3 Years

I have kept myself busy today with helpful chores around the house, but The Shadow has always lingered back behind me somewhere.  It's 9:00pm and I figured it's time to look it in the face.

Today is three years since The Phone Call came.  "Hey Trent.  It's [Queen's Best Friend].  You need to get the kids settled and get back to the hospital as soon as you can.  Maggie has had a stroke."  I can take you to the place on the Gulf Freeway where I answered.  It's not etched into my memory.  It's more like seared.

Let me tell you (and The Shadow) what I've seen in the last three years...

God's faithfulness in saving the life of my little girl and bringing her back to health.  He'd still be faithful if it had gone a different way, but I'm glad He chose to display Himself in this manner for her.

God's strength in our lives and life.  Thank you, God, for seeing us all through.

Resilience in my kids.  They bounce back like rubber balls.  I don't doubt that they've been marked by these three years.  I think they consistently show how resilient they are.  And not because we're perfect parents, but I think love, attention, and some intentional investment keep them bouncy (in a lot of areas of life).

The church is the greatest institution in the world.  I serve as a pastor, so I know it's not perfect.  But it's great.  And I have a legion of stories - chapters that were written by the love and selflessness of others - that prove it.

Faithfulness.  Strength.  Resilience.  Church.

I hope that encourages someone who has their own Shadow that's in pursuit.

Friday Night Update #MountainsforMaggie

Well, after a rather eventful day, the Minion was taken back to her little procedure about 12:30 or so.  She made it through with flying colors, though she did have a heart rate drop at one point that raised a few eyebrows.

It may be because her heart is an all-star athlete.  Resting heart rate of 40-something.  That's at least the theory I'm working with right now (with all my medical knowledge).

She has recovered and done reasonably well tonight.  They have her hooked up to wires galore and that means no distractions of walking down the hallway.  I hope we can remedy that tomorrow morning.

She is left with one more tube, making a total of three now.  This one should come out Monday.  Her chest tube output is still pretty significant.  So, we keep holding on that.

But I like her fight.  I like her spirited responses at times.  I like her spunk.

And I really like that God's got this.


Prayer requests:

1.  No post-surgical complications and we'll be able to move toward where we were a few days ago.

2.  Her heart will continue to recover and do what it's supposed to do.

3.  She'll be able to find rest in the middle of all the wires, beeps, blurps, and so forth.

4.  God will open doors for ministry and conversation here.  No wasted opportunities.

5.  Her story will make a difference.

6.  Blessings on so many who have blessed us.  We are loved.

Wednesday afternoon update - not much to report #MountainsforMaggie

I so appreciate what many of you have said - both its spirit and its content.  "Y'all aren't posting as much.  I need to know what's going on!"

Two things of note on this.

First, we aren't posting as much as last summer because there hasn't been as much to say.  As I type, she is blissfully in afternoon-nap-mode and couldn't be more angelic.  Her health situation is the same as yesterday, so there's not much to update.

Second, this has been a more predictable path than last summer.  I'm grateful for that, even though the path hasn't been easy.  But we have certain milestones out in front of us and know how we move forward.  Again, we're grateful.

So, with that behind us, here's the afternoon update.

She has done very well overall.  If you have physically seen her (or could), you would think that there's just not very much wrong with the girl.  She's walking, talking, expressing herself, ordering people around, giggling, giving high-fives, and overall in good shape externally.

The internal part still has some work to do.  We still need lungs to clear (which will allow the chest tubes to come out).  We also still need the pericardial effusion not to get any bigger.  There are possibilities of us going home with the pericardial effusion still present, as long as it doesn't get any bigger.

It'd be fine with me if God went ahead and dealt with it divinely.

So that's how you can pray.  Her lungs to clear the extra liquid.  Her heart to clear this effusion.

Thanks for standing with us.

Trent (for all of us)

Tuesday morning update #MountainsforMaggie

My wife, the lovely Queen, updated on Facebook yesterday and so there's not much to add to it.  Again, the plan is to do an echo this morning, get it read, and determine whether or not there's a surgical procedure this afternoon.  That procedure most likely would be inserting some sort of drain into the pericardium and leaving it in for a couple of days.  It involves another night in the ICU and then, Lord willing, back down to the regular cardiology floor.  Nothing's changed on that.

For someone who has been through so much, she's incredibly resilient.  She has also slept very well the past few nights when I've been here.  Even last night, when they messed with her considerably, she went back to sleep and is now peaceful beside me.  What a gem, this little one of ours.

