No Hope But Him

Last night while I was sitting in the Firehouse prayer room listening to the worship team sing the line, "All my hope is in you," Distressed, I thought, "Lord...outside of you, I have no hope right now. I am hopeless without you and helpless before you." I then thought back to how I held Mr. Boy skin-to-skin for the first time yesterday and how his little life was so helpless and precious in my arms.  I then saw an image of myself cradled on the Lord's chest, helpless in His arms yet so warm, cozy and safe and then I heard the words, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." With an overwhelming peace I thought that maybe David and I are exactly where we are supposed to be, and the best place to be: hopeless without Him and helpless before Him but resting in His arms and trusting Him as our loving Father. 

The "skin to skin" time is also called "kangaroo time".  It is suppose to be one of the best things for Mr.Boy's development. How cool is that. :)

Miracles...

Despite the fact that Mr. Boy was born 11 weeks early he is doing awesome!!  It seems like everyday he is overcoming certain areas that the doctors and surgeons said were areas of concern.

1. One of the biggest concerns with his early arrival was his lungs.  Many times premature babies have under-developed lungs and require some sort of aid or supplemental oxygen.  Mr. Boy, on the other hand is breathing room oxygen all by his self.  This also allows us to hold him :)
2. After viewing MRI scans of Mr. Boy before birth we were told because of his condition, he would probably not eat food (breast milk) for quite a long time.  He would be hooked up to an IV that would give him all the nutrition he would need.  The doctors were not sure the digestive tract was all connected together.  Mr Boy has already begun his path to breast feeding.  He has a feeding tube where he is getting a small amount of breast milk every three hours.  He is taking the food and the food is coming out the other end:)  The hope is to breast feed when he gets to his "34th" week (4 weeks from now).
3. Some premature babies have an open ductus in their heart.  After Mr. Boy's birth, a test confirmed that his ductus is open.  This is not fatal and in some cases it closes within the first week of life.  However, if the ductus doesn't close, medicine can help to close it and sometimes surgery is needed.  He is showing no signs of his ductus being open and the staff believes it has closed on its own. 
4. Mr. Boy knows his mother! Mom will speak and many times he will move his head toward her and open his eyes.
5. Our last ultrasound occurred 3 days before Mr. Boy s arrival, it showed his weight was 2 pounds 15 ounces.  Upon his arrival, Mr. Boy weighed 4 whopping pounds!!  He is still small but he is big for being only 29 weeks:)

We know we serve an awesome God!!  We know He hears our prayers and delights in them.  We give the glory and the credit to God for we know his hand is over little Mr. Boy.  Thank you for your prayers.

The IV in his head is totally normal......it's actually the best place to put them.