{"id":167,"date":"2015-02-10T21:01:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T02:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/?p=167"},"modified":"2015-02-18T17:09:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T22:09:05","slug":"the-story-from-where-we-left-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/2015\/02\/10\/the-story-from-where-we-left-off\/","title":{"rendered":"The story, from where we left off…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"where<\/a><\/p>\n

We made it into October, and Josie was going back to school. \u00a0Tamara was really beginning to enjoy the last few months of pregnancy, feeling good and getting set to make things baby-ready. \u00a0Then she said she\u2019d had a headache for the last couple days that she couldn\u2019t get rid of. \u00a0So she went in to get it checked out, and didn\u2019t come home until she gave us all a really good scare and had an emergency c-section that brought our 2nd beautiful son into the world 9 weeks before his due date.<\/p>\n

\"High_BP\"<\/a>\u201cSevere preeclampsia\u201d is what they called it after they had gotten Ezra out of Mama and into the NICU at St. Joseph\u2019s Mercy Hospital. \u00a0Tamara\u2019s BP had spiked over 220 systolic, and was non-responsive to treatment. \u00a0Her breathing had become insufficient due to \u201cflash edema.\u201d \u00a0The doctors decided that they needed to get Ezra out so that they could focus on making sure Mama was around to see him. \u00a0Spoiler alert<\/em>: They succeeded, or this letter would sound much different than it has so far.<\/p>\n

On October 12th<\/sup>, Ezra and I went to St. Joe\u2019s NICU. Tamara stayed in the ICU at Allegiance Hospital in Jackson. \u00a0We didn\u2019t see each other for the next week, and I was pretty much in the dark as to just how bad she actually was until Ezra was about a month old, her blood pressure just would NOT come down. \u00a0She was being pumped full of meds that would help her not blow out the walls of any important blood vessels, and slowly it came down. \u00a0Slowly. \u00a0Her Dr. is still working on getting it down to \u201cgood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ezra<\/a>Ezra (which means, \u201cto help\u201d in Hebrew) has been nothing but a little\u00a0superman. \u00a0 His Mama must have really grown him well, while he was living on the inside, because from the moment he came screaming into the world, he\u2019s done nothing but buck all the odds. \u00a0He was intubated for only a couple hours. \u00a0He never needed oxygen. \u00a0His lungs were strong. \u00a0His stomach was ready for food. \u00a0His kidneys were ready to process, and on the list goes. \u00a0The NICU was full of nurses and doctors that knew what to do and how to care for a scared, shell-shocked dad. \u00a0Ezra and I were \u201calone\u201d for days that felt like weeks before Tamara was stable enough to come visit.<\/p>\n

\"EzraI realize that said that we were \u201calone.\u201d But I need to be REALLY clear here, i never felt alone. I felt tired, confused, overwhelmed, and many other \u2018feels,\u2019 but IT WAS SO OBVIOUS THAT WE WERE NOT ALONE. \u00a0Jesus was right there with me and His Words were there to comfort us as we went through these trials. \u00a0Psalms and James and Colossians all were there to remind me of the truth that none of this was new to God. \u00a0None of this, surprised Him. \u00a0God had so many \u201chands and feet\u201d around us that details we didn’t even know about got taken care of. \u00a0Laundry was clean, food was supplied and cooked, children were transported and watched over, and so many more things that I can\u2019t list here. \u00a0It is a truly humbling thing to be made aware of one\u2019s desperate need, and ever so important to see the provision!<\/p>\n

Where are we now? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As time after birth continued to add up, we became very aware of the fact that Tamara\u2019s BP was not going down, as it normally would. \u00a0The norm for preeclampsia is that Mama only has it until birth, then it returns to normal. \u00a0Not for us, though\u2026 \u00a0It has taken some extra time for Tamara\u2019s BP to return to a more normal set of numbers, but it IS coming down. \u00a0Ezra\u2019s lb\u2019s are going up and Tmama\u2019s BP is coming down. \u00a0We like that!<\/p>\n

In the rest of our \u201cworld,\u201d things are also returning to something that resembles \u201cnormal.\u201d Tamara is home almost all of the time with \u201cthe boys.\u201d \u00a0I am \u201cat work,\u201d down the hill at the Bible School, and \u201cthe girls\u201d are at school, across town.<\/p>\n