Of note, her little heart rate drops significantly when she goes into REM sleep.  It drops to the point that the doctors got a bit nervous last night.  All of the rest of the stuff they look for (pulses strong in the extremities, good return to normal color when they touch skin, normal temperature, etc.) is just fine.  She just really relaxes when she sleeps.  And her heart slows.

You can pray as the Queen noted in her Facebook post:

- Things go well with the echo this morning and we get some answers

- It'd be awesome not to have to do a surgical procedure on my little Minion, but if that's what we need in order to move forward, then pray for success with that

- The docs to have a collective wisdom beyond experience, training, and education in order to determine the best path

- No complications from anything

- Her story to make a difference.  I don't believe God wastes anything, and certainly not pain and scars

Thanks again for standing with us.  God's got this.

She loves Cinderella

Outside of an early morning x-ray waking her, the Minion has really had a pretty good night.  We have seen a lot of her personality return, which is always so encouraging.  She is moving more and enjoyed seeing her siblings and one set of grandparents yesterday.

One of the cute little developments is how much she likes Cinderella, the old Disney cartoon.  The Queen thinks it's because of the animated animals.  No matter what, it's super cute when she asks for "Cindawella."

Some quick prayer requests...

1.  We're still draining (and leaking) from one of the chest tubes.  It'd be awesome to have that process wrap up.  But we're not there yet.  But it'd be awesome.

2.  We want to be intentional with her moving around even more.  That will help with a bunch of things, but we don't want to overdo anything.  

3.  We have had some sweet sweet moments.  A few more would simply be gifts.

Thanks for all who pray.  God's got this.

We've had a very peaceful night #MountainsforMaggie

Thanks for all who have prayed along with us.  Tonight has been extremely peaceful and restful for our girl.  She has slept pretty soundly throughout the time I've been here and it's a wonderful dad-kind-of-experience to watch her sleep.

Here are a couple of brief prayer requests...

1.  That we get to move to the floor today.

2.  That we can move toward getting the chest tubes out.

3.  That her pain will continue to be manageable or even less than that.

4.  That her life will make a difference.

Thank you one and all.  You are gifts to us.

A brief overnight update #MountainsforMaggie

Thanks for and to all who have prayed for our little Minion.  She is currently fitfully resting, begging for water and all manner of fluids...which we can't give to her.

"Daddy, can I have some coffee?"

Yes.  That's how desperate she is.

Outside of that, her personality seems to be very much intact and vibrant.  "Don't tell me, 'Not Yet!'" might have drawn a few laughs from the nursing corps.

Apparently tomorrow they get her up and moving.  You can pray for the Physical Therapist who gets that assignment.  By all accounts, though, she's progressing just like they want her to progress.

Our lives were filled up and minds distracted by the folks who showed up at the hospital yesterday.  Family and Framily.  Parents.  Sister.  Brother-in-Law.  Best friends.  We are apart of the greatest church - people who take days off to spend it with us in a waiting room, a birthday celebrated at the hospital, and others.  Two pastor friends ponied up for Torchy's Tacos for lunch.  On and on.  Gratitude.

It's interesting being here and seeing some of the same people again.  So many we remember and several remember her from last summer.  It make me grateful all over again for what God saw us through and gives me a jolt of faith for getting through the next several days.  It's also pretty awesome that she has touched so many up here.  Four different docs stopped by to say hi, only one of which was actually assigned to this floor.  Her life has touched many.  May it be for decades to come.

Prayer requests for the morning:

1.  The fluid on her lungs and in her thoracic cavity drains efficiently.  This is a big key in getting us out of CVICU and down to the regular cardiac floor.  That would be a big win and would put us closer to home.

2.  Some semblance of normal rest for our princess.  Right now, it's so-so.  More starts and fits rather than deep breaths and relaxed muscles.

3.  Stability and rhythm for the Big Three.  School is a gift in that way.  And Nana does math homework for a living, so that's a help.

4.  Her story and life to make a difference.

Thanks for waking this road (again) with us.

Go Time #MountainsforMaggie

I'm in the hotel lobby waiting on a cup of coffee and have a minute to fire this little missive off.  We have a report time of 7:00am and Go Time is 8:00am.  We will be updating throughout the day.

You can pray these ways...

1.  God will protect and preserve her.

2.  The surgeons will use every bit of their God-given skill to put her vessels and other parts of her anatomy into the places they need to go.

3.  Recovery will be quicker than anyone can anticipate.  The first 72 hours are crucial.

4.  We can all be on top of the pain management.

I anticipate we will be updating throughout the day.  Thanks for joining with us in prayer.  God is a good, good Father.

Re-booting the blog and #MountainsforMaggie

I have intentionally taken some respite from writing here regularly and now am re-opening for business in a way.  Not only is our church family going through the New Testament in 75 Days (a super little exercise that you can still join in on - info here), but we are headed back in for the heart procedure for our little Minion.

