I really down played it in the last post because it's kind of weird and embarrassing, but for some reason God thought it necessary to create our daughter without an anus. No exit to her digestion tract. So she hasn't been eating anything yet and the docs have been suctioning everything out of her stomach so her bowels aren't impacted.
The best course of action was to cut her colon in half and bring both ends out to the side of her stomach; it's called a colostomy. The surgery was done this afternoon and she came through with flying colors. Yet another great success by my champion of a daughter.
Her heart rate is improving, and the docs are confident they will be able to take out her intubation tube pretty soon. The only other crazy thing to happen recently was the discovery of a heart issue. It's not going to require any surgeries (as far as they can tell right now), but in the doc's words, "her heart is just kind of messed up."
I don't know how the heart works, but from what they are telling me Maggie's isn't working correctly. The blood in the top of the heart is supposed to flow a certain direction (either right to left or left to right, I'm not sure) but her's is flowing the wrong direction. Weird. But her heart is working and the docs are happy with her stats right now, so we aren't supposed to worry about it. That's easy to say...
My favorite time together with my family (yes, Joy, Maggie and I compose an entire family now and I'm very happy to refer to us that way) was this morning before the surgery when I read my daughter Max Lucado's "God Thinks You're Wonderful". There is a passage in the book that I have yet to make it through without crying, and today was especially difficult. Here it is:
"So promise me you'll never forget that you aren't an accident or an incident.
You are a gift to the world, a divine work of art signed by God.
You were knit together. You weren't mass-produced. You aren't an assembly-line product.
You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on this earth by the Master Craftsman."
Every time I look at that little girl, especially when her mother is holding her hand, I am in awe of the amazing work of my God. I am a blessed man.