The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

People ask how can I be so strong? My child is 3 months old and already had major surgery. Honestly, it didn’t hit me until I saw Christopher a couple hours after the surgery. All the sleepless nights in the hospital, the doctors and nurses proding at my baby, the many times they poked Chris looking for a vein, the starvation crying…I could handle. Yet, when I looked into my baby’s sad eyes in the recovery area, I broke down crying alongside Jason. “Why us, God?” “Why did it have to be MY baby?” It was the most saddest sight you can imagine.

Yet, as I always say, I knew God wouldn’t give us something we couldn’t handle. There is a reason for everything and even though it’s not apparent, I had faith that He would see us through it.

I count my blessings every day.
Thank you, God for blessing me with twins…some people can’t even conceive one baby.
Thank you, God for letting me go almost to full-term…some twins are born too early.
Thank you, God for letting me take home my babies…there are some babies who’ve never been home yet.
Thank you, God for a great husband and father of my children…some mothers take on the burden themselves of a sick child.
Thank you, God for a great support system…some families do not have the family and friends to lean on and pray for them.
Thank you, God for a safe surgery.
Thank you, God for a fast recovery.

Update on Christopher

For those who know and don’t know…

Christopher is doing well after a difficult week. It all began when we noticed Christopher had become jaundice a couple of weeks ago. His ped. found that his blood levels were not normal and on Monday afternoon, we were called to rush him in and admit him. On Tues, after starving him for 12 hours, a liver biopsy was done. The results were not good and Christopher was diagnosed with biliary atresia – he does not have the bile duct that drains the liver of bile thus his yellowness (bile is poisoning his body). Apparently, BA can be associated with Chris’ heart and organs being on the right side of his body. Yes, he is an extraordinary fellow!

It was critical to get the bile out of his system so an operation was scheduled for Thurs. afternoon. After starving him for another 10 hours, his operation was postponed. The operation happened on Friday morning – a 5-hour long procedure in which they take a piece of the small intestine and connect it to the liver. When we finally saw him, I almost didn’t recognize him. His little body had tubes coming out from every limb including his nose and belly. A difficult sight.

Today is his 3rd day recovering and he’s looking good! They already took most of the tubes and IV’s out. He’s back to his loud mouth crying and talkativeness. He finally got to eat today! My little fighter is almost the same Chris!

Unfortunately, the procedure has a third of a chance working right away. It has a third chance of not working right away. The last third chance is that the procedure will never work in which a liver transplant must take place before the first year.

This is an ongoing thing and I’m crossing my fingers and toes that it’ll work. We should know by the time he leaves the hospital if it worked or not. I know God wouldn’t give us something we couldn’t handle, so we’re taking it in stride. We are taking it day by day. Evan misses the “loud one” and Nate is super worried about his brother.

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We appreciate every bit of phone call, email, visit, prayer you sent. It really means a lot during this stressful time.

Love you all,

Jenille, Jason, Nate, Christopher, and Evan