Update: Please Pray

We woke up this morning praising God for a great milestone reached: 48 hours have elapsed since the first of the two steroid shots (24 hours after the second shot), which means the steroids have run their course to boost development of the baby's lungs!

Throughout the course of yesterday, "everything" went in the right direction. The bleeding continued to slow, with the exception of a few instances here and there; the contractions subsided to a few per hour to once per hour to even fewer; and the baby's heartrate remained very strong, which the doctors said was a really good sign given all the contractions over the last 48 hours!

We are so thankful to the Lord for His sustaining grace over the last day, and we are reminding ourselves not to trust in expected outcomes, but in His superior and perfect plan - whatever that plan is. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways! Pray we can rest in this truth no matter what happens, and that our trust would be evident to those around us here, for His Name's sake.

The doctors will attempt to slowly reduce Angie's dosage of magnesium sulfate by small fractional amounts each day, and see how her uterous responds. We hope the dosage can be reduced to a very minimal level this way. Angie is doing great, though it's a big challenge to be in one place without moving at all (Angie just slightly prefers to be active :) ), so she wants her thought life to be driven by her trust in the Lord. In a way, the only thing she can do in this situation is think, so she wants to make it count!

Thank you Rex and Darcy for your love and service to us and our kids. We pray Heather and Chad will be a blessing to you in the midst of the responsibility and work. Due to the heightened flu season, the hospital's policy has changed today, so unfortunately, no visitors are allowed other than me, Angie's parents, and for now the kids. We had to get them to approve an exception for Steph, who is coming this weekend.

We are so blessed by the encouragement we've received from so many of you, and we know we have been upheld by God's grace through your faithful prayer. Lord willing, one hour and one day at a time, we are praying this baby will stay in the womb until at least October 1 (the 28-week mark), and that the placenta is adequately sustaining the baby over this period. Thank you for praying with us! I'll plan on giving another update soon. We love you all.

--Noah, for the Family