Pray Without Ceasing...

Hazie at a happier, summery time.

Our little angel has taken a downward turn tonight. She is at the hospital with Jen right now. We keep a prayer in our hearts for Hazie all the time, but sometimes I think of the scripture that tells us we should "pray without ceasing" and that it is more applicable to a grandparent's heart. I think I would add the word fervently...pray fervently without ceasing! It works best for me in describing what this is like. Ramping it up a notch to being the parent is something I cannot even fathom and we are pretty close to it. How they do this is something beyond my comprehension. What I do know is they were chosen to be her parents, and somewhere from within them comes the strength the Lord gives them to do it.

We went to Park City with a lot of snow and an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet this last couple of days. We never even thought about how the elevation might affect her breathing since she is use to nearly 4500 feet. However, I have been dealing with a chest cold and I could really feel the difference, especially since I am use to 32 feet above sea level as being normal. It obviously didn't cause the problem that Hazie is having now, but it did exacerbate it we think.

Hazie started to have some trouble with the breathing yesterday and she received her breathing treatments for asthma which helped very much. But this morning she was listless and having more troubles so we headed home immediately. We thankfully had a portable oxygen tank with us. She was brewing a new infection, exactly as they were told might happen when the antibiotics were taken away a few weeks ago. Today she has been pretty quiet which is a good sign something is wrong. She is always so gregarious, chatty and social when she is well. Right now she has a temp of 102 degrees and a bright red ear drum on the shunt side. This is not good news. It is very serious and may lead to that major surgery to replace the shunt.

Jen will be returning with Hazie tonight after they stabilize her and give her some meds to take her through the night. The ER doctor there spent an hour reading her chart and said he did not want to do anything further until her doctors here and in Salt Lake are consulted. It is important they do not give antibiotics until tests are run because they will need a baseline. So we all expect she will be heading up to Salt Lake tomorrow early for an undetermined amount of time.

We have canceled our flight home tomorrow and will be here until things look better taking care of the big girls, house, etc. Praise God, for our being retired and having flexible schedules right now.

So we are gearing up for this new year in fine fashion! Thanks for praying with us, we love you!