Urgent Prayer request PLEASE – Parents nightmare

Our dear blogging friend Mel and family are going through what has to be every parent/grandparents worst nightmare. It is beyond anything I can even begin to imagine.
My last post was a prayer request was the new born grandchild. Born with 3 heart defects and given very little chance of survival. The little guy has been transferred to a different hospital and will today undergo the first of 3 very delicate and complicated, very high risk surgeries.
I have taken the liberty of again coping and reposting Mel’s post from her own blog (on blog roll).
The pain, the worry is so obvious in her words. Prayers please.
Mel’s post:

There’s something weird about a children’s hospital going by “CHOP”.
The wee fella had his first airplane ride–at 2 weeks of age. Quite the birthday prezzie if you ask me.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia provided the mom and dad with the second opinion–and gave the wee one a 50/50 chance of surviving the first surgery. He’ll need three (at least) heart operations and, if he survives, a transplant when he turns 12 or 13.
How could you NOT take the chance? The other option was to do nothing and opt for ‘compassionate care’. They took the chance. And the photo is himself arriving at the Philadelphia airport. They were kind and let the mom go with him in the plane. The dad had already left for Philadelphia. In fact, the dad was IN Philadelphia before the baby was.
Mostly because they had the wee fella loaded up and in the plane on Sunday……and decided there was a malfunction with the plane and the equipment necessary for moving the baby from point A to point B. So back they went to the hospital in Iowa City…..and they promised they’d send a different plane and different equipment Monday–which they did. And that’s how dad ended up there before the baby! It’s also the story of how Nana got to spend the night with the wee fella and mom before they departed Monday. It’s also how I managed to make Monday’s departure without falling apart. I did all that on Sunday, dontchaknow……
There was something about seeing the elevator doors closing with the mom and the baby ( along with 5 CHOP personnel), knowing that might very well be the last time you see your grandson….knowing your child was going through all this ‘stuff’ without your physical presence.. *sigh* Still hurts my heart to be here while she’s there contending with everything (not alone, mind you….just without me….).
No tears on Monday.
She asked me to be HERE to help take care of the Bug.
So that’s what I’m doing….that’s what both ‘grandmothers’ are doing.

No tears today. I grabbed soccer shorts, long sleeve shirts and new shin guards for the Bug since she started soccer practice this evening.
So no tears today–just a lot of lovin’ from the 6 year old.

But Thursday….when the wee fella goes into surgery? …..One way or the other, there’s going to be tears.
I can hope and pray for ‘good’ outcomes, but I don’t know what’s ‘good’ in this case. I just don’t…. So I’ll just pray and thank the Big Guy for giving me the time I’ve had with the wee one and for taking such good care of the mom and dad right now.

And I’ll say ‘Amen’
…..but I’ll be meaning “but you KNOW what I want”…..
I’m sassy like that.

And that wee thing–he’s so stinkin’ cute…..

*sigh*

Posted by Mel at 8:38 PM 6 comments:

Prayers Please

I have been away from the blog for too long. I have been wrapped up in my own little world, forgetting live is carrying on around me. There are those going through so much and so in need of support.
A big thank you to blogging friend Lydia for giving me a little poke to look around and see what friends are going through.
Dear blogging friend Mel has written a heart breaking post. Every parents, every grandparents worst night mare.
I tried to actually copy Mel’s post to repost here but wasn’t able to.
I ask for prayers of support for the entire family at this heart breaking time.
Please visit Mel’s site listed on my blog roll, and leave prayers and loving supportive comments.
I have taken the liberty of copying Mel’s last post. Sadly, I was not able to get the picture of the most beautiful little baby that accompanied the following wording:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
The labour of love

He was bourne on Labor Day.
Cute little booger….
I took this just minutes before he stopped breathing in his mother’s arms.

He celebrated 2 1/2 hours of normal living before it all went upside down.

Three heart defects, complicated by Downs Syndrome….
20% success rate for each of the three needed surgeries, and subsequent heart transplant, with the healthiest of Downs Syndrome babies–and he’s far from one of the healthiest. Yesterday they told us surgery wasn’t an option.

There’s a second opinion due today from a high caliber children’s hospital–but we don’t expect the answer to be different. It’s a matter of what the parents needed to do to be at peace. Even if the numbers are a bit higher, the doctors aren’t convinced he would survive the transfer. Things are just too fragile. Multiple times a minute they’re in the room adjusting something or other to sustain life in a very controlled environment.

