Grateful

Each time we travel to Ann Arbor for an appointment, we see answered prayers. The CPAM (congenital pulmonary airway malformation) is not growing, but Owen is. His CVR moved from 1.6 to 1.5 and now to 1.4. This means Owen needs less monitoring and our appointments will now be every other week.

The professionals at Mott are convinced DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids could give us the same quality of care at a much more convenient location for us. We are still waiting for our referral to be processed and hope to see progress on that this week.

We’ve been so blessed by all the comments, text messages, emails, and cards we’ve received and for those who have offered practical help. From watching our kids to cleaning our house and helping with the cost of gas, you’ve made our lives easier! Thank you to all of you who have reached out in one way or another.

Our continued prayer requests are for Owen’s mass to shrink and for his heart to stay strong and move back into place. The journey ahead is full of unknowns. While some CPAM babies are born asymptomatic (meaning they can breathe fine but need surgery later), babies with very large masses (like Owen’s) are at greater risk of having breathing problems at birth. We’re praying this is not the case for our young warrior—we know God can answer that prayer. Our greatest hope is the CPAM would disappear altogether and Owen would never need surgery.

Though we don’t know the rest of the chapters of Owen’s story, we put our hope completely in the One who does. God is not only the Author of Owen’s story, but the Hero. While we can’t see the bigger picture, we trust God will use all this for good.

“For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”

Psalm 139:13-16

And so we wait, and we pray. We place all the unknowns into the hands of the One who knows and loves Owen best.

Jen