A mama's heart

*****update 5/27/2011*****
Baby zeke made it through phase 1 of surgery today.
 He was in surgery for over 8 hours, He has a ton of recovery left to do!
 He will be sedated for the next two weeks which will hopefully give his little body time to recover and grow. KEEP PRAYING!
***************************

Meet my dear friends.

In this photo there are 7 baby blessings... but one you cant see.

During the pregnancy Shelly learned that baby "zeke" had a heart defect.

But she has trusted God and remains faithful.

On May 24 2011

little Ezekiel Caleb

*God strengthen's the heart*

was born.

His Aunt said, "He's tiny but feisty"

and at 3lbs 14 ozs

he arrived

7 weeks ahead of schedule.

so far he is stable.

but he has a long way to go.

And on Friday he will be having heart surgery.

His mama trusts God.

But her heart hurts.

She has barely even held this tiny blessing.

She earnestly wants to pray that the Lord's will is done

but

that is so very hard.



"Unless plans change, Ezekiel's surgery will be this Friday.  We will move to PICU tomorrow, recover there then most likely return to NICU due to being early and his size. His heart defect is slightly different than they thought ...in laymens terms they have to reconstruct his broken heart. IN semi medical jargon--congenitally corrected transportation of the great arteries-aorta connected to r ventricle, pulmonary artery connected to the L ventricle. his L ventricle is connected to his R atrium &; his R ventricle (which is hypoplastic-too small) is connceted to his L atrium (this is backwards!). His mitral valve &; tricuspid valves are reversed. His tricuspid valve is stenotic (blocked, non functional) &; some word that meant misplaced, flaps the wrong way or something like that (sorry a bit overwhelmed). his aorta is hypoplastic (too small ascending &; descending) &; he has coarctation of the aorta (the way the aorta arches is wrong) he has a VSD (ventral septal defect)-a hole bw/ the lower chambers of his heart. he has patent foramen ovale (but that is due meds &; a good thing bcuz it keeps the blood flowing freely til surgery) he has experienced some hypertension &; apnea due meds -so he is on additional meds. he had some metabolic acidosis episodes as well. tpn (total parenteral nutrition--IV nutrition) may be started today. It is a total blessing that my ob was wise enough to administer betamethasone (steroid to mature lungs in utero). Zeke is still breathing on his own. (w/ heart kids the Oxygen/intubation can do harm as well as good). had kidney U/S, will have head U/S. results of those later"

As you can see she is a bit overwhelmed. So I am asking you all to join me in prayer. Her 11 month old is still itty bitty (Samuel 11 months old and 11lbs) missing chromosomes and has had a year filled with his very own medical issues. Pray for her husband Donald as he cares for him and the other 5 children. Pray for dear friends as they watch the older 5 children while their daddy travels back and forth to the hospital over 3 hours away from *home* (which is relative as they have no immediate family nearby because they are active duty military)  AND takes care of baby Sammy.

                                                          baby Sammy Above                                                           
She has been unable to hold Ezekiel except for the moments right after he was first born.

She has asked us to pray that her children get to see Ezekiel before he goes to PICU before he goes to preop prep tomorrow. Pray for his heart surgery. That Jesus is the great physician and carefully uses the surgeons hands to knit his heart back together. Pray for the stress on the mama and the entire family. That they come together and remain faithful during this time of the storm. To remember that "God is in control in all things" (her words exactly) and that his "big" brother sammy continues to thrive and grow while she is away.
she sings this song to baby ezekiel. would you listen to it. pray for her and commit his little life to the Father... that he live to glorify God. That Shelly and Donald can rest in the Father's arms in an embrace filled with comfort, love and peace.