Provision and Thankfulness

Considering that so many people have been praying for us, I thought it would be appropriate to show the numerous ways that God has taken care of us:

1) 1 week before we began our vacation we went to Dallas where we saw one of Kelly’s good friends and her family- her Dad is the head of neonatology at Brown medical school and its associated hospital. They told us to call if there were ever any problems. We were on the phone with him numerous times throughout this process. He was a great comfort, a source of important information and dialogue, and served as a second opinion. I suppose it is rare to have that caliber of a doctor available in such a capacity.
2) By the first night, I had only slept about 3 hours in the past 36- not out of the ordinary from my submarine days, but with the stress of what happened, the constant backrubs and efforts to keep Kelly as comfortable as possible while she was writhing in discomfort from the magnesium. By about 1 AM I really could not function and that was just when Kelly’s mom arrived at the hospital.
3) A ministry with the hospital has three fully furnished apartments available for families of patients who live greater than 30 miles away. There is waiting list, but after two days one of them opened up. Initially it provided a place to sleep or clean up and after Kelly got out of the hospital- we all stayed there. It enabled us to cook, feel as much of a sense of home as possible and it only cost $35 per night.
4) I had rented our car through Priceline and we were supposed to return it to San Francisco airport. Due to the fact that I was unable to return it to the correct airport- an additional charge of about $750 was added. I called Avis customer service and they would not help me, nor would Priceline. While I was on the phone getting the runaround from Priceline, the desk clerk did something to reduce the extra charge to only $20.
5) Countless friends, family members, acquaintances and nurses who had premature babies that turned out healthy told us of their stories- it was a real encouragement.
6) The nurses were fantastic.
7) Her doctor, who happened to be the on-call OB when we came in a 4:30 in the morning, was phenomenal every step of the way. She had a great bedside manner.
8) I was able to get internet access to log in to work and work for a full 2 and half weeks while we out there. Everyone at work was incredibly helpful and understanding.
9) We prayed for wisdom and clarity for us and the physicians as we tried to ascertain when/if to come home. Kelly and I considered coming home a week early and the doctors clearly advised against it. It was as clear as possible that we would be able to come home the following week.
10) We considered booking a first class flight just to give Kelly extra room to stretch out. Obviously that would have been expensive. My dad had some about to expire Southwest frequent flyer tickets, and because Kelly was in a wheel chair we were able to get the front row and probably had more leg room then we would have had in most first class seats.
11) We have good insurance.
12) All indications are that Robert is doing great!

This is a list off the top of my head. We are extremely thankful to God and to everybody who has prayed for us, called us, and offered to help in any way.

And Finally...

Robert will be 35 weeks tomorrow!

The one wrinkle is that Kelly has had some moderately high blood pressure- it appeared at her doctor visit on Monday. Some tests are being run, and at this point in time there is not cause for alarm, but we are monitoring it.