Timothy James

I was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 8th because my amniotic sac was leaking and I had begun to dilate. I was ordered to lie flat on my back until the baby came ( I was due April 2nd!). Well, on Dec. 17th my water broke at 7:15pm and Timothy James decided to come early. He was breech and already on his way out, so the doctor did an emergency C-section and at 10:20 pm he was delivered. He went straight to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and has been there ever since. Timothy was only 25 weeks along in his development (a "normal" pregnancy lasts 40 weeks) so he still has a lot of growing to do.

Psalm 33:20-21 "Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him because we trust in His holy name. Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us according as we have hoped in You."

The doctors are going to try to allow Timothy to be off the ventilator and completely breathing on his own again for an hour or so this afternoon. If he does well, they will allow him to be off for longer periods of time. This is an answer to our prayers! We believe that Timothy will do great and they will see that he is able to handle it much better than think he will.

Please continue to pray that God would orchestrate the conditions surrounding the possibility of having him on a ventilator at night. The process for ordering the equipment has begun and it should arrive at the hospital any day now. Please pray the if this is what God wants to happen, all the details and transitions would go very smoothly and quickly.

Psalm 138:1-3 "I will give You thanks, O Lord, with all my heart; I will sing praises to You. . . and give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth. For You have magnified Your word according to Your name. On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul."

Praise the Lord with us! He has heard yours and our specific prayers and we are greatly encouraged!

This week a new doctor began working with us and Timothy and he is actually listening to what we have to say. Give thanks to the Lord for opening up this doctor's ears and mind and pray that we will continue to be able to communicate and work together.

Praises
- We have a doctor who is willing to listen and work with us
- Timothy is being weaned off the ventilator
- The ENT doctor's suggestion for treatment of the infection was started yesterday. Instead of IV antibiotics, Timothy is receiving an antibiotic inhalation treatment (breathing treatment). Apparently this is a common treatment and we are greatly encouraged and believe that this will help to keep his condition under control and hopefully curb further trips to the ER/hospital.

Prayer
- As Timothy is weaned off the ventilator, they check his progress through blood tests. Please pray that his lungs would function as God intended and that the results of the blood tests would be such that the doctors will continue to make changes to wean him
- It has been suggested that once Timothy comes home he may benefit from being on a ventilator at night as he sleeps. This would mean a lot of adjustments regarding our care of Timothy once he comes home. The process to make this happen is quite involved and can take up to 2 weeks - that would mean possibly staying the hospital that much longer. Please pray that God's will would be done in this situation. Jon and I are not exactly embracing the concept, however, we ultimately want what is best for Timothy. Please pray that God would orchestrate all the details surrounding this issue so that it is very clear to us what should be done.

Psalm 107:19-22 "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness and for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of His works with joyful singing."

This is one of the Bible verses that we are claiming for Timothy. If you are a brother or sister in Christ, we are asking you to pray with us in the spirit of the above verses. Please cry out to the Lord, believing that He hears us and has a plan in motion already. Thank Him for all that He has done in our family's life up to now and praise Him now for what He is going to accomplish in the days to come.

I spoke to several doctors yesterday who listened very well and looked at Timothy within their medical discipline. He checked out very well with nephrology (kidneys), ENT, cardiology, physical therapy, and speech therapy. We are still waiting to hear from urology and infectious disease. Infectious disease is pivotal right now because, supposedly we are treating an infection, but I haven't been given any particulars and I have a few questions for them. Also the ENT has a new theory on what is going on and it affects the treatment of this infection.

As we pray in the spirit of the verses above, we also have some specific requests we are asking of the Lord -
1. That the doctors would come up with the best way to treat the infection that Timothy has
2. That he would be weaned off the ventilator
3. That he would be able to come home soon