Oh the Roller Coaster!

We apologize for not updating again but has been a crazy day. I left around 2:30Pm today to go to a wedding for friends of our Curt and Michelle...Congrats again guys! It was a beautiful wedding and Gracie was the flower girl...we will have pictures of her up on the blog tomorrow. Micah stayed here with the little one and family and friends that were here to visit.

Our Roller Coaster continues as Gabi required more fluid today to help maintain her heart rate and blood pressure. If you've been following a long you know that isn't good as that is what makes her puffier. With that being said the odds of her being able to have her chest closed on Monday probably isn't real good.

I am the worst with asking questions that the Dr's can't answer. I keep forgetting that she is in the PICU and everything is one day at a time if not one hour at a time. Everything could change over night and tomorrow and she could be more than ready for the procedure Monday. It could all very easily go the other direction as well and that is why we continue to need your prayers. We know the world is still going on outside of this hospital and there are many more people just as much in need of prayers as we are, which makes us so appreciative when everyone does make the time to pray for our family!

Micah and I are sorry that we will not be in church to worship with the rest of our congregation but we will make our way to the chapel tomorrow and will be thinking of all of you who are praying for us! Gabi continues to amaze all of us and Micah and I could not be more proud as parents to know that we have brought such an amazing little girl into this world that is so determined and such a fighter at such an early age. We have said it before but that little girls is going to change the world!

We love you all
Jason, Micah, Gracie, and Gabi
(Big sissy is back with us to help take care of pink and squishy!)

Closing Day

Just a quick one...we just heard this morning that they are planning on closing her chest on Monday morning....Big Day! Please be with us then as we will need all of your prayers! We'll continue to let you know details as we get them.

26 States and 3 Foreign Countries that are with us so far....Let us know if you're in a state or Country not listed!
Idaho
Montana
California
Florida
Hawaii
Georgia
Ohio
Michigan
Tennessee
Mississippi
Alabama
Kentucky
Utah
Louisiana
Nevada
Kansas
Missouri
Oklahoma
Texas
Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota
Indiana
North Carolina
Washington
Arizona
South Korea
Canada
Guam

We didn't forget ya!

We apologize for taking so long to add an update to the blog! The positive side to that means that we haven't had anything really change to update! Gabi is doing so good...she actually had 45cc's of urine during the 12hr day shift which is incredible. She has less and less fluid coming out of her chest which means there is less fluid inside her. She is a little puffy still from all of the fluids from the first day that they had to bombard her with but since she is urinating more that is supposed to get rid of the fluid that is absorbed in her tissues. Heart rate and blood pressure are still holding strong and she has opened her eyes twice for me and mommy which really really made our day!

With all of this good news the wife and I would like to do something fun. We have so many people that are following along with us through this journey we would like to know more about you. Several of you are out of state so if you are following along with us if you could add a comment and put what state you are from we will see how many different states or countries are praying for and thinking of our little girl...once we have that we will report back on the blog a running total of how many different states we have!

PERSONAL NOTES...
- Nate and Amy - thank you so much for commenting but we need your contact info as we don't know how to contact you and see how Kaden is doing?

- Tatum, Eric and Donovan - Thank you so much for sending the angel of courage. It was perfect as Micah collects them. I don't have your number or contact info to call or send a thank you. If you could leave that for us we would greatly appreciate it.

- Members of the Centropolis Christian Church - We are so proud and touched that so many members came together for our little girl. It shows us why we drive over 30 minutes every sunday to worship with all of you. Thank you so much for passing our story on to your friends and family so we receive as many prayers as possible.

- Loving Friends - For all of you who know us or don't know us and have found it in your hearts to pray for us and our baby...thank you! Your love and support still helps to get us through the day. Many of you check this blog on a regular basis...my wife and I check the comments just as often to see who is watching and thinking of us! We get so excited every time we have a new comment of encouragement for our family!

- Parents and Family - You guys have been so amazing by standing by our side every day. Whether you are spending your entire day beside us or working as hard as you can to get to us as quick as you can! Your moral, emotional, financial, spiritual, physical, and food support has been more appreciated than you'll ever know.

- Jim and Vicki - To have you here every day with us is truly an amazing feeling. Even the Chaplain here at the hospital has commented on how amazing and impressed they were with the support that our pastor has provided. They have never seen a pastor offer so much support or be so dedicated to a family of their congregation!

- Aaron and Amber - You guys have helped us so much with one of largest responsibilities we have outside or our children which would be our puppies...thank you so much for allowing us not to have to stress about that and know that they are in good hands.

Ok...so now I'm starting to ramble I'm sure I left someone out and if so I apologize and will go with one last global thank you...we love and appreciate all of you! Until tomorrow morning...Good NIGHT!

Love
Jason, Micah, and Gabi (pink and squishy)

Mommy's Thoughts...

We have been debating for a while if we should or should not put pictures on here of Gabi all hooked up to her machines. But then this morning when we went to visit Nurse Debbie had put piggies in her hair. Well I could not resist I decided to show her off. She is still cute as ever and still being as spoiled as ever! So under the pre-op piggies you will find the new pics.

