Hello! It has been a while since I hopped on here, so I wanted to give a little Mollie update. She is 7 months old today! We are so grateful for the faithful prayer from so many of you, and for continuing to lift her up as she's been at home healing!

We are overjoyed to report that she is doing GREAT! Our whole family got the stomach bug about a month ago, and Mollie needed to go to the hospital for two nights to receive IV fluids for dehydration. While it wasn't ideal, the silver lining was the doctor confirming it was just "regular baby stuff." And - because those symptoms are also signs of heart failure, the Cardiology team ran all the tests (blood work and Echocardiogram which she wasn't scheduled to receive until April) just to confirm. Everyone was SO encouraged by how her Echo looked!  (Our cardiologist initially thought the first-year resident was reading it incorrectly when she reported how good it looked!). I cannot even begin to express how grateful we were to hear that news!  The cardiologist said that if he didn't know it was Mollie's, he wouldn't have even paused because it looked NORMAL! Her labwork showed a lot of improvement as well, but indicated that her heart isn't quite at 100%. She'll continue to stay on her three heart medications and we will keep monitoring.

She has finally weaned off her sedation medications (Whew. What a long process...we are very grateful that the terrible withdrawals are finished.) She has also mastered her bottle like a champ, so no more NG feeding tube, either! It was getting increasingly difficult to keep her little fingers from pulling out her tube, and the final time she yanked it out - we thought she might be ready to prove she could keep it that way. It took about 48 hours for her to consistently drink as much as she needed, and she never looked back! She's continued to gain weight like she's supposed to (she's still a little peanut, but staying on the appropriate growth path for her percentile). 

After an extensive assessment, it also looks like the only thing she's "behind" on is her gross motor skills (core strength, sitting, etc.). And there's no concern that she won't be able to catch up with some help from PT. It is truly amazing after all she's been through... her birth complications, the duration of sedation, and her time on ECMO with its high complication risks. 

It has been an incredible gift to watch her grow. She is just the most precious little thing and sometimes I just look at her in awe of how far she has come! She is the sweetest, snuggliest and smiliest baby, who laughs her little head off anytime her big brother is in sight. In many ways we are just coming up for air and getting our bearings; beginning to process all that happened. I find myself, sometimes, living in the tension between delighting in the present joy, while not wanting to forget the miracles of God's goodness or take one moment for granted (here, too, there is grace!). More than ever we know that it is "on Christ the solid rock we stand.”

I still hear new stories all the time, of people near and far who were praying for our Mollie girl. Humbled by the magnitude of people lifting her up and still rejoicing with us at the miracle of her precious life. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Forever grateful!