evan matthew

evan: young warrior, form of John meaning God has shown favor

Friday, November 29th at 11:08 we welcomed our young warrior, our miracle, our boy who God has surely shown favor into this world.

Evan Matthew, 8 lbs 12 ounces, 21 inches long

 

I wrote a post right before he was born sharing the good news we had received during our last doctors appointment and sharing that we were ready to see miracles. I had no idea how telling that post would be or how miraculous our little boys birth would prove.

Like most healthy babies do, he came into this world pink and screaming.  He didn't stop screaming.  The whole time they were evaluating him.  He just kept screaming.  I lay there crying, just so thankful for that scream, for the fight he was putting up, for the life in his lungs. They let me see him so briefly before they swept him away to the NICU.

What happened next was beyond anything we could have imagined.  After x-rays, dye tests, ultrasounds, giving him formula to see how his system would react and just five hours after his birth the neonatologist came to my postpartum room to announce that they could find nothing wrong with our boy.  That he was as healthy as they come.  We wept and asked how?  How had we gone through 19 weeks of sonograms, an MRI, seeing half a dozen doctors all telling us the same thing and then this? Healthy? You mean he has a full intestine? And it's functioning?  How is it possible? 

The good news just kept coming. His clubbed foot? Not actually clubbed. They called it positional, meaning he has full range of motion and with a little foot massage and the pressure he will put on it when he starts standing it should easily correct. 

 

Holding Evan for the first time in the middle of the night in the NICU

We held our breath.  We waited for the but.

The doctors have no explanation. We have heard them say things like "sometimes these things just happen". We have heard "I have no explanation and I never would have expected it.".

In the hospital nurses cried. Nurses and specialist made special trips back to our room to see Evan and say one more time they just couldn't believe it. Doctors questioned our neonatologist making sure he was looking at the right file and had the right kid. Our doctors not involved in delivery have called to express their disbelief and happiness for us. Those are calls I never expected to receive.

We can only call it a miracle. 

We've quickly stopped asking how and just praised the Lord for his healing in our little warrior.  We need no earthly, medical explanation. We are just thankful.

After being prepared for 4-6 weeks in the NICU, almost guaranteed surgery, possible chromosomal abnormalities and so much uncertainty Evan spent one night in the NICU. One night!  By Saturday afternoon they had transfered him to the newborn nursery.  He came home with us Monday.  

Our Celebration Dinner at the hospital

We walked into our house that afternoon, both of our big boys napping, Evan asleep in his car seat, totally unprepared to have a newborn at home and just wept.  Totally overwhelmed.  Our family all together.  Something we didn't know would ever happen and if it did it would certainly be weeks away.  We were thinking it would be a miracle to have him home by Christmas and here he was not one night away from us.

Now almost a week later we are still pinching ourselves and spending a lot of time staring at his sweet face.  I am tearing up over poopy diapers.  Because y'all our kid poops! Normal poop.  No colostomy bag, no tube feed, just poop in a diaper. 

And we are catching up.  We had been so prepared to have him in the NICU for weeks that we had not fully prepared to have him at home.  No diapers purchased. No bassinet assembled. No baby clothes washed. Thankfully after that last reassuring appointment I had Matt get the car seat down from the attic, just in case.

As long as I live I don't know that I will have words to fully express all the feelings, all of the lessons that this pregnancy and birth have taught me.  I pray that this miracle never loses its awe. I have never felt the power of prayer like I have in these past months.  I am already certain that his story has made an impact far greater than we will ever know. 

I am thankful for this sweet testimony. For each and every prayer. For this start to Evan's story because really it has just begun.