Thank you Jesus!

Wow. What a day. I am writing this after spending over 12 hours in the NICU today. Though I used to do that nearly every day in the beginning, it was particularly exhausting today. Benjamin's surgery was supposed to be at 11:45, but like most hospitals, they went by their own clock and 11:45 turned into 3:15. Benjamin did good in the morning, but then must have remembered that his tummy was empty and became a bit agitated in the afternoon. He made it through surgery great and they did not have to put a central/picc line in (praise God!) and there were no complications (praise God more!!!). The only negative thing that the surgeon had to say was that the scar was not as straight as he would have liked. If the straightness of a scar is all the surgical staff is concerned about it is a good day!!! Through the surgery and really for most of the day, I felt a great amount of peace. Thank you for all who were praying for that specifically. I felt your prayers tremendously.

Right now Benjamin is resting and healing on the ventilator, but they expected to put him back on the nasal cannula sometime over the night. He was a bit uncomfortable later this evening, but after an additional morphine "bullet" he seemed to calm down.

Things to keep praying for: that he will be comfortable and for quick healing, that the intestine will heal properly so that he will not have to go through this surgery again, that his breathing will be strong so he can successfully come off and stay off the ventilator, and that when they reintroduce foods early next week (or even possibly over the weekend!) that his system will handle it and he will eat like a little piggy and get super big and fat (ok, we will settle for just "grow".)

I don't have a very good update on Helen, Brian's mom. All I know is that her surgery went well without complications. Please continue to pray for healing and wisdom.

Thank you prayer warriers!