How great thou art..

I've been thanking God all day for the peace and strength he has given Scott and I. No way we could have made it through today without Him with us. All the glory goes to God! He is answering our prayers and watching over Evan every second. He guided the surgeon's hands today and was with every nurse, doctor, and technician that came in contact with our baby boy today. We will continue to pray for a speedy recovery for Evan and a complete healing. This lilttle boy has touched so many lives already, I know God has an amazing purpose for his life..

Today has been such a long day. I slept less than 2 hours last night and we were up with Evan again at 4am. He had another stable night and was ready for surgery when we got here this morning. Scott and I prayed with him and waited with him until the team came to take him back about 730 this morning. We talked to the anesthesiologist and Dr Chai again and then walked Evan back to surgery. I knew God was with him and would take care of him, I had peace when I gave him my "see you soon" kiss and he was wheeled away. All of our updates were quick, the nurse came with good news each time. After our last update we were taken to a consult room to wait for Dr Chai. He came in and let us know the surgery went extremely well, it went as well as any Norwood he has done. There were no complications. He left the sternum open but closed the skin on his chest. He will go in and close the chest tomorrow or Friday. All we could say is 'thank you', but it doesn't seem like enough. How do you thank a man who nonchalantly walks into the room and tells you he has repaired your baby's heart? I will be forever greatful to Dr. Chai, and will pray for him everyday, for God to always guide his hands. We had to wait another 2 hours before we could come back and see Evan. The nurse went over every single tube, wire, and machine. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Evan has a chest tube that is draining blood and fluid out from around his heart. There's another central line in his chest that tunnels under his skin directly into his heart. He has a catheter in. There is an arterial line in his leg to monitor blood pressure and give the nurses a way to draw blood every hour to check blood gases without sticking him in the fingers/foot. He still has his central line in his other leg, but they will be taking that out in the next few days. He is on 7 medications, they are helping his heart pump, a paralytic, pain medication, blood pressure meds, and a few others. He has his breathing tube down his nose now, and his g-tube in the other nostril, with a continuous suction to get all of the fluid out of his stomach. Lastly he has a clear dressing over his incision site. Since the chest isn't closed yet, you can see his little heart pumping under his skin. We will not be uploading any pictures of Evan until he starts healing and gets taken off of some of the machines. This is something I wish no parent should have to go thru, and I don't want to scare any moms who are expecting a baby with HLHS. Evan has continued to be stable since he has been in his room. There will be a nurse in the room at all times for the next few days. The intensive care DR on call just came in, the chest central line is backing up and they aren't able to flush the line. They have ordered a STAT echo to see where the line is. It's not a major problem, they just want to see why it's not working.

Scott has been my rock throughout this journey so far and I am so thankful God brough him into my life. There's not way I could make it thru this without him. He is such a proud Daddy and can't wait to get him home.

We are going to try and go to sleep early tonight, it's been an emotional day. Hopefully we can sleep. I know God is still with Evan and watching over him, he won't be alone tonight.

Again, thank you to everyone praying for Evan. His progress today is proof our prayers are being answered. We aren't going to stop believing for complete healing for Evan. I can see God is working a big miracle in my Evan's life. Please keep praying..