Wade Joye

The Truth

Self-evaluation is hard. A lot of the time it can be difficult to truly gauge your own strengths and weaknesses. This is why it is so important to open your life to others so that they can tell you what sometimes is obvious to everyone but you. 

This applies on so many different levels. In our service review meeting on Monday, I asked our team to point out my weak spots as a worship leader after watching a video of Sunday's worship experience. Are those conversations fun? Not usually. Are they valuable? Extremely. They are necessary if we are going to grow and strive to honor God in every area of our lives.

I left the office tonight after a second round of auditions and was heading to the hospital when Ferris suggested that I go home. In the seven weeks the girls have been there, I have only missed one day. Ferris knew I was close to reaching my limit and I needed to spend the night at home. She told me instead to spend extra time with them tomorrow night. I felt terrible about not going to the hospital, but I knew she was right. 

My pride can definitely get the best of me. I don't like to admit that I don't have it all together. There is no room for pride as we walk with Jesus, and laying it down means admitting when and where we are weak and allowing others free reign to speak these hard truths. 

Who has the ability to say the tough things in your life? 

 

Answered Prayers

God has answered so many prayers this week. Here's just a few.

1. Liana and Adleigh both passed their first physical therapy test. They did great, which is especially awesome for Liana since it would be expected for her to have issues. Her and Adleigh did exactly what babies are supposed to do with their reflexes and their muscle tone looked good too.

2. Ferris got a tour of the Progressive Care nursery today, and the nurses keep talking like the girls may be there within the next week or two. As much as we will miss our current nurses, it is so comforting to hear them talking about the girls making this huge step.

3. They are doing amazingly well with their breathing and are so close to getting on 1 Liter on the nasal cannula. That would be considered low flow and is the last step before completely breathing on their own!

4. Liana was awake almost the whole time I held her today. She smiled a ton, especially when I sang to her. I think she may be a future Elevation worship leader!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom got to hold Liana for the first time today on her birthday. Both girls had an amazing day and we were ecstatic, but I don't think anyone in the world was happier today than my mom. Love you mom!

What A Difference A Day Makes

God answered our prayers and Adleigh did great last night and had an awesome day today. She is breathing well and hardly had any episodes. Liana was making progress today as well and is down on her oxygen. Thank you Jesus!

"How great is Your goodness which You have stored up for those who fear You" Psalm 31:19

Tough Night

Tonight was one of the hardest nights in awhile for me. You can get most of the details at Ferris' blog, but here is what I was there for. I walked into the nursery around 5:45 to see about 5 nurses around Adleigh's incubator. Apparently she was having some apnea spells after being off the vent and on the bubble CPAP. They had to bag her twice, which is when they manually use this pump to get her to start breathing. They gave her a new CPAP to see if that would help. We basically just watched her for the rest of the night. They aren't really sure why she is having these issues and definitely don't want to have to put her back on the ventilator, so please pray that Adleigh does well during the night on her CPAP.

I don't want to give the impression on this blog that walking through this process is easy just because we are trusting in God. This is by far the hardest thing I have ever gone through and tonight I literally felt at the end of my strength. Thankfully, God gave Ferris strength during my weakness. We also had a visit at the hospital from a friend I hadn't seen in years who spoke some very timely, encouraging words that I needed to hear. I continually see the Lord carry us through this process.

Eventful Day

Today was a pretty eventful day with the girls. On a good note, they both had their first eye exam and everything looked great. Eye issues are a pretty common occurrence with preemies and they will check the girls every two weeks, but they passed their first test with flying colors. We are very thankful that the Lord has answered our prayers. The test is pretty intense for babies, though, and caused Liana to go all over the place with her heart rate and oxygen levels for most of the day.

When they tried to take Adleigh off of the ventilator this afternoon the doctors discovered that her trachea had swollen because of the vent. She only lasted on the nasal cannula for about 15 minutes before having to be re-intubated. The plan is to give her steroids tomorrow which will hopefully allow the swelling to decrease so she can breath without the vent. Please pray that the swelling will go away so she will get off the ventilator.

We also found out that Adleigh has a heart defect called ASD. This means that there is a small hole in between her atriums. In terms of heart issues, this is a minor one that many people have and live with. They will just continue to monitor it, and ultimately it may close on its own. 

Adleigh and Liana love to keep things interesting. 

Surgery Report

Adleigh's surgery went really well today. The surgeon said her PDA was huge so it is pretty amazing that she was doing as well as she was. God was definitely giving her strength. 

Thanks for the prayers!

New Pics

Check out how much Adleigh has grown! She had a great day today, and the nurse told us that her surgery tomorrow should help her begin to digest her food better. Once she begins to eat well she should be on the road to progressive care! Please pray that her surgery will go smoothly in the morning and that she would recover very quickly. Also, pray that her digestive system will be healthy and begin to allow her to have regular milk feedings.

Liana is finally over her infection which we are very grateful for. She is also gaining some weight now and is a little over 2 lb 7 ounces. What's crazy is this is basically what Adleigh weighed when she was born.We are praying very specifically now that she would have no swelling in her brain and that ultimately one of her brain scans will come back showing that she is healed. We are also asking God to allow her to continue to go down on her oxygen levels. Here is a pic from the other night.

Surgery

Adleigh is having her surgery on Friday so please keep her in your prayers! 

Naaman

This story from 1 Kings has been on my mind a lot recently. God heals Naaman after he washes in the river 7 times. It was an interesting command, and Naaman must have wondered why he didn't get healed after washing once. But he was obedient, and the Lord moved because of his faith. 

I wonder how many times I have not persevered in what God was calling me to do or pray for and given up after washing 6 times when all the while He was going to move on the 7th. His timing is always best, so as we pray and take action we must also wait upon the Lord. I want the next brain scan to come back showing Liana is healed. The Lord may receive the most glory by waiting to heal on a scan that is a month out.

The challenge is to walk in faith, pray specific prayers, trust God and then not get discouraged when His timing and methods differ from our own. He will answer sun stand still prayers in the manner that will most magnify the name of Jesus. 

All that being said, we were told today that Adleigh has to have the surgery to close her PDA. Originally it was going to be tomorrow, but now it looks like it could be in a few days with one more ultrasound before it happens. Please pray that the final one will show that God has closed it so she will not have to have the surgery. Also, Liana still has her infection, so we are asking the Lord to help her get over that very quickly.

Thanks for continuing to lift our girls up to the Lord. He has been so good to them!