On Tuesday, exactly ten months since “the day of dread,” when we were told Eden would not survive more than a few hours or days post-birth, we moved out of our Denver apartment, with a beautiful, giggling daughter in tow. The apartment, through Brent’s Place, was being held and kept ready until Eden’s medical team cleared her of high risk for readmittance to the cardiac unit at Children’s Anschutz.

Friends, the Storm of the past seven months is OVER. 

“Sure,” the worrier-realist shouts, “but what about tomorrow?!... Are you really going to crack a smile and try to learn to laugh again when tomorrow is so unclear?” To this our hearts declare an emphatic, “yes.” We are learning anew what it means to live in the present—to see and feel and give thanks for the wonder and beauty and gift of life under God’s grace, day-by-day. Jesus famously says, “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes,” (Matthew 6, The Message). 

How is Eden? 

She’s …. good! She’s beautiful. She’s gift. She’s bottle-feeding, with significant coaching and patience. She’s on room air. We’re not using her G-Tube at all right now. Her oxygenation is staying above 70% (mostly between 77 – 83%), which is to say her oxygenation is staying high enough to not be concerned with vital organ damage. Eden, and all of us, now settle into whatever this new post-initial-storm-season holds, waiting for the final open-heart surgery in a few years that will complete the initial string of medical intervention that will allow Eden to thrive with single ventricle physiology. After this third surgery in a few years, Eden’s oxygen should sky-rocket to consistently being in the upper 80s and maybe even the 90s. Between now and then, Eden will receive consistent monitoring at a frequency that makes sense to her cardiologist here in COS (for now, monthly). 

What now? 

Now we learn how to laugh again. We begin to give Eden’s medical care a different level of attention. We commit to relearn how to mirror the very giggles that Eden leads our home in lifting up to heaven and sharing with the world. 

And we’re going to close this blog down! 

We’ve been forever impacted by the level of prayer and support we’ve received these past ten months, and we give thanks by how many testimonies we’ve received by friends and family being ministered to through this story. But closing down this blog is a step of faith and healing and trust—trust that our tomorrows are not our yesterdays. And if a time comes to reactivate the blog, that’s okay too. It’s been a big blessing for us to have a space to share and be encouraged and helped. 

On May 23rd, the anniversary of learning that our fourth child was a girl(!!!), we will joyfully close down this blog. It will be a day of celebration. And hopefully great, loud laughter. 

If you’d like to be added to a not-yet-activated email list for infrequent, ongoing updates, please email me your name and your relationship to our family: pray4eden@gmail.com

RE: Ways to Help – first, thank you. We’ve been helped in great ways. One final idea for this season: we’re considering heading to sea-level for a week or two or three this summer. If you have or know someone who has a beach property who would like to offer it to us to use for a time of healing and reflection, we’d be honored. 

With Great Love, 

Michael & Cassie