Sweating it Out...

Some trials just seem to drag on forever...How are we supposed to handle it all?

This blog is a follow-up on my friend Julie's newborn who has been in the hospital for a little over three long months. You can follow her journey on www.happyhomefairy.com

                                                                   What a week!

As I mentioned before, after weeks of trying to get the Happy Baby to eat enough, we decided to go ahead and get him a feeding tube so that we could bust out of the hospital.

Tuesday morning, the 3rd of July, was crazy.

Not only was it the day of the Happy Baby’s surgery, but also it was the Happy Buddy’s 3rd birthday.

So the Happy Hubby and I went from balloons and Mickey-shaped pancakes with one son in the morning to holding hands in a waiting room while our other son underwent surgery.

Trust me, I did not plan that schedule.

Thanks to your faithful prayers, I felt the greatest sense of peace as they worked on our precious little one.

They placed a feeding tube in the Happy Baby as well as took a muscle biopsy from his outer right thigh to help with the further genetic testing.

I shared on Facebook that I have never particularly cared for the word boring, but I was eternally grateful to hear the surgeon use it to describe the Happy Baby’s procedure.

His recovery was a little traumatic for me… I hated seeing him groggy and in pain… And because he had to undergo anesthesia, it set us back a little in the way of his respiratory strength. Anesthesia slows everything down in the body and since the Happy Baby’s muscles are already impaired, he needed some oxygen support for several days following the surgery.

The picture above, though, is such a sweet gift to me as it was one of his first smiles post-surgery!

Yesterday the doctor came in our room and said 3 things needed to happen in order for us to be able to go home.

1. The Happy Baby needs to get off of oxygen.

2. The Happy Baby needs to tolerate his feeds.

3. The feeding pump equipment that we will be taking home with us needs to be delivered to the hospital.

The Happy Hubby wrestled with the insurance company to make sure the medical supplies were covered – they finally got delivered late yesterday afternoon.

The Happy Baby has only spit up a few times. Normal baby stuff.

But his oxygen is still kind of in limbo. The doctor last night finally decided to do a chest X-Ray to see what was going on. They saw some spots in his lungs as well as some air under his diaphragms (probably got in there from the surgery).

I tell you! It just never seems to end!

If these last few things get resolved (and don’t turn into a greater problem, like pneumonia), then I think we are going home.

I feel so hesitant even typing that. Maybe I should just start having our mail forwarded to the pediatric ward.

No. One way or another, God will bring us home. He is just continually calling us to this season of more trust, more surrender, and more hope in His great plans for our Happy Home.

Dude, I sincerely pray that my next post will be an awesome announcement about our breaking free from the hospital’s death grip!

“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:24-25

I love the way Julie's post is so transparent, so honest, so humble, so emotional! It reminds me of the Psalms when David bears his heart before the Lord--good day, rough day, peaceful day, or horrendous day, David lets it all hang out. He is real with his God. BUT then he always ends with trust, hope, and faith in the Almighty God even if his circumstances seem hopeless. I am glad we have that kind of example before us so that we know without a doubt that we can be completely honest and transparent with our Lord and Savior. We don't have to pretend to be strong. All we need to do is trust. Sooooo, I am totally psyched to write that the very next day (Sunday, July 8, 2012), this was Julie's post:

After 96 Days In the Hospital…

8Jul

The Happy Baby has been cleared to come home.

Praise our Great God for hearing and answering our prayers! I pray you feel encouraged today!

In Him,

Teresa