Unexpected Surgery

Wow! What a crazy week! Many of you are probably wondering what exactly is going on with us and why Joel needed to have surgery. I`m going to leave out a lot of details to try to make a long story short. Friday the 12th, Joel started to vomit more than normal (before this, I could count the times he had spit up in his short lifetime on my fingers). By Saturday morning, I was pretty sure he had some kind of virus.and started looking for signs to make sure he was not getting dehydrated. By that afternoon though, after throwing up constantly for hours and eating very little in between, he started to refuse food, looked very sleepy and weak and very yellow in color. So we decided to take him to the same hospital where I had given birth to him, Euro-Honduras, to get him on some iv fluids. After tests and no improvement as far as the vomiting, he was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis after getting an ultra-sound of his abdomen done on Monday morning. We were told that only surgery could fix this problem. We (and the doctors who saw him) have found no information so far that would indicate that children with Aperts syndrome are more susceptible to Pyloric Stenosis, so this came as a surprise to us. We headed to Hospital Loma de Luz on Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday afternoon Joel underwent the surgery he needed. We are so thankful that he is doing well after a tough week. The Lord gave me these verses the morning of the surgery from Psalm 33:   

  

No king is saved by the size of his army;

    no warrior escapes by his great strength.  

A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;

    despite all its great strength it cannot save.  

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,

    on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 

 to deliver them from death

    and keep them alive in famine  

We wait in hope for the Lord;

    he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name. 

                                           May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
                                                       even as we put our hope in you.

This week was especially hard for us because we had to watch our baby suffer of hunger, yet know that whatever he ate would pretty much be vomitted. The Lord brought great comfort to me as I saw how His mighty hand not only kept our sweet baby alive, but provided in great ways for him and for us. Knowing that He LOVES us has ministered to my heart greatly this year. Really my only hope for the future is His love. We continue to thank him for this precious treasure he has entrusted to us, Levi Joel, who has changed our lives drastically and blesses us daily with his sweetness. 

Thanks to every one of you who have prayed for us, written to us and blessed us in a number of ways. We feel blown away by the ways others have served us during this time

   

Just out of surgery

First feed after surgery