Thursday, March 31, 2011

Prayer Request and Gratitude

I believe in the power and reality of prayer, although it is a mysterious thing since God lives outside of time and He already knows how everything will turn out. Yet the Bible asks us to pray, so pray we shall.

I have a prayer request for Baby Gianna who will be born by a Cesarean section scheduled for 10:30 EST this morning. She is the first baby of a friend of a friend of ours, and I've met the baby's lovely extended family in person. Gianna has an omphalocele, which is a condition with widely varying degrees in which the intestines or other abdominal organs are sticking out of a hole in the abdomen. This can be immediately lethal or quite repairable with surgery, and everything in between. Gianna's mommy and daddy are told that, if their daughter survives, it will be months before they can hold her.

Please pray for healing of Gianna, wisdom of the surgeons, and comfort for the parents.

This is certainly a tearful moment of gratitude for me. Margaret at 12 days old is still very much at the "in arms phase." She has rare moments when she'll tolerate sleeping out of my arms, but otherwise is in my arms, in my sling, or sleeping all night on my chest. It's amazing to me that even my newborns have known who is Mama and who is Anybody Else--and they don't want the latter! My hands and arms are exhausted and, as much as I adore my sweetpea, all that holding does leave a mama "touched out."

But how grateful I am to be able to hold my baby around the clock, especially knowing what Gianna's mommy faces today and in the months to come.
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4 comments:

  1. AshleyMarch 31, 2011 at 8:44:00 AM EDT

    I will keep baby Gianna and her family in my prayers.

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  2. ChrissyMarch 31, 2011 at 10:00:00 AM EDT

    Thank you so very much Katherine! I am tearing up at your thoughtfulness for my sister and brother-in-law! The amount of prayers and support we have received has been overwhelming! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those who are praying for Kaite, Dan and Gianna! If anyone is interested in following her progress, her blog is http://ourspecialgem.blogspot.com/

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  3. KatherineMarch 31, 2011 at 1:46:00 PM EDT

    Katherine, first let me congratulate you on the birth of sweet Margaret. She is beautiful! It sounds like you are adjusting quite well to being a mama to 3 and it is clear that the big siblings are very proud and happy too.

    I will definitely be praying for Gianna. I know a lady who's daughter had an omphalocele. She did very well. The mother actually did get to hold her at 12 hours old and then she was only in the hospital about 8 days after she had her surgery at two days old. They didn't do it immediately as they allowed it to slowly go back in a little. Her's was about the size of an orange.

    I will certainly pray that Gianna has no other concerns and does just as well as this little girl who will turn one year old next month and has done wonderfully.

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  4. MeghanMarch 31, 2011 at 3:30:00 PM EDT

    Yes, we'll be praying! Thanks for posting about this.

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