Attempts to remove him from the machines controlling his breathing weren’t successful and didn’t lend to the hope of something different for this small fella that’s my grandchild.

Today, the parents are allowing friends and family to visit for the first time. It’s just been the two grandmothers and two close friends to the parents, to date. It’s all they could handle.

Baptised yesterday…tomorrow he’ll be removed from the machines and will be held by his mother and father until he finds eternal rest.

No, it’s not ‘right’ or ‘fair’.

But G-d chose the two VERY best parents He could find to love this wee fella from the moment of inception to the moment he goes to Heaven

Random thoughts on life – feed back please

Was poking around in the blog here and found I had 141 different saved draft posts. Often I will get an idea for a post. Times I know I don’t have the time or energy to write a full post but I have what to me seems like a great idea at the time. Being memory guy I know if I don’t write it down I will forget. So I come in and start a post writing just a few lines. Hopefully enough that when I come back there will be enough that it will jog the memory enough to bring back what ever “brainwave” I had when I typed those few lines.
I only made it through the first 20 or so drafts. Now I know I could go into one of my almost endless rambles but decided to try something different. I am posting a number of those ideas I had for various posts. I am asking for your feed back you input on these various thoughts. Then I will try get up my own. Feedback please.

Quite a while back I was asked a question, what have I learned from this whole blogging experience?
Where to even begin. I have learned so much, gained so much from this whole experience, I have no words to describe it.
I have made friends, granted I have never met them and most likely never will. But, through our communication I have come to consider many friends part of my cyber family.
I have received in the area of 9,300 comments from people literally all over the world, 167 different countries at last count. Now I don’t know this to be a fact but based on numbers I am assuming I have reached at least most of the faiths and cultures in the world.
I have always known this but it has really been re-enforced in my mind that people are people. Irregardless of anything we are all the same, kind, loving and caring. Just doing their best to get through their days.
Now obviously there are exceptions but those exceptions come from every walk of life, from every faith and from every culture.

People make themselves so busy in life they have no time to enjoy life.

Hate your life, your job……. What are you doing about it? Are you taking even baby steps to improve it or are you just wasting your time complaining about it?

We fear and don’t trust things and especially people we don’t know and precieve as being different from ourselves.

Many people maybe even most people have a very negative view of the world. Is news media to blame. Virtually all of the news we hear, watch or read is negative. Understandable that is how we view the world, that is all the information we are provided with upon which to base our opinion. What we forget is that for everyone negative thing that happens there are hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of good things, it is just we never hear about them.

One of our greatest strengths is our ability to adapt one of our greatest weaknesses is our ability to adapt. Too quickly at times we are able to adapt to circumstances in our lives that are unacceptable. We have adapted to accept this as the norm. We are in a unacceptable rut but lack the courage, determination or are possibly fearful of making changes. We settle in and stay in that rut.

If there was one person you would spend every moment of your life with wouldn’t it be nice if you at least liked that person. There is that one person with whom you will spend every single moment with. That person is you, yourself. Do you like yourself, do you enjoy your own company. If yes, good for you, if not what are you doing about it?

Every morning at some point be it washing, shaving or brushing your teeth you will find yourself looking at yourself in the mirror. As you look in that mirror are you proud, happy or content with the person you see looking back at you. If not what are you doing about it?

You can go to bed content with yourself if you know somewhere through that day you did something to improve or brighten the day of another.

We have become a society that expects instant gratification. Sort of like take one pill to instantly cure all the problems in our lives. If we don’t see a quick easy fix we give up without trying. I don’t have the time, don’t have the energy….. So nothing changes we stay in that unsatisfactory rut.

We put so much time into worrying about or complaining about what we don’t have in our lives. If we put that same amount of energy into appreciating all that we do have, we would realize our lives are pretty good.

Negativity is a total waste of time. It accomplishes nothing but sucks the energy right out of us. Cut negative people out of your life, they will suck the energy/life force right out of you. Sadly, it is much more likely a negative person will drag a positive person down than visa versa.

Life is to be lived not endured. Life is beautiful but it is one of those things that the more you put into it, the more you get back. It is worth the effort

The happiest people are those that have come to a level of acceptance of their current situation, and have an appreciation of all that they do have. That is not to say they are content with that situation and may well be working to change it. They do have an appreciation of what they do have at the present.