She has pee peed 22 cc's in 5 hours, that my friends is FANTASTIC! She has been responding well to the decrease in her blood pressure meds. So we are slowly getting to a "safer" place. It is a bit of relief, but I must admit I am still not emotionally stable. And of course I won't be until we are at home and even then I will continue to worry, but it will be comforting to be at home.

I know yesterday many of you saw an entry that Jason wrote "Do as Your Mother Says". Well I wanted to add a few of my thoughts, because it has really made me wonder how could anyone ever wish harm upon an innoscent child? She was sent to us as a gift from God and I would do absolutely anything to protect my angel. She is full of smiles, so much personality, and she has touched so many lives. In fact we found out today that someone has added her to a prayer list in South Korea...we have gone global! Anyways, the is only some much I can say in response to the hate message, but if anyone has ever had an issue with Jason or myself that is exactly what it is, an issue with us. How anyone could sleep at night knowing they said mean things about an innoscent child's health it is absolutely absurd. People change, we grow up and become adults and hopefully are more mature. I know that both of us are completely different people than we used to be, but that is for the better. And even in the last 5 months we have changed so so much. Our perspective on life has changed. We live one day at a time, we do not take life or people for that matter for granted. Gabi has touched our lives in a way that we never knew was possible and we will forever be thankful to her for that.

With that all being said THANK YOU everyone out there who continues to pray for our angel. We know she is being protected and God and many many angels are with her at this time of need. We always here the power of prayer is an amazing thing, but I never knew how powerful until now!

The Sun is Shining

Micah and I had a long talk last night about the interpretation of the word good. To some people when you say how are you doing and the immediate response is "Good thanks for asking" For us when people say how is Gabi doing and we say good what we mean is "She's not on life support or dialysis and she is taking baby steps towards being stable"

As you are going through something like this it is amazing at how excited you can get over what may be considered small things. I know Gabi is teaching us and I hope she is teaching the rest of the world that each day is precious. I've been through my own ordeals and and learned a whole new respect for life. This takes it to an entirely different level when it is your child. Every morning I come in to see Gabi and when she hears my voice and squeezes my hand it is like God has reached down and touched me himself!

Ok...Ok...Ok...I'll give the update now! haha

Blood Pressure - Still standing strong they have reduced her blood pressure medicene a little bit and she has been able to still maintain. They are not going to reduce it any more because they are going to start working towards closing her chest. It won't be over the weekend but the goal is early next week.

Heart Rate - Still a little high but not terrible. She had a spike in heart rate last night so they had to give her Digi which is the medicene she has been on all her life and it worked to bring the heart rate back down.

Fever - Gone

Urine - She is producing more urine and dumping more fluids out of her chest and electrolytes are good so the odds of Dialysis are not even in the picture today. She only produced 7cc's during the day and 25cc's through the night! Wooohoooo WE HAVE PEE!

They are going to play with some different medications and rates over the weekend to remove more fluid to reach our goal of closing her chest next week!

So let's gear our prayers towards the next baby step of her responding well to the new medications to be able to close her chest next week and get started again from that point!

Thank You all and please continue to stick with us...Gabi needs all of you!

Love
Jason, Micah, and Gabi

Reality Check

Gabi is definitely doing better and we thank all of you for the prayers to get her on the right path. Unfortunately we had a bit of a reality check. They added a new medicine to Gabi's long laundry list of drugs and it altered the flow of one other drug and her blood pressure dropped immediately to 48! Michelle the nurse increased the flow of the drug and her blood pressure slowly came back up.

It was just a wake up call on exactly how reliant she is on the drugs. The positive side is that her body is responding to the medication without additional help from machines.

So I guess in short is we may need your prayers for quite a while. She is going to be in the PICU for quite some time and even once they close her chest back up they are pretty much going to start back from scratch because they don't know how she will react once there is pressure again against the heart and lungs.

As I always say we are far from out of the woods but Gabi is chipping away at the forrest one swing at a time! Having all of you with us on this journey is definitely helping and we hope you stick with us through to the end!

Love,
Jason, Micah, and Gabi

Do what your mother says!

Everyone I'm sure remembers when you were a young child learning the ways of the world and respect and courtesy being one of them your mother used to always tell you "If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything"

You wouldn't think in a situation like this where you have an amazing little girl fighting for her life that this is a subject that would come up. Unfortunately some idiot has found the need to be disrespectful, hateful, mean, and very cowardly as they decided to leave a very negative comment towards our family and did not even have the guts to sign their name to the comment. We feel extremely sorry for this indivdual as I'm sure all of you who are praying for us will as well.

We all know that the love for our family and Gabi is so strong that we know ignorance has no power to penetrate our family. I am only writing this entry to ask you to say a quick prayer for the person or people that would have so much hate in their hearts that they would feel the need to wish harm on our angel and as their comment mentioned the equilibrium in the universe. I fear if this is true what will happen to them for wishing harm on our gift from god!

