All Thanks Be Given to Our Great and Mighty God

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

2 Corinthians 9:15

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:6

Today one week after welcoming our sweet little Liam into this world we come before God on this Thanksgiving Day with humble hearts more thankful on this than we have ever been before. As I sit here now watching Liam peacefully sleep with a full belly and swaddled tightly by his daddy, my heart is full and overflowing with the boundless love that God has for us. One week ago today, we knew that God had a plan for us and that no matter what He would walk with us through each day and would carry us when we could not walk and that He would be holding Liam in the palm of His hand as he had this entire pregnancy. Well our God is truly an awesome and mercifully God and there is an amazing power in prayer.

We apologize for not keeping the blog more up to date as promised but we are now settled into our own room and will hopefully be able to stay a little more on top of things as the days pass.

On Monday, Liam underwent open heart surgery to repair his truncus arteriosus. We spent the morning hours with him prior to the surgery and we were able to hold him for as long as we wanted. When they came to take him to surgery we did not want to let him go but knew that this was his only chance at life and he was in the best hands possible. I can not even begin to explain what we felt as we walked with him down the hall to OR and kissed him goodbye. We spent the next 3 hours waiting for the nurse who came to update us about the surgery about every 45 minutes. Around 11:00AM she let us know that the Dr. Spray had finished the surgery and would be up to talk with us shortly. He came to let us know that the surgery had gone amazingly well. Because of Liam's size he was able to us one of the largest conduits possible to connect the pulmonary arteries to the right ventricle which will hopefully extend the period of time between open heart surgeries. He also did not think that the leakage in his truncal valve was as bad as what had been seen on the echo. He was able to put a small stitch in the valve to hopefully help contain the leakage and avoid a replacement right now which was one of our biggest concerns and fears. After one small set back in the OR to contain some bleeding that occurred as they were closing Liam returned to the CICU and had already been taken off the ventilator. By God's grace we did not have to go through the pain of seeing our little one on the breathing tube. He did however have in several other lines but seemed to be resting comfortably. He spent most of the day coming off the anesthesia but we were able to be with him and did not leave his side.

On Tuesday morning he was becoming more alert and was definitely in pain but the nurses were doing a very good job of helping to manage it. They decided to pull out the chest tube that he had from the surgery but within a couple hours of pulling it he started having problems breathing and was noticeably in a lot of pain. After doing another chest x-ray they saw that he had air that was compressing his lung and had to put in another chest tube to relieve the pressure. This took us by surprise and as the doctors rushed in very quickly to help Liam we were rushed out in a state of fear and panic. The procedure happened bedside and went very well and very quickly. Liam was heavily sedated but was doing well and we were allowed back in to see him within about 30 minutes. We spent most of the day waiting for him to wake up so that he could finally feed for the first time. Around 9:30PM on Tuesday evening we were able to feed Liam for the very first time. Having not truly eaten at all since birth he quickly "pounded" 2 ounces of breast milk from a bottle with both Rolf and I being able to share in the excitement of feeding him for the first time. Rolf, being a truly amazing father, stayed at the hospital this night a woke up for each and every feeding, not wanting to miss one moment of our little man's amazing life. On the doctor's strict orders, I went to the hotel with my mom to rest and take care of myself, as I was not feeling well at all, knowing that Liam was in very capable hands.

On Wednesday, Liam was continuing to progress and was able to get all of his lines taken out including the chest tube that they had to put back in. This was a very exciting moment for us as it meant that we were now able to hold our baby boy whenever we wanted. We quickly moved into parent mode, pushing the extremely capable nurses out of the way, taking over changing all diapers (one of Rolf's favorite things), swaddling him in his own blankets, and holding him as much as possible. Rolf and I both will just sit and rock for hours, gazing into his eyes, watching his every move. On Wednesday night we were moved to our room, still in the CICU, so that we would have a little more privacy and could begin to work on breastfeeding.

That brings us to today, Thanksgiving Day, with so much to be thankful for. We spent the day hanging out with our little man and began working on nursing with my mom's help this afternoon. Liam immediately latched on to the breast and started nursing like he had been doing it since birth. With a quick break between feeds Rolf, my mom, and I rushed out to enjoy a quick Thanksgiving dinner. Rolf, Liam and I then spent the evening nestled in our room enjoying a quiet evening just being together as a family. Rolf reluctantly went back to the hotel tonight and I am here excitedly looking forward to my first night of nursing Liam.

Also, on this Thanksgiving Day, we are especially thankful for each and everyone of you. Thank you for all of the comments on the blog, emails, text messages, phone calls, e-cards, and especially of the prayers and praises lifted up on behalf of our family and for Liam. We apologize for not being able to respond to you individually but wanted you to know how thankful we are for you and how blessed we have felt over the last week to have you. There is power in prayer and it has brought us such comfort over the last week to know that we were being constantly prayed for by so many people. We fill so blessed to have such an amazing family of faith that extends far beyond those of you that we actually know personally. Thank you for adding us to your prayer lists at church, asking your friends and family to pray for us, and sharing our story with others. Sorry for not updating sooner but I hope that this makes up for it.

All THANKS be given to our great and mighty God for the miracle of life that we hold tonight in our sweet little Liam.