The Good in the Bad

I'm in a little bit better of a mindset right now, so I wanted to share how amazing God's timing is and all the good that has been in this horrible situation.

So this morning Matt and I got the call when we were both still asleep (not until 7:36!) so we were really rested for the crazy day ahead.

We were able to talk to the anesthesiologist about how God has been working through this situation and we found out he is a believer too! It's amazing how God brings His people together! He told us that God is being glorified through our family.

When Ella started to "code", it was right during shift change. This meant that all of the night AND day shift nurses were there to respond. Dr. Hill (cardiologist),  Dr. Nasirof, and Ashley were all there to respond. There is another baby that is on ECMO a couple of rooms down and she was supposed to be getting off ECMO this morning (but is not quite ready), so the entire operating team was already there ready to step in alongside the ECMO team people as well. They did compressions in hope of not needing to use the ECMO, but weren't successful, so they were able to put her on the ECMO in 45 minutes because everyone that they usually can't get immediately was there. We were told it can often take 2 hours.

We were able to connect and talk with the other family with their baby on the ECMO. They are Spanish speaking only so we haven't been able to really talk with them about everything that's going on. We realized how much Spanish we've forgotten. But (thank you Google Translator) we were able to share how sad we are for each other and share in the struggles we've been dealing with.

Eli was with the Ettlins and I was getting photos of fun things they were doing. Eli has been struggling not having us at home, so it was sweet for us to see him having a blast with his girls.

Ella is stable on the ECMO and there looks to be little to no impact on her brain from all of the trauma. (We will find out for sure later) She is so sedated that she is not really experiencing all that is going on (praise God).

Finally, both sets of our parents were able to be with us today. We are so fortunate to have such an amazing support system.

See? Lots of good things in such a bad day.

Also, lots of people have been commenting on how strong we are. We can honestly say that it is not us. We have been lifted up by your prayers and God has given us the strength, perseverance, and even joy throughout this entire experience. We prayed that we could see suffering as a gift before Ella was born and it seemed like such an oxymoron at the time, but we really have seen such amazing things come from the suffering.

That's all for tonight.

Love,
Jillian