I'm writing this the morning of pre-op.  I'll be waking her up and heading in close to an hour from now where there will be tests galore and information abundant and paperwork in reams.

And then tomorrow she will have the heart procedure we have known was coming but wish we could postpone (forever, preferably).  For those wondering, it's a procedure where they unhook the inferior and superior vena cava and attach those directly to the lungs, which allows her heart to only pump red blood and not the red-blue mixture which it has been doing.

The surgery will be tomorrow (Wednesday) first thing.  It's expected to be an all-day affair and be followed by several days in the CVICU and then 2-3 weeks on the regular cardiac floor.

The two questions people have asked are the two I will answer below:

1.  She looks so good, so why are you doing this?  Minion does look good.  And she's so funny and talkative these days.  It seems almost silly to move forward now.  But like with a lot of life, what appears great on the outside is trouble on the inside.  She is a ticking time bomb for her heart to throw off another clot (because of her anatomy) and remains a significant stroke-risk.

2.  How are y'all doing?  Great question.  The other kids seem to be taking it mostly in stride and have a great distraction in the regular rhythm of school.  I live somewhere between freaked out, scared out of my mind, and Here I Raise My Ebenezer (a line in a song that prompts me to remember that God brought her this far and is with us now, with faith that He will take care of her tomorrow too).  The Queen is...she's awesome.  She's not only prepared our house for all of this but did so in a way that kept most of us busy and our minds off of the day.  She's amazing.  I think she's scared too, but she has the kind of faith that stated yesterday, "I believe God's got this."  Amen.

We will be updating regularly on the blogs and via social media.  Thanks for all who will stop and pray as things unfold.  We are so grateful.

#MountainsforMaggie

Tree of Life Day 55: John 10-12

I love the story of Lazarus in John 11.  There are two phrases that get to me every time I read it.

First, when Mary comes out to see Jesus, overwhelmed with grief, half unfiltered honesty and half unswerving faith, Jesus weeps.

How great is that?  The God who has everything in control and is not in the least bit worried about anything and who knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead wept with Mary.  He could've just started smiling and said, "Hey, watch this cool trick."  He could've said nothing and got to the miracle-working business.  But He wept.

And I think in our pain, God not only knows what it's like but emotes with us.

Second, when Lazarus comes out of the grave, he has to have help getting his grave clothes off.  Jesus delivered him, but others helped him experience that freedom.

What a great picture of the Body of Christ:  helping each other experience the freedom Jesus brings.

Amen.

Share a story

While at family camp at Pine Cove this summer, my wife found a little gem of a gift to our family called Just Add Family.  The essence of it is little "recipes" for activities you can do as a family, whether traveling, at dinner (where we do most of ours), or any other number of scenarios.  Like I said, it's a great little gift to our family and always gives us something to talk about (just ask my middle one what Fat Cat is and then get ready for the silliness to ensue).

A night or two ago, our family activity called for talking about our spiritual stories and, if there was a particular verse or passage that stuck out in part of that story, to share part of the story and that verse.

Throughout my college years, I got to sit under and with a tremendous minister and his wife.  He is one of the most gifted communicators in the American evangelical scene right now and has been used by God to do mighty things, particularly among college students.  One of the more shaping conversations I got to have with him related to 1 Thessalonians 5.24.  And then I got to learn to believe it.

When I was trying to pay for a mission trip to South America and needed $1050 but only had $1000 allocated, I went ahead and sent the check for the full amount.  For those worrying, I had extra money so it wasn't going to be a hot check.  But that money was allocated for bills and school, not mission trip.  I walked the literal 25 feet from the blue box mail drop to my school PO box and, upon opening, found a check for...wait for it...$50.  Faithful is He who calls you; He will surely do it.

At 20 it's one thing.  At 35 it's different, right?

As we waited and waited and waited and waited on our paperwork to come through to adopt our daughter from China, paperwork delayed by Swine Flu and the Olympics and all sorts of other things, it was brutal on our family.  In a way, it was doubly so on me because not only did I carry my own pain but the pain of seeing my wife wounded and weeping when the next round of paperwork came out and we weren't included in the approved list.  The temptation to quit the process came from the Enemy daily.  Daily.  What I held onto in those days was, "Faithful is He who calls you; He will surely do it."

And I have many other stories about how I held to that truth and saw God move.  Thank you, Father, for being a faithful and amazing God who does what He promises without fail or fault.  Amen.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...

Miracle

No quip today.  Miracles happen.  Read about it here:

Chrissie's Story