Praise God for boring!!

Hey all! Sorry for the delay in the update! Since last Saturday we've been extremely blessed by mostly good updates! Kenzie has continued to progress nicely and is healthier and healthier every day! They moved her to the stepdown unit of the CTICU today, where kids who don't require as much attention go before they're able to go home! The idea of taking our little girl home with us in the next week or so is absolutely amazing! Tiffany and I both were holding Kenzie today and with tears of joy we were thanking God for just getting Kenzie to the point where she is!!! She is truly such a gift and we hope and pray her story is a testimony of God's miracles and that her life is a picture to this world of a surrendered follower of Christ! To Him be ALL the glory!

In terms of updates and prayer requests- there are two main things right now. Besides Kenzie doing so well, another reason why we were moved to the step down unit was because of infections here at the CTICU. These kids go through so much and the little infections can be a huge setback in their progress. Fortunately Kenzie doesn't seem to be sick at all besides the normal recovery from open heart surgery, but there are several children here that we've met (both them and their parents) that are going through a tough time. Please pray for each of these sweet little ones (Sonya, Abigail, Musa, Conner, and little Judah down in Cincinnati), that God would continue to protect them from infections, heal them from their heart defects, but in doing so would draw them all closer to Himself through a relationship with Christ someday (by far the most imporant)!! Tiffany and I were talking before Kenzie was born about how the worst ending to this story is not losing Kenzie at an early age, but losing Kenzie later in life and her never knowing and trusting in the saving power of Jesus Christ!

Please also pray for Kenzie to start feeding on her own as opposed to the feeding tube that she currently has going through her nose. Her bilirubin levels have been at around 18 and the typical levels are at 1. Unfortunately, this isn't the type of Jaundice that can be resolved by sitting under a lamp for 24 hours, but instead is caused directly by the liver. These levels have gone down from 22 earlier in the week and can continue to come down on their own if her body gets enough milk. Prayers are definitely appreciated for her feeding and bilirubin levels!

In other news- I'm glad to see that our little girl got good looks like her mama even though everyone says she has my nose. Maybe we're biased, but we believe that she's absolutely beautiful! Here are some pictures taken over the last few days! Love you all and so thankful for your prayers!