Update 1/28/12

Friends and Family,

We can't thank you enough for your prayers, messages, and willingness to help. Lauren and I are exhausted and weary, but if not for all the support we received today, we would not be in as good of shape as we are.

Lauren reminded me today that God has put you in our lives for a reason; we need to rely on the strengths of those around us. Today we received amazing blessings from so many of you. Two of our friends went shopping for us, another brought us dinner, one drove all the way from KC just to be with us for only a few hours before having to turn around and drive right back, two different family members watched McKinley, other family members ran errands and came for visits. The list goes on and on.

We are learning through experience what we've heard before: that God has designed us to live in community with one another, and to love one another. Thank you for showing us that. We thank God for you continuously.

Here was our big excitement for the day:

Feeling your baby's warmth and letting him feel yours is an indescribable feeling.

For the first time since his birth, Lincoln's body temperature is normal. With only a few 100-level cord-wrangling courses, we can now hold him like he's actually ours and not "for display only". Such a blessing.

Here are a two things we're asking for prayers about for Lincoln:

• The big, looming thing on the horizon is his MRI on day ten of life (Thursday). Please pray that any damage the doctors find is minimal. The neurologists can't give us much of any indication of the extent of his injuries until those images are taken. We're mostly in a painfully long holding pattern until then when it comes to Lincoln's brain function.
• On Monday Lincoln will start taking food (breast milk) intravenously. Please pray two things: first, that his stomach would tolerate it, and secondly that it would increase his strength and thus responsiveness to stimulus.

Here are two things we're asking for prayer about for us:

• Today was our first full day since Lauren was discharged from the hospital. To say that it was great and easy would be untrue. Great and hard. Please pray for our emotional and physical strength.
  
• That Lauren could focus on three things: eating, sleeping, and pumping. Sounds simple; actually heinously hard. (Her to do list actually reads: "Eat, sleep, pump, praise God, repeat").

We are experiencing God and his grace through you, our friends and family, during all of this. While outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (or however that one goes).

With love and gratitude,

Kevin

Bonus pics from today: