Pray ON! for baby Samuel!

On Monday night, I was really looking forward to getting home from work to work on my car with my buddy George. Then I got the news about baby Samuel and his critical situation. As desirable as it was to want to stay home and work on my car, I had preached the day before on how it is so much better to worship at the feet of Jesus than to worship the temporary things of this world.

So I went to the Community Center in PV to spend time at the feet of Jesus, petitioning for the life of baby Samuel. I thought people might think I was weird since I was a stranger, and don't even know the family nor the church that met. But to my surprise, neither did the other two guys in my prayer group! We had all heard about baby Samuel through social media, such as texts, twitter, and facebook. I was in AWE of how the news is spreading and people are praying for this family of God!

Turns out we aren't the only strangers praying. Over 10,000 hits from people all over the world checking in to the updates on Baby Samuel! Keep yourself in the loop, and keep praying for the God ordained purposes in baby Samuel's life!!!

Updates can be found here:

http://lothblogs.wordpress.com/

Pray on, Brother. Pray on, sister!

URGENT Prayer...NOW

i'm clutching baby evan as I type this with one hand.

i don't know baby samuel, but i know baby evan. i think that's why this breaks my heart that much greater. pastor dan is a local partner of the gospel in the area which i live. i've never met him, but i'm by his side as i write this. please read below with urgency and prayer.

Yesterday was trying to say the least. Waking up in a panic because Kelly delivers quick, we ran to Hollywood Presbyterian at 3am only to have to “hurry up and wait” for several hours. The contractions came, and then they left, leaving us a bit discouraged. After the pitocin drip, Kelly was quickly induced within a few hours, and by 11am, Samuel was born to us 6 pounds 10 ounces and twenty inches long. He is beautiful and hopefully I’ll put a picture up with this post. Truly my heart melts when it beholds him; so perfect on the outside yet so sick on the inside.

With his birth, he was rushed quickly to the NICU where he was placed on a powerful ventilator and several tests to determine lung strength, heart strength and lung development. Because of the difficulty of finding all the organs before he is born, we were hit with news that his condition was much worse than we originally thought (which was horrible to begin with). He has very little lung development and even on a very strong ventilator was only receiving up to 80% oxygenation in his blood (we need above 93% for the average brain to receive the proper oxygen for development). The doctors couldn’t stabilize him so he was rushed over to Children’s Hospital quicker than anticipated. Kelly was able to see him briefly before she had to return to her room, and I went with Samuel via ambulance right away to the CHLA NICU.

It was surreal traveling there, alone, without Kelly or family, amidst paramedics who were attempting to keep Samuel alive. One woman’s role was to constantly get oxygen in his lungs by squeezing a round ventilator; had she but stumbled he would have been in even more serious danger.

Rushing to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), I was told to wait outside for a bit until they could get him hooked up again and getting better blood oxygenation. They could only get it to around 65% and in a hurry of doctors and surgeons, I was transported to a room to sign papers so that he could undergo a surgery and be placed under the power of an ECMO machine (external heart and lung bypass). There were five of them, stating that Samuel’s chance of survival was nil unless he get on ECMO, though recounted all the horrible potential side effects that could happen. They even expressed to me the reality that he may not survive the surgery.

Signing the papers, I waited in the room for them to give me one last chance to look at Samuel. They said it would be 30 or so minutes and as my phone was about to die, I told them I needed to rush out to get the phone charger so I could call Kelly. Running out, I took a back way to get to my car; but trying to get back in the same door was impossible, so I had to run around the entire huge hospital in a panic hoping I would see my son before surgery.

The phone rang; it was the doctors asking where I was. Running, literally never having felt this fear of the unknown before, I ran past security guards, speeding cars, and anything else meant to impede me, and was running to be by my son’s side. I got stopped, but yelled something, and made it to the NICU just in time to see my son and give him a kiss on the head. I whispered Jesus’ name and said a quick prayer before they rushed me out to begin surgery. Later, the surgeon who was the head of the NICU institute, told me he had minutes to live.

By God’s grace, he made it through the surgery and is stabilized on ECMO as I write this. His blood is being oxygenated at 100% which is a huge blessing, giving his little lungs and heart a rest. During the course of trying to keep him alive, the high pressure ventilator caused damage to his lungs, so the doctors are not expectant to see any improvement to his condition until the lungs heal which could take longer than a week.

However, he doesn’t have much time on ECMO; being on this massive machine means having to be induced and drugged, as well has having to be on blood thinners so the blood won’t clot in the machine. This is a very precarious time.

So what have the doctor’s told us? They each tell us there is little hope for survival. There might be a new condition in his heart that they couldn’t see previously, and if this new condition proves positive, then there isn’t any chance at all. But, it has not been diagnosed, so we will pray and believe otherwise. I’ve never felt this way before; not scared, but so emotionally attached to my two day old son. I felt like, as I ran, as I was by his side, as I signed papers and as I kiss him on the head or touch his little feet, that somehow he needs me. He does, but the truth of the matter is I can do nothing for him but love him and pray. And so we pray.

Samuel’s name means “God hears.” The truth of the matter is that though I can do nothing, though the love of a mother and father is strong, only our Heavenly Father can do something. It’s out of the doctor’s hands, out of the surgeon’s hands, and out of our hands. Samuel is resting in the arms of God now, amidst those tubes, machines and wires and under that heating lamp that seems intense. He’s resting in the most capable arms of all, so really, he’s in the safest place he can be. My son is made for eternity, and whether he flourishes or not, I will praise the God of eternity who fearfully and wonderfully made him in his mother’s womb.

Please join my in praising God for Samuel, and for praying for the life of this precious little boy.

Though I will not be present, I know there will be a prayer time for him tonight at the Community Center in PV at 8pm. I would deeply appreciate it if you joined together with the body of believers, invite your friends who believe in Christ, and petition for the life of my son. I love you all…

Dan and Kel, Noah and Mia…and Samuel