"And God has not ceased to be a God of miracles"

Mormon 9:15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

9:16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yeah, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?

A week and a day ago I was sitting in shock in a hospital. I was trying to be logical, have good perspective, and stay calm. Inside I was crushed. I was told the perfect body forming inside of me was actually not perfect and I was swallowed up in fear of losing this sweet baby that I've carried for the last 8 months. I won't repeat my last post, but I'm not sure if I even mentioned in that post the additional worry that the specialist had that our baby might even have down's syndrome. We didn't know what to plan for and our hopes for our baby were melted down to hoping that she would survive birth or that we would survive whatever Heavenly Father had planned for her.

I'll tell my labor story later, but I wanted to first tell you that Maisy is doing very well. As you remember, the doctor gave us promising news last Saturday and drew our little heart diagram. Now...fast forward to delivery. Maisy goes to the NICU (newborn intensive care unit) right after birth to be monitored until the cardiologist gets there. That night she had an echo-cardiogram done (basically an ultrasound of the heart). The cardiologist came to tell us that Maisy's left ventricle looks like it will be absolutely sufficient. Same with the aortic valve. They were worried about an obstruction from another anomaly in her heart. He said that also didn't appear to be a problem. There is a hole in the wall between the ventricles, but he said there is a flap of tissue that is preventing much blood from passing through and he thinks it may heal on its own.

There was one other new worry with the aortic isthmus (basically a place where blood needs to flow that our baby had a narrow passageway). They said that they needed the **PDA (patent ductus arteriosis) to close before they could determine if the passageway would be sufficient. **this is a part of the heart that is open in the fetal heart and closes within the first 48 hrs. of birth.

Well, the PDA is closing (if not completely closed) and our sweet baby has not had any problems so far. Little Maisy has stunned the doctors who have seen her ultrasound pictures and they have all been so amazed at how much better it all looks now that she is here (not even one week after all of this was diagnosed).

We are not 100% in the clear. They will do another echo-cardiogram on Monday to tell us what they think, but all outward signs are telling us that she will be just fine for now and not need surgery.

I just wanted to thank all of you for keeping Maisy and our family in your prayers. Faith is real, miracles are real, and God loves each and every one of us. I also know that this would be true even if we didn't have happy news to share. I have loved the opportunity, however, to testify of God and his goodness and miracles to everyone we have worked with in the hospital. What a blessing!