A Lesson in Patience

There are fewer and fewer daily updates for which I am very grateful since such frequent changes were characteristic of a time when Ned was really unstable. Now we are experiencing slow and steady progress. For me, it is so difficult to see the other side and not be able to get there? Ned's lung looked a little better yesterday, (thank you for your prayers) and he has continued to do really well as far as his other stats! I don't think they'll contemplate re-intubating as long as he continues to be able to support his body from a pulmonary standpoint regardless of current concerns from the x-ray. Having said that, I'm still hopeful that his little lung will clear up and reinflate. It seems to me that if he can do so well with only one lung inflating, he should really be able to make some headway with two?

The past week has really been teaching me a lesson in patience (which by the way is a lesson I wasn't really seeking to learn). I remember when we were going back and forth with when to schedule Ned's heart surgery and Travis looked at me one day and said, "Well, we've been praying for patience." My stomach dropped. In a completely shocked tone, I asked, "have you been praying for pateince?" He confidently and proudly assured me that he had. Then Travis asked if I hadn't prayed for patience as well? I absolutely had not ever prayed for patience. When my Bible teacher told us one afternoon that when she started praying for patience, God allowed her to go through an experience to teach her patience. In her circumstance, her terminally ill father-in-law lived with them for years and she took care of him while he was physically deteriorating. That sounded like more than I was interested in enduring just for a little patience, so I decided then and there that I would never pray for patience. Now I realized that my dear husband had voiced a prayer that I was intentionally avoided and drug me into learing a lesson I had decided to bypass....marriage is a beautiful thing?! Travis laughed when I explained to him that I had tried to opt out on the whole patience deal. Both of us knowing that God will continue to work in your life regardless of your personal hang-ups and short-comings. I do believe I will learn patience during this experience and I am certain that my life will be blessed exponentially for having been held at bay for a period of my life.

Ned continues to improve a bit every day. He is up to 20cc per hour on his feeds and he is down to 25% oxygen (21% is room air) on the CPAP. We just have to get the breathing and eating down pat before we can go home. One amazing blessing is that Ned has never thrown up from eating. They expected him to have a difficult time digesting due to that fact that all of his digestive organs were misplaced at birth. Since they got his withdrawal symptoms under control, Ned hasn't thrown up one time! He may experirence more problems with that when he starts bottle feeding, but for the moment, he's doing great! I'm not sure if they are going to go ahead and schedule the bowel repair surgery while we're still up there or not.....it honestly hasn't been mentioned. In a way I'd like to come on home and in a way, I'd like to go ahead and get everything fixed? I'll just let that works itself out in God's timing. It's a little easier to hand things over to God and His schedule when you have no clue about the situation at hand. I mean, I may be more pushy and controlling if my child were dealing with issues I thought I could fix, but since I have know education or experience in the medical and surgical field, it makes it easier for me to trust God rather than relying on my own understanding.

Please continue to pray for little Ned. I look forward to the days of his life when all of you will be able to tell him how you knew and how you remember God working so clearly in his life. I believe each of you will be my children's memorial stones that will begin to build their foundation of faith in their lives. Thank you!

Betsy, Travis, Jack & Ned