One more time

It is 3:14 pm on Tuesday and we are in the post-op recovery room with Mia. The doctor said her bum did look better since last Friday. But he wants us to come back this Friday and do the outpatient surgery and repacking again. So we should be back in Bakersfield by 5 or 6 today. Thank you so much for praying for our little angel!!

Mia's bottom continues to look good to us. Tomorrow we go back to UCLA for her surgeon to take another look. He will put her under general anesthesia again and take a look inside to make sure everything is healing properly. Pray that it would go smoothly and that we'll have made great progress. It will be in the afternoon, so pray for Mia to not be hungry, I imagine she'll get a bottle in the morning, but probably nothing after that until after the procedure, so pray for her tummy to go that many hours without food. She can have clear liquids, like apple juice, but she has never been a juice girl, we just don't give her juice, so she doesn't like drinking it. So, just pray for a good day tomorrow for us!

So, we just found out that we have to be at UCLA at 1:00 and her procedure is scheduled for 2:00, that means she will only get a bottle of milk in the morning before 8:00 and then after that she can only have juice until 12:00, but she's not a juice girl, so pray that her tummy would tolerate no food for those hours.

Mommy's Day

It is rather fitting that on Mother's Day I'm writing to tell y'all that I'm doing much better. Thank you for praying for me...the mommy...I have felt this overwhelming sense of peace since yesterday, I know that it's going to be just fine. I know that we serve an awesome God and I'm encouraged to know that He knows His plans for Mia and He knew her before she was born, He knit her in my womb just as she is and He's right beside us as we continue to work through her surgeries and healing. I'm so glad that He is in control. And I wanted to take a moment to praise Him! In spite of my struggles (and yours too), God remains faithful to us and that is so encouraging. Thank you God for being so faithful to us.

And to all the mommies out there, Happy Mother's Day, I hope that it was a great day!

Home

We are back home and Mia is doing well. She hasn't required much pain medicine and in fact, got only Tylenol (not Tylenol with Codeine) before bed tonight. Needless to say, I am super anxious...not because I think she'll have pain, I'm just worried that the wound won't heal again. Brad and I prayed tonight and I'm trying to give this over to God, but I admit I am having a hard time with this. I know that God has done so many amazing things in Mia's life already and that He will continue to do so many more, I think I just feel a bit more pressure being the Mommy, like I am the one responsible for how this turned out, since I am the one in charge of her care most of the time. I know it isn't true, but I just wanted to be honest and let you all know that we struggle. We trust God and yet at other times we still struggle to give things over to Him. So, will you pray for me?

And of course for Mia, you can pray for the following:

1. That she wouldn't get any infection this second time around with surgery.
2. That her wound would heal completely on the inside and the outside.
3. That there would be miraculous healing between now and next Tuesday that is undeniably a God thing.
4. That ultimately, she would be able to control her bowels. (Her surgeon didn't think this would be a problem, but he's never seen this before and can't give us a definitive answer. He is optimistic that nerve and muscle tissue hasn't been damaged.)
5. And that waiting to start the stretching process wouldn't have negative repercussions.

And as always, thank you for being so faithful.

She's out

Mia is out of surgery. The doctor said that the stitches on her inside had dissolved from last month like they were supposed to, but her body had not "healed" or made scar tissue in it's place. So he packed it with gauze and stitched the top layer closed. And we have to come back next week on Tuesday to do this again. This means no trip to Oregon for us, and more short term discomfort for Mia. Please pray that her body would heal. Love, Brad & Lisa