Mia Hope

John 17: 1-5
After Jesus said this he looked toward heaven and prayed, " Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may Glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."

What a powerful passage in John. I am reminded of Jesus love and sacrifice.
I am also very aware that for me, my family and this little one inside me, the time has also come....to begin this next season in life. In just a few short hours or days I will be meeting our daughter who we have been anxiously planning our life around the last few months. And I wonder, am I ready to meet this trial in life? I worry about labor, the baby, my 4 kids, everything! Then I remember this passage and know that God is with me and knows my every worry and will get me through.I think I am beginning to understand the sacrifice that was made for me.

It has been 5 weeks! since I wrote that above. We have our beautiful daughter after she decided to come 2 days before induction, May 3rd. The delivery was what we prayed about. I was so thankful not to be induced. When she was born I saw a glimpse of her before the team of doctors walked away with her. After they stabilized her I was able to hold her for 3 minutes and kiss her all over and look at her tiny feet. Then she was off to Children's Hospital, next door.

The first 2 days of her life went smoothly, I was able to nurse and all the family got to hold her many times. On the 3rd day she started showing signs of distress and the doctor said, "She just needs her heart fixed"
She had surgery at 4 days old. Everything went as planned except for one thing. She had come off the heart lung machine and her oxygen levels were too low. So she had to go back on the heart lung machine and had a bigger shunt put in her tiny heart. You can imagine how we felt when we were told she was done and doing okay and then to be told wait, the surgeon is going back in for a bigger shunt. It was a day of waiting and acceptance for us. We were thankful for the many prayers said that day.
We were overjoyed when Mia came through the surgery and we were able to see her and pray over her fragile little body. She did very well the next week, having her chest closed, showing no signs of distress. We did have to tackle the problem of too much fluid on her lungs because of the big shunt.
Jumping ahead to NOW, the doctors were able to control the fluid with medicine and although she still has fluid around her lungs, she is doing well. As of Friday she has been released to the hotel we are staying at until we head back to New Mexico.
Next week the doctor will look at her heart and do a chest x ray to determine if we are able to leave the area. We are hopeful she will do great and we can get back to our casa in NM! On Tuesday Mia had a repeat swallow study, chest x ray, and general check up and things went wonderful. The damage to her vocal chord during surgery is doing much better and she is now able to breast feed. We are overjoyed at that news!

We are so thankful for the people who have prayed and thought about our family during this time. I am thankful I was able to update on facebook because each time I started a new post, here, my time ran out! So I am glad I could post short updates.
We have been through quite a journey and are so glad we have been able to stay together as a family! Everyone has had their moments, who wouldn't living in a hotel for 2 months:) but we are stronger and forever changed for the better.
The 3 big sisters are enjoying changing the baby and loving on her and mama is liking the help! Big brother is in love with his baby sister and things are light hearted at the Rathe house. We will update again in a couple days on a time frame when we can leave the area. Please pray for Mia's next appointments to go well.
Praise God for all the blessings we have received. Especially the cards, prayers, visits, everything. We are overwhelmed by the out poring of LOVE.