Day 1 for Charlotte Jane

Before beginning this post, we want you to know that the outpouring of prayer support, kind acts of generosity and service, and words of encouragement have been overwhelming to us. We do not know where we would be without the body of Christ interceding for us, fighting with us, and giving us so much encouragement over the last week. We are more aware of and tuned into God's plan as revealed in Ephesians 3 to use His church the beauty of His glorious good news so that He may be made much of. From our local church CityView to so many other Christ followers who have prayed for us and been there to provide support, we are so thankful.

Charlotte's A Day Old!
As I write this post, Charlotte is turning one day old! She was born at 9:39pm on Wednesday, February 10. What followed has been a pretty crazy first day of life.

A Timeline of Day 1

9:39 pm...

Charlotte Jane is born weighing 5 lbs. 3 oz. As soon as she was born, a team of about 10 doctors and nurses met her and after stabilizing her breathing took her to the NICU at Harris Southwest.

12 am...

It is determined that she will now go to Cooks Children's Hospital in downtown Fort Worth. A unit is assembled to transport her and we are told that we will get to see her momentarily and then she will go directly to Cooks.

1:30 am...

Since we haven't heard anything in over an hour, we get really nervous. We find out that in the time span, she has needed to be resuscitated twice. We are led back to the NICU to meet the chief Neonatologist and to see Charlotte Jane (Ang gets to see her for the first time)

2:00 am...

The biggest snow that North Texas has ever seen has begun. This is also the time that Charlotte is transported to Cooks.

3:00 am...

Charlotte arrives at Cooks where she is met with another team that takes her to the NICU.

3:30 am...

We finally get to talk to the neonatologist who will be over Charlotte's care at Cooks. She tells us that since getting her to Cooks, things are going about as well as expected. We are also informed that Charlotte's little lungs are not anywhere close to the size they need to be at this stage of her life. They are very underdeveloped and she is breathing via a ventilator.

4:30 am...

Justin fights through the snow and makes it to Cooks to see Charlotte. She already looks much better than the first time they saw her. Her skin tone has become normal (she's no longer bluish gray). Justin meets w/ the doctor and the nurses in charge of Charlotte's care.

7:00 am...

Justin arrives back at Harris Southwest to be with Angela and help her get ready for being discharged from the hospital later that morning. Meanwhile, Charlotte continues to be stable - normal heart rate and blood-oxygen levels.

9:00 am...

Specialists at Cooks perform tests on Charlotte including a head scan and a scan of her abdomen. We will find out the results of these tests hopefully within the next 24 hours.

10:00 am...

A geneticist meets with Charlotte and looks to see if she can figure out what may be causing the complications. There is some theory but we won't know anything fully until two weeks regarding genetic / chromosomal disorders.

1:00 pm...

After finally getting to leave the hospital, we go to Cooks to see Charlotte. Ang gets to meet the nurses there and a neurologist performs some tests on Charlotte.

4:00 pm...

We get back to Angela's parents' house which has been our base of operation for the last couple of days. They, along with Justin's parents have watched Elizabeth and Elaine during this time and we are so thankful for wonderful grandparents.

9:39 pm...

No news is good news...we talked to Charlotte's attending nurse a couple of times this evening and the result is the same each time...no news to report...and...she is stable.

One Challenge After Another

One way that we have been blown away by seeing the way God has sovereignly led us down this path. Over the past 7 days, we've received a ton of information and have been faced with challenges that we don't know we would be able to handle if it had all been received at once. One thing we talked about this evening is that God has given us bits and pieces of this puzzle when we need them. If we found out all that we did today last week, we would have certainly not been ready for it. It's a grace that we've received the updates about her in the way that we have. We had a week to prepare, to bathe her in prayer, and really gain a peace about the days to come.

One challenge that we never thought about until today was how to break the news about Charlotte to Elizabeth and Elaine. One of our favorite memories that we cherish is thinking about Elizabeth running down the halls of the hospital shouting "Baby Yane is here" when Elaine was born. It's evident that Elizabeth and Elaine love their sister already--and the way the welcome in Charlotte to our family is going to much different than they or we anticipated.

Until today, we never stopped to think in the past week about how tough this will be on the girls. While we as parents have embraced this suffering, the weight of it didn't hit us until today that Elaine and Elizabeth will suffer with us in this. They will probably not get as much "mommy time" as they would like at times, and depending on what the days to come are like, our lives could look drastically different than 2 days ago.

Our time with the girls tonight has been therapeutic for us. We have begun to share Charlotte's struggles with Lizzie especially, and she prayed to Jesus so preciously for her sister tonight! It is obvious that our Good God has been not only preparing our hearts for these challenges but our girls' hearts as well. He does not ignore the details!

Prayer Requests

• Strength for our family
• Rest / peace -- that we would be able to sleep well when we do sleep and that we would be refreshed spiritually, emotionally, and physically every day.
• Understanding / peace for Elizabeth and Elaine
• Discernment for the doctors and clarity during each round of tests.
• Healing for Charlotte's lungs: They are undersized and have a hole in them from complications that arose during birth and shortly after.