Then what?

We wanted to take some time to thank you all for your love and support during our pregnancy. You have shared our excitement, worries, fear and hope and this has blessed us more than we can tell you.

Of course, many of you are almost as keen to meet Emma as we are! Unfortunately we only know marginally more than you about what to expect tomorrow onwards, but felt that we should share this with you so that you too know what to expect, possibly!!

Once born, Emma will be taken for a preliminary surgery. We anticipate that she will be bed-ridden for about a week as her abdomen is stretched to hold her intestines. At the end of this procedure she will have a second surgery to close her up. No-one, including us will be able to hold her during this time and she will be particularly vulnerable.

Following that we start a long process of ensuring everything works ok and getting her feeding normally. (Prior to this she will be fed by IV.) They have told us that the average time before babies like Emma can go home is 1 month. We are praying that it will be sooner than that, but also understand it could be longer (after all, she has not showed any consideration for what we expect so far!!).

At any time, there will only be allowed 2 visitors with Emma, which includes the parents! This means that for anyone wishing to visit her, it would be best to arrange this in advance with us, so there aren't several people waiting in line!! You can call either of our cellphones or email us during this time.

We hope you understand why we have decided that we would like to wait until she has had the second surgery, and is able to cope with more, before she has any visitors other than Scott and I. We will post updates on the blog so you know how she is doing and when she is having visitors.

Your patience and understanding will be incredibly important during this time. We will have lots of emotions and frustrations to deal with, which is an area we will need a lot of prayer in!! As new, first-time, parents we will also have the usual challenges to overcome (like realizing our responsibility, fatigue etc!), so we can only turn to God for the same strength and peace he has given us over the past few months, and years.

We know God can heal her at any time, but that he may also have a purpose for us to be there for longer. We are totally surrendered to his plan - he knows best! Thank you for standing with us during this time.