2 LBS. Today! (And One Calendar Month Old)

Dear Friends,

I hope that you are all doing well and would like to, again, thank you for all of your prayer support. We have definitely felt it over the last few days and we know that God is with us! Reagan had a few rough days, as noted in previous blogs, but seems to be getting her energy back. Today she was quite active and very alert at times. Before we left tonight, her eyes were opened wide just checking things out. I'm not sure what all she can see at this age, my guess is just light and darkness, but she sure seemed to be looking at us and it was great to just look into her eyes. It was love all over again! Her day started out a little bit rough as she had several IV's that did not work and had to be stuck several times...but eventually one IV worked and she didn't have to be bothered much throughout the rest of the day. She still has a couple of infections (not just one as we previously thought) that I will not try to pronounce, and is being treated with antibiotics for those. A common infection in Hospitals is MRSA and it appears that Reagan has this (I don't know what the initials stand for). The staff takes a blood culture each day to see if the infection has been taken care of or not. The last few cultures still show that she has infection but we are praying that she will overcome the infections quickly and they will not show up anymore in her body. I am very thankful that Reagan is energetic despite having the infections. She gets cuter every day!!!!

I was telling Pastor Dan the other day about how much I enjoyed just peeking through the curtain of Reagan's isolet to look at her without bothering her too much. Many of you know what an isolet is and have seen it in Reagan's pictures - it is basically a glass enclosure in which temperature and other variables can be moderated for maximum protection and health for a baby. It has an isolet cover that has 5 panels on it that can be moved to look in at her. Before she got her infections (I still peek in at her now, but just have to be careful not to spread her infection to others), I found myself, many times each day, just taking a peek at Reagan to see how she was doing and to feel the wonderful feelings of love and adoration that one feels when in the presence of one of God's greatest miracles... the miracle of life! I was always very careful to just move the panels of her bed a little bit so that she would not see light coming in her bed and get scared that she was going to be examined, moved, or stuck again. Sometimes, I would be looking in and would be just thrilled with the progress of the day. On other occasions, days where she was struggling, I would peek in on her to just make sure that she was okay. Either way, whether she was having a good or bad day, I still felt such wonderful feelings of love for this precious little one! It may sound silly, but there was also a very distinct smell that I would smell with my nose up close to her isolet. No, it was not a dirty diaper smell, but this sweet clean aroma. Amy laughed at me numerous times for smelling Reagan's isolet when I looked at her, but it just seemed to get hold of my senses and many times over I thought how unusually neat that smell was. It smelled of life to me as I looked at Reagan and reminded me many times of God and His wonderful creation of human life. Interesting or strange, however you find it, it was special to me and I thank God for whatever that smell was!

Okay, I had a point that I was getting to about checking in on Reagan... I was often reminded (almost every time) of how God loves us. I thought about how many times during the day, He pushes the clouds out of the way and looks in on me (and you) to just see how everything is going! I know that some days He looks down on me with pride as I follow Him every step of the way. I bet His smile lights up Heaven! Other days, I'm sure that He sees something in my life that is not pleasing to Him and just shakes His head with a look of concern, wondering when I am going to turn to Him for help or guidance so that He can keep me from undo pain. Maybe He longingly sits there looking at me, just wanting me to spend time with Him so that He can lift my burdens and help me with life, hoping that I will commune with Him and request His presence in my life so that I don't repeat past mistakes. But, however He is looking at me, I know that He looks down on me with the love of a Father! I'm sure there is a sparkle in His eye as He looks at me with love for this precious creation that belongs to Him! God loves and cares about us all, more than we could ever imagine and I am thankful to Him for choosing to love me!!! He loves you too!!!

Prayer requests for Reagan (Problems can arise at any time in a child as small as Reagan as her body is physically not able to fight like ours - so prayers are critical for her to thrive)

1. Infections to be eliminated immediately and for no more!
2. PDA to reclose when the infection is gone (or sooner) without surgery
3. Having problems keeping IV's and running out of places to stick - pray that she will always have a way of getting the medicines and nutrients that she needs. (there are several other ways but most are somewhat invasive - so pray that when she has to have these, that she will not get infections)
4. Continued help with her lung growth and development

Thank you for praying for this precious little one! We love you all and thank you for caring about our little family! God Bless YOU!

Robert and Amy