Prayers Worked

THANK YOU!!!

The prayers from everyone worked. Hope is a candidate for surgery and will be having her first of three surgeries next week. It has not been scheduled, but it will be after Tuesday...Dr. Smith wants her stronger before the surgery and a little bigger as well.

Some other good news:

She has gained 2 ounces - she is now 5 pounds 14 ounces
She has both kidneys...although her left one is pretty small and they don't know whether or not it is functioning
She has inter-atrial communication, although they will need to fix the restrictive ASD during her first surgery
She does not have any neurological problems that they could find through the ultrasound they did on her head

Hope is still considered a much higher risk for the surgery than most babies with HLHS, but we are still hopeful that she is one tough cookie and will pull through and show everyone what a fighter she really is! God has been there for us throughout this whole journey and we believe that He will be there with the surgeons, cardiologists, nurses, anesthesiologists as our journey continues.

Hope will also be moving tomorrow to PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) tomorrow. This is where she will be staying before and after surgery and they want the nurses to get to know her and for her to know all of them. I am pretty excited because she will be in her own room rather than sharing a room with other little babies like in NICU (where she is now). Her brothers still have little colds (stuffy noses), so they have not been able to go and see her since she was born. We don't want even the slight possibility of her getting sick, but I would love them to be able to see her before the surgery.

We want to thank everyone again for everything that you have done for our family. We have great support from our family which has made this journey so much easier. Marilyn and my mom have been AWESOME taking care of the boys so that Jerry and I can spend as much time as possible with Hope. I actually got to hold her a few times today and it was the most precious feeling in the entire world. When I got home last night (the first time in almost a week) it was really hard coming home without a new baby. Being able to hold her today gave me a little feeling of how precious her life is and I can't wait to hold her again tomorrow.

The thoughtful gifts from everyone is appreciated more than we can say. Thank you seems so small when we feel so grateful for everything everyone has done for our family. I wish there were a better way to express how much we appreciate everything and if we don't tell you enough how much we appreciate everything...please know that our hearts are full of love and gratitude for everything.

Love always,

The Wodzisz Family