Updates, a butt-long post and exhausted ramblings

An update on the sadness-

Angilee's brother, Travis, is recovering from surgery on his hip this morning. He has pins in it and is still on morphine . . . but his head is okay! Please keep praying for him, as their uncle's funeral is on Friday.

Baby Olivia had an MRI today. There seems to be hope! After the "unfixable" diagnosis they received this weekend, they now have a diagnosis that it the stenosis does not seem to affect all 4 main veins as they had thought and that there is hope for surgery. So . . . Thursday brings an open heart surgery for Olivia. I copied most of the post below. Sorry for the length and formatting. I am too tired to summarize or to do anything but ramble!

I am almost overwhelmed with sadness for the things going on in our world. It is SO full of heartbreak, especially right now, and the rain is coming on saint and sinner alike. I am (strangely) comforted by some verses from Habakkuk that we covered inchurch tonight: "I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us. Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He will make me surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountains." I know that however barren our world is looking right now, He still is in control and we can still be joyful and strengthened. Be joyful because Heaven is just over those mountains my friend. My advice? Keep walking!

From Aaron:

Sooooo…the basic result is that there is a discrete narrowing of the pulmonary veins on her right side, but her left side looks fairly good. The stenosis isn’t throughout each vein as we expected, and the surgeon feels confident about the effectiveness about attempting surgery on the right side. Although the left side looks fairly good,
one vein potentially has some narrowing. The plan will be for the surgeons to
evaluate it visually and make a decision in the OR. If they are confident about
not doing anything, that would be the best case scenario. The less they have to
mess with these veins, the better. The plan is for her to go into surgery
tomorrow, but we haven’t heard a time yet. It will be open heart surgery, with a
heart/lung bypass machine.We feel like we have been given some hope, as we were ready for the result that they couldn’t even do anything. Thankful that the stenosis isn’t throughout all her veins, thankful she was able to come off the anesthesia and
the ventilator from the MRI, and thankful that she is eating again today and
back to being our little Olivia (at least before she goes in tomorrow). Thank
you too for all your prayers and support. It is amazing to hear how word has
gotten out, and so many people who don’t know us personally have been lifting
her (and all our family) up in prayer. We have been blessed in so many ways, and
can’t say thank you enough.