The Lord Sure Does Answer Prayers in Strange Ways

As promised, this is a mid-week entry that includes some shots of the girls from their last sitting with the photographer. We'll put a couple more of each girl individually at the end of this entry. Enjoy them because we are so blessed to able to show off a pair of beautiful girls like Braelyn McKee & Gwendolyn Marie!

However, we could not have predicted that this entry would be yet again typed from a room at Children's Mercy Hospital.

You see, we got a call from daycare earlier this afternoon that Gwendolyn had stopped breathing during her tummy-time exercises. While she eventually regained her breath, Gwen stopped long enough to change color and cause the center's nurse to frantically be ushered into the room to check her out.

By the time that Mom and Dad arrived, Gwen was her normal pasty-white self but still noticeably laboring through the aforementioned congestion as she attempted to breathe. Since she was having obvious problems but was no longer in immediate distress, we took her back to her pediatrician. She checked Gwen out and said that while her vitals were all fine and her lungs sounded normal, today's breathing issues combined with her history as well as the sleep study results from last week made her feel as though the best thing would be to readmit Gwen back to the hospital.

So, here we sit yet again. In the short term, there are a myriad of tests on deck. The doctors told us today that it is their goal that they can get to the bottom of Gwen's increasingly concerning breathing problems before we go home.

In a way, Mom and Dad are very much at ease with things. We've been praying for Gwen's sake that we could weed through things and come to a final decision on her breathing problems without having to deal with a long, drawn out process. So, in a good way even though she had a scare at daycare that caused us to to get admitted back to the hospital, we really do feel like this is the best thing for Gwen. Again, she's not currently in immediate distress which is a positive... and even if she did have another serious flareup, few places would be better to experience those and receive immediate attention. Also, several of the doctor consultations and tests that we were struggling to juggle our work itineraries around will be preformed in the here and now. The hope is that one way or another, we can come to a consensus and do something to benefit Gwen that we all feel comfortable is medically in her best interest.

Again, while it is far from the final result we want and we still pray it isn't ultimately necessary, we felt the biggest issue on the topic of Gwen having a tracheotomy wasn't just the procedure itself. Our apprehension also lied with the neglect to show us that all the other avenues truly had been exhausted and that it was something really needed for Gwendolyn. Unfortunately, we're coming more and more to terms with the fact that Gwen's breathing isn't just slightly off kilter as we initially felt. Instead, it is significantly constricted enough that she's having issues both at night (as the sleep study suggested) and now during the day while she's awake and coherent. The source of that is still something we hope can be found and fixed without a trach being necessary. And the congestion, no matter if it is the cause of these breathing limitations or not, is also something that we hope will be solved thanks to this stay as well.

So, instead of being concerned that we are back in the hospital, we hope that you all embrace it as we've decided to. It's merely another step in Gwen's journey that we hope results in an answer to her latest challenge at hand. And most importantly, it is something that is ultimately in God's hands... Of course, we'll keep you all posted as updates arise. Now, we hope you enjoy those two extra photos below that we promised !!!