Thank you all for your prayers for baby Madeline. She has been doing quite well and has been off oxygen for almost two weeks now. However, she’s having enough “brady’s” (a slowing of the heart rate, usually to less than 80 beats per minute for a premature baby) that they are considering putting her back on oxygen.

This week Madeline was promoted to a crib so that means John or Chelsy (only parents allowed in the NICU) can hold her anytime they want to. Before, there were two, 3-hour windows daily when they could hold her.

Her next big hurdle is to learn to suck, but she isn’t quite ready developmentally for that yet.

John and Chelsy are doing well dealing with this new, temporary lifestyle, and have a solid trust in God through it all.

“The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:24)

We took John and Chelsy’s boys, Axton (2) and Elliot (1) for the morning to give John and Chelsy some time without childcare duties and to have some good time with our grandsons. John and Chelsy have a short-term apartment near the hospital, and only one parent can be with Madeline at a time. So that does leave one parent free to be back with the boys. However, with us taking the boys for a few hours, John was able to get more quality work done and the boys had something different to occupy them for a while.

We went to the Deana Rose Farmstead. It is a nice little place with farm animals in various displays and a few playground type areas. It seemed busy and popular.

At the end, we decided the boys might have been just a little too young to really appreciate what they saw, but they were happy and good. The report from home was that they talked a great deal about the animals they saw, so maybe more was going on with them than we observed.

Madeline is off of all supplemental oxygen now and doing very well. Praise the Lord!

“I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight.” Psalms 119:174

John and Chelsy’s premie baby, Madeline, born a week ago at 30 weeks is intubated and has also been having lots of issues with air outside of her lungs (pneumothorax) these past few days. Doctors moved her chest tube Thursday morning, but there has still been too much air, so they put in a second tube right under her arm in hopes of getting this air cleared. As of late Thursday night, that seemed to have worked.

A prayer request is that her lungs would heal and grow properly.

We are praising God for this precious little life, for God’s hand of protection over her, and for her care in the NICU.

“Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,
and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalms 107:8

John and Chelsy’s baby girl, Madeline Sue Maxwell, decided to make a surprise appearance yesterday morning, July 9th, about ten weeks early. Madeline is a little bundle at 3 pounds, 7 ounces and 15 inches long. She is of course in the NICU, and is doing well enough for her gestational age but faces an extended NICU stay of unknown length. We are grateful for God’s hand of mercy and protection through Madeline’s early birth and for His protection on Chelsy as well. We would appreciate prayers for Madeline as she grows and develops outside the womb and for her to be able to go home as soon as possible. Please also pray for Chelsy as she recovers and for grace and strength for John and Chelsy to navigate these new waters.

Madeline is truly a gift from God, and we treasure her life.

(These verses below were special to me the night Madeline was born. As I prayed and cried out to the Lord, I turned to Psalms for comfort, and this is the passage I read. How sweet is God’s Word! — Sarah)

“He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him:
let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
But thou art he that took me out of the womb …
I was cast upon thee from the womb:
thou art my God from my mother’s belly (Psalm 22:8, 9a, 10).”

Happy 4th of July everyone! May the Lord bless you with a safe and enjoyable day.

We are greatly blessed to live in this country with the freedom we have. We can worship in freedom. We can read our Bibles without concern. We can share our faith freely with a lost and dying world.

We are blessed beyond anything we deserve. 

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34).