Malachi Update

Hello...
It's a cold Sunday morning in November, and life here in Pittsburgh is going well considering. Malachi is is hanging out at Children's Hospital flirting with all the women and look sweet as ever with his awesome hair!

Seriously... He is doing fairly well. This past week has been a roller-coaster of emotions for April and I and it's not over yet. Last Tuesday was suppose to be his heart surgery day, but because they found a small bleed in a ventricle of his brain and a small clot in one of the vessels coming off of the ventricle, the surgery was postponed due to the possibility of complications during surgery resulting from movement of the clot or increased bleeding. We were told that the bleed and clot were so small that they would clear up on their own, and it's a fairly common thing for babies to be born with, none the less it was still a little disheartening to hear about. We had to wait until Thursday for a follow up CT Scan to find out if those spots were cleared up, and then we had to wait until Friday afternoon to hear the results of the Scan, but thankfully the Lord chose to reveal Himself to us again, by allowing the clot and bleed to go away! Praise the Lord.

A couple times during the week, Malachi had difficulty breathing and even stopped breathing on three occasions. Thankfully the doctors were right there to get him breathing again, but those times were also very scary for us. Because of his difficulty breathing throughout the week and those times he stopped breathing, the Ear Nose and Throat doctors came in to take a look at this Trachea to see if there were any obstructions that could be causing the problems. Friday evening they discovered a piece of scar tissue that had grown next to Malachi's vocal cords, obstructing half of the windpipe! So, Friday night around 10:15 they took Malachi in for an operation to remove the tissue. The surgery lasted about 35 minutes and went beautifully! Praise the Lord! Malachi is now back on the ventilator while his throat is healing.

As of right now, the surgeons are talking about heart surgery on either Monday or Tuesday of this week. They are making their plans this weekend for exactly what needs to be done, and hopefully we will know today, Sunday, what those plans are. We would like the surgery to be tomorrow just so that it can be done and Malachi can start healing and then get some good food in him sooner. The surgery that needs to be done could include three parts, but may not include all three. The PDA needs to be closed off... it should close on it's own but because it's taking so long to close they may need to just tie it off themselves. The next possible part is the Band being placed on the Pulmonary Artery to restrict blood flow to the lungs even more. The third part is creating a larger opening between the upper two chambers of the heart, the atrium. This last part they haven't really talked about too much, but it is still a possibility. Once the surgery is completed Malachi will be able to breath room air and that is what he needs to do before he can come home!

Thank you for your prayers... Please continue to pray for our little Malachi. He is so adorable and precious, but looks very week and frail right now because of all he has been through this week already. Please pray that the surgeons will be able to make a decision today about the heart surgery and that it will be done tomorrow! Please pray for strength for Malachi, and for us. The Lord has been faithful and we continue to see His plan unfold... but we still have moments of frustration and doubt. Thankfully we realize again that God is in control and His plan for Malachi is beyond anything we can imagine. I am so thankful that I have a relationship with the Lord that allows me to come before Him at any moment and poor out my heart to Him and feel the relief of his peace that surpasses all understanding guard my heart. What amazing Hope we have in Christ! Thank you for your prayers and love!

We will try to update again soon... but the next couple of days may be a little crazy! Enjoy the latest pictures of our Malachi.

Thankfully in His Hands,
Philip, April and Malachi