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Monday, February 4, 2008


It would be easy to despair, had we not the
assurance that our Evangeline is being held securely by the hands of Him who loves her even more than we do. We know that the Lord is close t
o the brokenhearted!!
Another blood transfusion was requir
ed last night. The most recent chest x-ray this morning shows that the fluid in her lungs is not dissipating. Evie continues on an antibiotic to combat pneumonia. Coughing spells have been hard to control. The coughing causes her to gag on the tube and throw up, which she cant get rid of when she has the tube down her throat, so aspiration is a huge concern! Also, there is a problem with her incision not healing properly and splitting open in places. (…possibly due to the coughing
…hopefully not because there is infection!)
Today they may begin trials again to see if she is ready to come off the respirator and breathe on her own. It is critical to get her off the breathing tube and get her breathing on her own as soon as possible, but the concern remains that her lungs may be collapsing and need enough of a break to be strong enough to function without help. Pray for Evie’s lungs!
Every indication is that her new heart is in great condition for which we praise the Lord!!
She is almost on full feedings of mommy’s milk through her NG tube. The hope is that good nutrition will help her be strong enough to come off of the ventilator!
Please pray for these next 24 hours…
-that she’ll be able to come off of the ventilator
-that her lungs will do their job effectively
-that we’ll be able to hold her soon! she’s spent half her lifetime in a hospital bed and we miss our girl!!!
Join us in our prayer for Evie:
Ephesians 3:14

  • 14.
  • When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
  • 15.
  • the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
  • 16.
  • I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.
  • 17.
  • And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.
  • 18.
  • And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
  • 19.
  • May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.

Thank you friends for
loving and lifting us.

…Holding on for dear life!

Sunday, February 3, 2008



Yesterday was a difficult day.  After several days of fighting Evie has been unable to expel mucus that has been building up in her lungs.  This has caused her to be quiet weak and lethargic which is the opposite of what the doctors would like to see.  In addition, she has been taking very short, shallow breaths that are not expeling the CO2 from her lungs. Throughout the day on Friday her levels of gas which they test from her blood at regular intervals have gotten progressively worse.  Late afternoon they did a blood transfusion to get some better readings.  Inspite of the blood transfusion tests continued to come back less than adequate and last evening around 7pm they did an x-ray which identified that she has either pneumonia or a collapsing of the upper respiratory.  Because of this they decided to put her back on the ventilator for at least two days to let her body rest, start using antibiotics and hopefully try to take her off in a few days.  The benefit of the ventilator is that they can control her breathing and expel any mucus build up.


This morning her blood stats continue to stay poor.  Please pray that throughout this weekend Evie would get rest that her body desperately needs.  Pray also that the condition of her lungs would begin to heal.  


Praise.  Yesterday they took out the last of her heart tubes.  Her heart is strong and working well.  Today they will put in and NG tube to begin feeding her stomach with Mandy’s breast milk.


Thank all of you for your prayers and concern in this difficult time.


We continue to thank God for each day he gives and pray that He would be glorified in this little life!

Saturday, February 2, 2008


Evangeline continues to take steps forward.  She remains in the ICU
but is in fairly stable condition.  The first day after surgery was
easier in some ways.  She was so heavily sedated that she slept
soundly.  Yesterday however, the pain medications began to wear off
and it was difficult to watch her labored breathing and see her
wrestling with the pain.  While we want her to wake and continue to
fight for life, it is a delicate balance to control her pain to keep
her blood pressure down, while still weaning her off the drugs to
allow her to breathe and function on her own.

A big praise yesterday – after several “trial runs”, they removed the
respirator yesterday morning.  We walked in to see her wide-eyed,
looking around at a mobile they had placed above her crib.  What a
relief to see those great big blue eyes again!  She was a bit more
placid that the doctors wanted yesterday.  After several days on the
respirator, secretions build up in the lungs that she needs to work
hard to cough up.  (As you can imagine, coughing with a broken
breastbone and a 6 inch incision is painful!)  They had to suction her
a couple times yesterday and “stimulate” her to get her riled up and
coughing and crying.  Pray that her lungs will clear!

They also removed one of two chest tubes yesterday…a line going to
her heart to drain bleeding.  Pray that they will feel confident in
her progress today to be able to remove the second chest tube.  The
more lines they get out, the sooner we’ll be able to hold and begin
feeding her.  After several days of not eating (and diarrhetic
medicine to help flush out retained fluid so it doesn’t build around
the heart,) she has lost a lot of weight.  Pray that she’ll be strong
enough (and remember how) to eat soon!!

Thank you again to all of you who have researched and looked for
accommodations for our family.  We’ve been so blessed by the body of
Christ pulling around us and meeting our practical needs.  Several of
you have spent considerable time looking to make sure we have a place
to stay and we are so grateful!!  We have been provided with a house
within very close proximity to the hospital.   We plan to bring the
kids to be with us this weekend, so it will be a lot of shuffling back
and forth especially as she is able to feed every couple hours.
Praise the Lord for the “Aron and Hur’s” who have held us up and
lifted our needs to the Father.  We remain humbly overwhelmed by His
goodness even in the midst of such pain!!

Keep praying.  Will send more pictures soon, but wanted to get this
off this am before we head over to see our little one!