A Family of Faith, Caring for You

Both of us grew up in Arlington, Texas and were raised in Christian homes with loving parents. We have attended First Baptist Church Arlington almost our whole lives. We were both baptized there, regularly attended on Sundays, went to Children's camp, Youth Camp, and many other significant moments in our lives occurred there growing up. We knew each other from the church Youth Group went off to college and started dating. We both came back to Arlington and were married at FBCA. We are now in the Young Married Sunday School class. Long story short, "The Church" has played an extremely important role in our lives. I remember ten years ago how my parents friends surrounded our family with love and prayers when my mom was battling brain cancer (Jane Tettleton, 10 years cancer free. Praise God.). The same church family, and friends we have gained along the way, have "lifted us up." It has been a constant reminder how important it is for believers to gather, worship, and pray. Those of you who are our age and older, who went to FBCA might recognize the blog post title. "A Family of Faith, Caring for You" was the church slogan while we were growing up. I really can't think of a more fitting description of how I feel about the people God has enriched our lives with.

As I tell people our daughter's story I usually end up saying something to the effect of "Yes, we have gone there all our lives and never truly realized how important the Body of Christ can be. It has been so comforting to know all of you are praying for Abigail." We have received many generous gifts from people from our church, people from our family's churches, people we don't know at all. We have been showered with your prayers, gifts, money, letters and even washing our cars and mowing our lawn. I am writing today to say THANK YOU to each of you who stopped what you were doing in your busy lives and did one of those things for our family. You will never now how much it means to Stephanie and I. As my mom often says "Your reward will be in heaven!" My mom also taught me to write a thank you notes for gifts. I will write them, I promise, but for now please accept this "Thank You".

Your letters of encouragement
and kind words they have been such a blessing.

Another special visitor, Aunt Leaza got to meet Abigail this weekend!

So I got a bit side tracked. What I was trying to get to was that our Sunday School Class organized a massive garage sale to help out with Abigail's care. If you have ever put on a garage sale you will empathize with the group. I was there Friday night and people kept coming and coming with truck loads of stuff to sell. They managed to get everything put away by midnight and were up and at it bright an early. Each one, with there own families to take care of, stopping to help take care of ours. Thanks to the Bush Family for hosting and countless others who contributed with time, donations, bargaining skills and sweat equity. We are so blessed to be a part of this community of believers!

Thanks to everyone involved!

Another thing we got to do today was have a photographer come take some pictures of Abby. All the IVs and cords were gone for a brief time and we got special permission to have a small session at her bedside and for a few minutes outside. It was a very special moment for us as we wheeled her bed out onto the rooftop patio into the sun and fresh air. We would like to thank Paige Walker for doing a great job and being incredibly flexible with the environment. Paige was one of Stephanie's sorority sisters and is a talented photographer. You can see some of the pictures from Abigail's session here and some of her other work here.

What a challenge!

Sunshine and fresh air!

So you can see the last few days have been pretty busy so I am doing a last minute post before Abigail has her Heart Surgery. Tomorrow morning at 8am they will take her back and begin pre-op things like IVs and anesthesia. We expect that by 10am they will be about ready for operating. One of the key factors of this surgery will be how Abigail's liver will respond once the surgery is complete. The surgery will last approximately 5-6 hours and they will leave her in the OR up to 2-3 hours for monitoring post-op. She will be taken to the PICU to recover and will remain there until she is able to be weaned off of the ventilator. She will remain in PICU for probably around a week and will then go back to NICU to continue her long road of recovery.

Please pray for her doctors, the staff and that Abigail will continue to be the strong little girl we know she is. Thanks for caring, praying and loving on us.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6,7).

"The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16).