fine. (He still has a recovery period because they literally cut open his stomach).

Owen is doing well. I was able to hold him today!! It was an indescribable joy. He really seemed to enjoy it too. Hopefully Owen will be getting off his ventilator in the next few days. He is also up to 5.5 ml of milk every three hours.

Logan is doing well and spent the day with his grandmother, CiCi. He really had a lot of fun.

We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas.

Nathan's surgery scheduled

Nathan is third in line for surgery tomorrow morning (Thursday). His surgery will most likely be around 9:00 a.m. Preston and I will get there early and spend a little time with him and then walk with him down to surgery. Please be praying for his surgery. We have seen God work very powerfully in his life and are excited to him work miraculously through this surgery. We will update you when we know more after the surgery.

Nathan

Nathan will have surgery at Children's Hospital today. The operation will be on his small intestines to remove the area that is dead. Please pray he will handle the surgery well. Also pray they don't have to remove much of his intestine (hopefully, they don't find a large part of the intestine dead when they go in to operate). The operation is to repair the damage done in his body when he was so sick at Thanksgiving.

Another wonderful Christmas gift

Today we were able to hold Nathan! It was so wonderful to have him in our arms. He seemed to enjoy our time holding him. Hopefully we will be able to hold both he and Owen every couple days.

Preston took Owen's temperature and changed his diaper today. Owen seems to be enjoying us around him more (I think it is because he enjoyed us holding him so much)This afternoon Nathan went off his ventilator!! Today is a big day for him. The pediatric surgeon is coming to look at him to make determinations about how to proceed with his intestines (start feeding, give him a dye test or just wait a little while longer to make sure it is totally healed). Please pray for wisdom for the doctor and strength for Nathan for whatever they decide he needs to endure.

Christmas present from Dr. Mena (warning these will be some of the most precious pictures you will ever see)

Every day is a gift from the Lord and every day seeing Nathan, Owen and Logan reminds of us this gift. The boys are doing well today and we have been blessed to say that several times this week. They are making baby steps of progress but when your feet are less than 2 inches, how much more could you ask? Today Dr. Mena gave us one of the best Christmas presents, we got to HOLD Owen!!!! It was so wonderful. He really seemed to love it too.Of course we got to spend some wonderful time with Nathan too. We have not been able to hold him yet, but we are hoping to be able to do it sometime soon.

Invitation

I just wanted to take a minute and invite everyone to Candlelight at Dawson. It will be an awesome night with beautiful music. The program starts at 5:00 but the doors open at 4:15. You will want to get there early because people will be lined up at 4:15 to get in. The program is both Saturday and Sunday evenings.

A Great Day for all 3 Boys!

Logan enjoyed his first school Christmas party today. Preston and I were able to come and celebrate with him. He had fun eating a yummy lunch along with a cookie and hot chocolate. After lunch Logan presented us with the gift he had made. A white frosted ornament with his hand print on it and name. It is now hanging proudly on the top of our Christmas tree. Miss Ashlee Logan's teacher also gave them a bag full of goodies and a Christmas book. Logan really enjoyed himself.

Nathan and Owen are having good days too. Owen was able to started eating again. Hopefully his body will respond well and he be able to continue to eat. Both Owen and Nathan were laying on their tummies while we were there. They both love this position. Also both were on a little lower ventilator settings!! Owen's creatinine levels for the past two days have been 0.6 and 0.8. These are great numbers and we are really excited these levels are down where they need to be. Nathan saw the orthopedic surgeon and he is just going to let him arm/hand continue to heal on its own. There is a great chance that he will need to have some reconstruction done at some point. The highlight of my day yesterday was changing Nathan's diaper!! He was not quite as excited as I was but he enjoyed being dry.

This evening we went to visit them again. Owen responded very well to our singing. Nathan was getting some vibrotherapy (a little vibrator on his lungs which helps break up anything he has in there). I put my finger in and he held on to it really tightly and kept squeezing it. I was also talking to him and he kept looking up with really wide eyes in my direction. It made my heart melt.

Here is Nathan with his eyes open. A family donated nice blankets for every child in the NICU for Christmas. A group of volunteers made stockings for each child too. Here is Nathan's area. Here is Owen's area.Preston spent some time singing to Nathan. Here is sweat Owen. He is all snuggled in so he does not pull everything out.

My Grandfather

Please pray for my family. My Grandfather passed away this morning. My parents arrived in Michigan yesterday and were able to spend most of the day with him. All of my Dad's other brothers and sister live in Michigan so they too have been able to spend time with them. Preston and I will not be going to Michigan for the funeral but we will be sending them the best, prayers for God's peace, comfort and strength.

Friday

This morning we woke up in a different place than Logan. He spent the night with his friend, Evan. Evan and Logan spent the night together a few times at our house before we left for China. The boys had a great time together and stayed up laughing and playing (I thought they would need to be a little older, but I was wrong). After picking up Logan we headed to the hospital for a little bit of visitation with Nathan and Owen. Preston and I took turns in the NICU waiting room with Logan reading and playing, while the other one of us went in for a visit. Both boys are doing okay. Owen got a new tube that goes down his throat and into his lungs. It had a mucus plug at the end so we were hoping that was the cause of his need for much more oxygen on his ventilator and his blood/gases being more elevated. As of tonight, it appears a new tube did not do the trick for Owen. He has been put on antibiotics in case he has an infection causing a few of these problems. Please pray God would begin working miraculously in his lungs and he would be able to significantly progressing. Nathan is doing well, but back on the ventilator. He was off for three days but got too tired doing all his breathing on his own. Tonight Preston and I talked to him for a while and his hand squeezed my pinky finger several times. It was awesome!!!
Please also pray for my family. My Grandfather is sick and does not have much more time. Most of the family is up there with him now. Please ask for peace and comfort for my Grandfather and the same for the family he will be leaving behind.
We really appreciate all your prayers. God is hearing and answering them.

Nathan and Owen

Nathan and Owen are both having good days. Preston and I got a huge surprise when we went into the NICU on Monday night. Nathan was off the ventilator. He is making such a huge amount of progress. We praise God for we know He is the one who is miraculously healing Nathan. We also give him glory because we know he is working his mighty power through the loving and very competent medical staff in the NICU. Please continue to pray for both boys. Please specifically pray that Owen would begin making progress. He is remaining stable but is still not ready to come off either of his ventilators and his creatinine numbers are back up to 1.4 (we want them below 1.0). They also had to stop feeding him because he had a little residual and they wanted to make sure he was not getting an infection. We really appreciate all your prayers.

This is Nathan sucking on the paci they gave him this morning.

Here are a few pictures of Owen.

Just a cute picture of Logan