Calling All Prayer Warriors! We Need Your Help!

We are foregoing our normal Little Things Thursday post tonight, because I have something far more important and urgent to write about. Let me start by saying, we aren't pregnant. This is actually an ultrasound photo of our soon-to-be-born niece!

Baby Aubree Grace

My brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Sarah, are eagerly awaiting the birth of their second daughter, Aubree Grace. Isn't that beautiful? She has an older sister, Alyvia, who is almost 2. So fun! I love that my kids have cousins so close to their age!

Sarah is due in October, and is currently 17 weeks along with little Aubree. Last week, she went in for a routine checkup, and the doctor found an abnormal heartbeat. An ultrasound the next day, followed by a specialist visit the day after that revealed that Aubree has some severe heart defects.

1. All of Aubree's internal organs are reversed. Her heart and stomach are on the right side of her body instead of on the left side, etc. This, in and of itself, is not too scary. As long as the doctors know which side her organs are on, they can compensate for that.
2. One of the bottom chambers of her heart stopped developing at 8 weeks. However, the doctors aren't sure if it's the lower right or lower left chamber since her insides are all backwards. The heart is definitely on the wrong side of her body, but they aren't sure if the heart itself is also reversed. Regardless, it's a problem because it's the part of the heart that pumps blood back out into the body. To fix it, Aubree will need three open heart surgeries before she reaches age 5, all of them requiring long hospital stays. The first one will be immediately after delivery.
3. Aubree has a complete heart block. The part of the heart that acts as a "pacemaker" is malfunctioning, most likely due to the underdeveloped chamber. While the top two chambers are pumping at 130 beats per minute, the bottom two chambers are only pumping at 90 beats per minute. The chances of fatal heart failure while in the womb is 50%, with the odds not improving much in the first few hours after birth.

The pediatric specialist that they are working with has seen each of these issues separately, but not all together in the same baby. Her issues are extremely rare. The odds of one baby having all three defects is 1:1,000,000,000,000. Obviously, Aubree is a very, very special baby!

This is where you come in:
When I was pregnant, our family and friends came around us and prayed for our babies all of the way through. In fact, we even had prayer teams for each baby. I know we still have prayer warriors reading our blog. There are probably quite a few from our pregnancy days, and I know there are a lot of new ones as well.

God is so much bigger than all of the statistics and medical advice that is out there. Our family is proof of that. As I hold my kids a little closer, knowing that none of this is beyond God, I'm begging prayers for my sweet little niece, Aubree.

Please pray that God allows Aubree to live through the pregnancy and coming surgeries. Please pray for her parents, Mike and Sarah, who are walking through such a difficult, unknowing time. Pray their marriage stays strong, their faith only increases, and for specific protection for Sarah as she moves through this high-risk pregnancy. And please pray for their extended family as we try to support them, but not overwhelm them, in the days to come.

Sarah, Big Sister Alyvia, and Mike

Our baby prayer teams from when we were pregnant were such a source of strength to us. We would often read through the people praying for our babies and know that they were covered in prayer. If you are willing to help by praying for Mike, Sarah, big sister Alyvia, and baby Aubree, would you be so kind as to leave a comment saying that you will, along with what state or country you are in? I would like to print out the comments on this post and give it to them as something they can hold on to.

And if you want to share this post with your church prayer chain or FB friends, we would be very grateful for any extra prayers that you can send their way.

You all have walked through so much with us over the last few years, and I'm thanking you from the bottom of my heart for continuing to walk with us and our extended family. Thank you!

We are foregoing our normal Little Things Thursday post tonight, because I have something far more important and urgent to write about. Let me start by saying, we aren't pregnant. This is actually an ultrasound photo of our soon-to-be-born niece!

Baby Aubree Grace

My brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Sarah, are eagerly awaiting the birth of their second daughter, Aubree Grace. Isn't that beautiful? She has an older sister, Alyvia, who is almost 2. So fun! I love that my kids have cousins so close to their age!

Sarah is due in October, and is currently 17 weeks along with little Aubree. Last week, she went in for a routine checkup, and the doctor found an abnormal heartbeat. An ultrasound the next day, followed by a specialist visit the day after that revealed that Aubree has some severe heart defects.

1. All of Aubree's internal organs are reversed. Her heart and stomach are on the right side of her body instead of on the left side, etc. This, in and of itself, is not too scary. As long as the doctors know which side her organs are on, they can compensate for that.
2. One of the bottom chambers of her heart stopped developing at 8 weeks. However, the doctors aren't sure if it's the lower right or lower left chamber since her insides are all backwards. The heart is definitely on the wrong side of her body, but they aren't sure if the heart itself is also reversed. Regardless, it's a problem because it's the part of the heart that pumps blood back out into the body. To fix it, Aubree will need three open heart surgeries before she reaches age 5, all of them requiring long hospital stays. The first one will be immediately after delivery.
3. Aubree has a complete heart block. The part of the heart that acts as a "pacemaker" is malfunctioning, most likely due to the underdeveloped chamber. While the top two chambers are pumping at 130 beats per minute, the bottom two chambers are only pumping at 90 beats per minute. The chances of fatal heart failure while in the womb is 50%, with the odds not improving much in the first few hours after birth.

The pediatric specialist that they are working with has seen each of these issues separately, but not all together in the same baby. Her issues are extremely rare. The odds of one baby having all three defects is 1:1,000,000,000,000. Obviously, Aubree is a very, very special baby!

This is where you come in:
When I was pregnant, our family and friends came around us and prayed for our babies all of the way through. In fact, we even had prayer teams for each baby. I know we still have prayer warriors reading our blog. There are probably quite a few from our pregnancy days, and I know there are a lot of new ones as well.

God is so much bigger than all of the statistics and medical advice that is out there. Our family is proof of that. As I hold my kids a little closer, knowing that none of this is beyond God, I'm begging prayers for my sweet little niece, Aubree.

Please pray that God allows Aubree to live through the pregnancy and coming surgeries. Please pray for her parents, Mike and Sarah, who are walking through such a difficult, unknowing time. Pray their marriage stays strong, their faith only increases, and for specific protection for Sarah as she moves through this high-risk pregnancy. And please pray for their extended family as we try to support them, but not overwhelm them, in the days to come.

Sarah, Big Sister Alyvia, and Mike

Our baby prayer teams from when we were pregnant were such a source of strength to us. We would often read through the people praying for our babies and know that they were covered in prayer. If you are willing to help by praying for Mike, Sarah, big sister Alyvia, and baby Aubree, would you be so kind as to leave a comment saying that you will, along with what state or country you are in? I would like to print out the comments on this post and give it to them as something they can hold on to.

And if you want to share this post with your church prayer chain or FB friends, we would be very grateful for any extra prayers that you can send their way.

You all have walked through so much with us over the last few years, and I'm thanking you from the bottom of my heart for continuing to walk with us and our extended family. Thank you!