MANY praises, one prayer

Hi all,

We are once again overwhelmed and humbled by your many emails and personal and phone assurances of prayer. THANK YOU. If this update seems late, we have a good excuse: Believe it or not, that appointment took 4 hours! Whew! And then lots of time in rush-hour traffic, plus good friends had us for supper (thanks, N&L!), and we had to get Isaac to bed. 

We are VERY grateful to report that no major issues of any sort were spotted with any of the babies. No markers for chromosomal abnormalities, heart/brain/cord defects, or anything at all wrong with their leg/arm anatomy - all have ten finger, ten toes, no clubbing, etc. All are still measuring right on or slightly ahead for gestational age (8 and 9 ounces), with perfect heartbeats. We are praising and thanking God! And again, thank YOU for praying!

There is, however, one issue for prayer with one of the babies: One of the girls has a potential problem with her kidneys not emptying properly (they looked a lot more noticeable than the other babies' on the ultrasound). The doctor originally said it looks like it could be "pyelectasis," but the extent of the swollen-ness of the kidneys is verging on possible "hydronephrosis." However, he said even if it was his baby he wouldn't lose any sleep over it. It's the single most "discovered"anomalous finding on fetal ultrasound, often doesn't end up being an issue at all, and even if it is, only 20% of cases require surgery, and then not usually until the baby is a few months old. She should be able to thrive until that point just fine, perhaps needing prophylactic antibiotics to prevent infection of the kidneys. Of course, in extreme cases surgery would be required earlier rather than later (if kidney function is compromised), and has even been done in utero, although is of dubious benefit at that point. 

So the prayer of course is that this is NOT an genuine medical issue with our little girl, merely a slightly aberrant finding that disappears or at least does not appear to worsen on subsequent ultrasounds and can be ruled out completely at birth. We pray that God would resolve this even now with His mighty yet tender Physician's hand, if there is indeed anything that needs to be resolved, and that our little girl will continue to thrive in utero as well as once she is born, always safely in His grip. 

Speaking of grip, we also heartily thank God that my anatomy still has a tight grip on all these babies. The doctor said he wouldn't have believed I'd be doing this well sat 18 weeks, and that I couldn't look better internally (the c. is around 5 cm long and completely closed - superior to most women carrying only one baby!). He didn't use the word "miraculous," but we know the prayers of hundreds of God's righteous saints are powerful and effective in this as in everything else affecting these babies from conception onward! All glory to Him, with many thanks again to those who have stood with us, near and far, and bathed us in prayer. 

By the way, who sent me this shirt? I love it! I got lots of comments on it today, needless to say. :) Isaac got a huge kick of out of it, too. Thank you!!