My niece is in emergecy surgery. I am leaving for a few days to go back to my family's home. Mr. J is going to watch our boys. <p>Please pray for us all.<p>MJ

MJ,
I will be praying for her.<p>Dawn

Prays go with you for a safe trip and optimistic outcome of your niece's surgery.

Praying....<p>Hugs,
Twiisty

Praying as well........<p>Love,<p>Tigger

Still Praying... <p>And will continue to pray... as long as needed...

Dear MJ,<p>My prayers are with your little niece and your family at this time. I have been where your sister is now and it is the most painful thing in the world to see your baby in such a state and not be able to help. I am glad she has the support of a loving family at this time.<p>May God watch over the little one and keep her safe.<p>love,
heavenly<p>[ May 11, 2002: Message edited by: heavenlybody26 ]</p>

MJ,
Just wondering how your niece is doing?<p>Dawn

Thanks everyone for the prayers and concern.<p>The baby came through her second surgery very well. She has a colostomy now. She is still on the ventilator; she has only been off of it for 2 hours of her little life. She has two more surgeries over the next couple of weeks.<p>The biopsies are back and are negative. Praise God.<p>There are more and more indications of a fatal genetic condition but we are waiting for the results.<p>I nearly fainted the first two times I went in the NICU and saw her. I told myself I had no right to carry on and make a spectacle of myself. I quietly found a chair. I did not cry. I have no right. This is not my child.<p>I am not especially squeamish about blood and tubes and stuff. Turns out my mother felt the same way, but Mom is really squeamish about blood. My sister, who has never fainted in her life, felt her knees buckle and the room spin. It has a lot to do with the fact that this baby is ours. If it had been someone else's baby I had seen in this condition, I don't think my reaction would have been as strong. She is ours; this is my sister's suffering and my niece's suffering and my mother's suffering.<p>Please pray for me and for us. I am filled with rage: rage that there is yet another tragedy in our lives. We never seem to catch a break. There was already one major birth defect present in our family (in many members) and now another one. Grief, trauma, affairs, OC, depression, suicide, drug addiction and alcoholism, disrupted adoptions (that have thankfully been repaired.) I don't know what God expects of us. I am furious at Him. (Guess I need to read my own sig line, huh?) I don't know how much one family is supposed to endure. I don't know how we get through such tragedies without snapping. I have nothing left, nothing. I am empty.<p>There are 40 children in the NICU right now. Forty families going through this anguish.<p>MJ

MJ,
Thank goodness she has come out of the surgery well. I will pray that she does not have a fatal genetic disease and that she will recover with God's speed.
Baby Rachael has without question been born into a family of fighters. With God's grace she will have inherited this strong will to survive.<p>God Bless - CM

It IS anguish, but talk to the baby, sing to the baby, let her know that you are there and that you love her. Sometimes prayer is all we have, but it is enough! Hang in there!!! You can do this!<p>The babies in the NICU are constantly having "procedures" done on them and people touching them who are merely "working" on them so it is very important that they have a loving touch. Just look past the tubes to the day when you will all have her safely at home to cuddle without any of the tubes. Keep the faith!<p>And YES! By all means dwell on the words in your signature line instead of the doctor's reports. The words in your signature line is a promise from heaven that NEVER CHANGES like the doctor's reports do. We can put all our trust in God's word!