I'll try to sum it up - We're going to Omaha!

Hello everyone!  After the information dump in my last post, I'll try to give you a break and be concise here to give an overview of the main things happening now.

• Our plan is to deliver at Children's Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska.  Trusting God will work out the details of a house sitter for us.  We already have church family volunteering to mow the lawn and help us figure out how to best look after the house. 

• We'll have a concurrent plan for delivering at Miller Children's Hospital locally, just in case there's a medical reason that pops up quickly that would prevent me from traveling before delivery.  It's impossible to know at this point if the heart surgeon at Miller Children's is on board with surgery for Annelise, because I won't get to meet him until after our cardiologist appointment here on May 21st. I hope he would agree to surgery, but I also hope nothing will keep us from delivering in Omaha.

• Annelise's growth will be monitored here, and the results sent to the Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) specialist in Omaha.

• We will plan to go earlier than my due date, and stay near the Children's Hospital in Omaha, at a Ronald McDonald-type facility, until she's ready to deliver, or stops growing and they're ready to take her out.

Annelise's biggest health concerns continue to be the spina bifida lesion, the two issues in her heart: VSD and aortic coarctation, then the rest will be determined after she is born.  We're always praying for Annelise to be shockingly healthy!  That could include things like breathing easy when typically babies with Trisomy 18 require breathing assistance... feeding easier when typically they need feeding assistance.  Seizures are something that I would be so happy if she did not experience.  There is a kind of cancer that develops later in many kids with T18's liver, so praying that stays away, and basically welcoming any blessings that would make her life more comfortable.  We don't know yet how much, if any use of her bowels and legs she will have because of the Spina Bifida.  We will absolutely love and adore Annelise at any level of health she has, but God tells us to present our requests to Him, and I'd love for my little girl to live, and live as comfortably as possible, so that's what we pray for.  

Want to see an amazing video I found about Annelise's heart surgeon, Jim Hammel, from Omaha?  I was being lazy and trying to use the internet to find the contact info for his assistant (instead of opening my purse to get her card that I know is in there!) and found this awesome news segment from a few years ago about the surgeon leading a team to go down to Mexico and volunteer time to repair kids' hearts!  

It overwhelms me how this one man's skills and his compassionate and caring heart are changing outcomes for families in multiple countries.  Not to mention, Lord willing, my family and our baby girl!  I'm praying for his work/life balance, and that he'll see Jesus his savior at work daily in his life, if he doesn't already.  Praying that he can continue this work and the teaching that he gives to others will just multiply the numbers of cardiac surgeons that operate like Dr. Hammel.  Such a cool guy!

Omaha Surgeons in Mexico
Another article about Omaha Surgeons in Mexico

We sang this song at church this Sunday and my eyes were not dry!

 This is a new favorite that I found while I was looking for the other song online. I'm putting this on my playlist because it's exactly what my heart needs to sing in the moments when I AM afraid.