If you are one of those people with the hate in your heart I am begging you with all my heart to please please keep your negative comments to yourself. My family has enough to worry about without having to hear ill wishes on our angel!

Thank You!

No News is Good News...

Basically I have nothing to report...YIPEE!!!
Here are the stats at this point...
Blood Pressure still staying strong in the high 60's low 70's
Heart Rate is still up a little but because of some of the meds she is on that is very common, so not concerned there.
She is in a Sinus Rhythm which means her heart is conducting the way it should be!!!
Fever is 99.6 which is not a concern. Anything over 101.5 then we worry.
She was given meds to make her urinate and that didn't work, but it could have been absorbed in her tummy so we are not concerned. They are going to try an IV form instead and this has a greater chance of doing what we need, I will keep you posted!

Thanks again for the continual thoughts and prayers. I know that is why we are having the results we are. God is on our side and he will protect! All I want is to hold my angel, but right now I will take what I am getting... no more setbacks!

GOD IS HER STRENGTH!

Prayer Works

The prayers are working keep up the good work...Gabi is doing so much better this morning. Here is a run down of where she is at...

Heart Rate - 170 (A little high but better high then low)
Blood Pressure - 73 (This is awesome and she has been maintaing it)
Fever - 99.5 - A little above normal but not even considered a fever any more
Urine - A little low but her electrolytes are good so the odds of Dialysis is minimal

Gabi is still on a lot of support and heavily medicated but all of this news tells us that she is starting to respond better to the medication which is awesome. This is such a relief to us to hear this morning, both of us had a very difficult time sleeping last night with the concern of our baby having to go on Dialysis this morning. So knowing that the odds of that happening now are minimal I'm ready to dance the jig! haha

I'm tellin ya you threaten this kid with anything and she listens. Threatened the NG tube and she started eating again, threatend suppository and she began making doody, threatened life support she started responding to medication, threatened dialysis and she begins to produce urine and have good levels of electrolytes...hahaha....She probably just knows mom and dad wouldn't be able to handle it!

We want to thank everyone that is keeping up on this blog and praying for us and leaving the comments. Every time we read a comment, get an email, phone call, or update from someone else it brings a tear to our eyes because of all the love and support Us and Gabi are recieving. I will continue to keep this updated on a regular basis as I feel all of you are going through this right along with us and want to make sure no one is left in the dark.

So lets all take a deep breathe...say Thenk You Jesus for helping to take care of Gabi and getting her to this point. Jesus we need you to continue to watch over her and get her out of the woods and on her road to recovery! AMEN!

Love,
Jason, Micah, and Gabi (Our Angel)

Deep Thoughts by Mommy Acker...

(You like that title don't you Ginger...hahaha!)

Well here we at the end of night #2 and still not the results we want, but they are not bad either. So I guess we are definitely more satisfied than yesterday. Gabi is fighting hard and we are praying even harder. She has had some secretions out of her mouth and nose. The mouth is contributed from the breathing tube down her throat. As for her nose, now there is concern she may have a respiratory infection. That is not what we want to hear, but atleast if that is it they can finally pen point the problem and tackle it with some more meds. Then she could finally break her fever...poor baby is still running a fever around 101.5. Her blood pressure is steady at a place that we are less concerned, but her heart rate is still to high. So we are kind of hoping to hear she has a respiratory infection so then the meds can take care of her infection, knock out the fever, and her heart rate will go down, while still maintaining her blood pressure. WOW!!!

As we sit in our little 10x10 room we are anxiously waiting for morning without a call through the night. Tonight we had our own prayer vigil at the hospital chapel. It was so peaceful. Jason, myself, Uncle Freddie, Aunt GiGi, MiMi, and Papi all said a silent prayer, then we talked a bit. It was a very emotional conversation as if we have had any other type of conversations lately...but it was nice to be in a "safe place".
MeMa and Papa went to the church prayer vigil and said it was wonderful. 27 members showed up and showed their support for Gabi and our family. Mema said it was a tear jerker. A special thank to all who attended, you have no idea how deeply touched we are. Our angel is getting prayers from all across the nation. Word travels fast when a little one is in need. She is such an amazing little girl. She has so many people who love her so much.

Today has been hard for us, we are still not in a place where we are comfortable with what is going on. We had good and still some bad come out of today. She moved around and she is recognizing when family is talking to her. But we still have concern for her kidneys, blood pressure, and her heart rate. We are keeping our heads up and with Gods grace he will bring our baby to good health. Do not let my baby suffer, take care of her Lord. Lay your hands upon her and heal her. She needs you know more than ever.
We thought yesterday we were bringing her in to be fixed. She was fixed, but the fix brought on new problems that we did not anticipate. All I keep seeing over and over in my head is me passing her off to the nurses and they carry her down the OR hall. She had her eyes wide open looking all around smiling and thinking...mom where are they taking me? Sometimes I wish I'd of never let her go...God please let me put my baby in my arm see that pretty girl smile!