Memorable Mom's Day

Mother's Day 2008 proved to be a rather memorable one for our family. My parents, Haley & I drove out to Elsberry, MO to be present for the baby dedications of both Baby Drew & Baby Noah. After church, we had planned to eat lunch in the basement of the church. Both Haley & I had prepared desserts that needed refrigerated. We arrived at the church only to discover that the church was without power. With only my small pig keychain flashlight leading us in the dark, we headed down the steps to put our food in the fridge. The whole time, my pig was "oinking." We entered the sanctuary lit by candles & took a seat for the service. I was quite glad that I had worn long sleeves as the wind was blowing like crazy outside & now, inside had no heat. The service went well & we enjoyed watching the slideshow the pastor had put together honoring the mothers within their church. After church had come to an end, my Aunt Sheryl decided we would all just pile in at her house since the church had no electricty. During the short drive from the church to their house, Haley said, "I bet one of the places we've ordered food from is without power." Sure enough, my cousin had ordered pizza from the pizza parlor in town as well as subs from Subway & the pizza place called to notify us that they would be unable to prepare our pizza's as they had no power. Thankfully, we did get our subs. Some headed to the local IGA to get some frozen pizzas & chicken tenders to make up for it all. Fortunately, we are a family that sees the humor in all things so it was a rather funny day.

Power of Prayer

Expected to make his grand entrance into the world on May 24th, little Noah showed all of us! My Cousin Lisa began to get quite ill on the evening of April 22nd. After hours of undergoing tests & so forth, the doctors discovered that she had Preeclampsia as well as H.E.L.L.P Syndrome. Her liver enzymes were high as well as her blood cells low. At around 4 a.m. on the 23rd, the decision was made to do an emergency caesarian section. As my mom & I rushed to the hospital to wait with everyone, we found that things were much worse than we could imagine. There was a risk of Lisa bleeding to death during the c-section. As the medical team wheeled her back to the surgical area, we gathered in the waiting room & I led the family in prayer for Lisa & Baby Noah. Praise the Lord, soon after, Lisa's doctor came to update us & let us know that all went well. While neither were out of the woods, things had went fine. Noah weighed 5 lbs. 1 oz. & was 18" long. Due to his being 5 weeks premature, he was kept in the nursery on a ventilator as his lungs were not mature. We all tried to see him as best we could through the nursery window--until they shut the blinds on us! Evidently, that week was the week for babies as the nursery was overbooked you might say. There were NO VACANCIES! Since there were more babies than what the hospital had room for in the nursery & Noah was still needing some help breathing on his own, he was transfered to Cardinal Glennon hospital in downtown St. Louis. His mommy was not even able to hold him before he left. We took a look at him in the incubator & then watch the ambulance team wheel him away. While other family members visited Noah at Cardinal Glennon & were given the opportunity to hold him, all declined knowing that the first person that should get to hold him was his mother. Lisa was not expected to leave the hospital for several days & yet her blood cell count had reached the point in which she could be released. She was out on Saturday, the 26th. Amazingly, Noah was released on Sunday, the 27th even though his estimated stay date was until May 7th. Truly, God worked everything out for good & both, are doing remarkably. We know that many were in prayer & because of the many prayers, things have went as they have. Noah is as cute as a button & I look forward to watching him grow. Thanks we give for yet another new addition to our family.