Seventh Smith

Evangeline continues to take steps forward.  She remains in the ICU
but is in fairly stable condition.  The first day after surgery was
easier in some ways.  She was so heavily sedated that she slept
soundly.  Yesterday however, the pain medications began to wear off
and it was difficult to watch her labored breathing and see her
wrestling with the pain.  While we want her to wake and continue to
fight for life, it is a delicate balance to control her pain to keep
her blood pressure down, while still weaning her off the drugs to
allow her to breathe and function on her own.

A big praise yesterday - after several "trial runs", they removed the
respirator yesterday morning.  We walked in to see her wide-eyed,
looking around at a mobile they had placed above her crib.  What a
relief to see those great big blue eyes again!  She was a bit more
placid that the doctors wanted yesterday.  After several days on the
respirator, secretions build up in the lungs that she needs to work
hard to cough up.  (As you can imagine, coughing with a broken
breastbone and a 6 inch incision is painful!)  They had to suction her
a couple times yesterday and "stimulate" her to get her riled up and
coughing and crying.  Pray that her lungs will clear!

They also removed one of two chest tubes yesterday...a line going to
her heart to drain bleeding.  Pray that they will feel confident in
her progress today to be able to remove the second chest tube.  The
more lines they get out, the sooner we'll be able to hold and begin
feeding her.  After several days of not eating (and diarrhetic
medicine to help flush out retained fluid so it doesn't build around
the heart,) she has lost a lot of weight.  Pray that she'll be strong
enough (and remember how) to eat soon!!

Thank you again to all of you who have researched and looked for
accommodations for our family.  We've been so blessed by the body of
Christ pulling around us and meeting our practical needs.  Several of
you have spent considerable time looking to make sure we have a place
to stay and we are so grateful!!  We have been provided with a house
within very close proximity to the hospital.   We plan to bring the
kids to be with us this weekend, so it will be a lot of shuffling back
and forth especially as she is able to feed every couple hours.
Praise the Lord for the "Aron and Hur's" who have held us up and
lifted our needs to the Father.  We remain humbly overwhelmed by His
goodness even in the midst of such pain!!

Keep praying.  Will send more pictures soon, but wanted to get this
off this am before we head over to see our little one!