UPDATED: Baby Sawyer Update ~ Women of Faith ~ and other stuff on my mind...

TUESDAY NIGHT UPDATE: PLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR SAWYER: Baby Sawyer has another hurdle, a condition called Chyle and there are also some concerns about infection. Doctors are working to give him double-dose diuretics to reduce fluid so that he can have surgery tomorrow to clean out his chest, and close his heart surgery opening. Please pray for all of the details and that God would protect from infection, further complications and that He would guide the hands of the surgeons. Thank you for your continued prayers for this sweet baby who has had to fight so hard...
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Original post:
Baby Sawyer's chest remains open from his heart surgery performed last Thursday. He has been retaining excess fluid, which needs to dissipate before the doctors can proceed and close him back up. Then there are some other concerns (including a possible kidney blockage) they will work on. Doctors say that it will be Wednesday or maybe even later before they can consider closing his chest. Please keep Sawyer in prayer. (Sawyer was born on April 16, 2010 and had open heart surgery less than a week later to repair TGA (transposition of the great arteries), a heart condition that is fatal without treatment.) His mother, Nicki, is one of my best friends from high school. My heart is heavy for this family, and we covet your prayers for them....

Thank you to those of you who have been praying. I have no doubt that he and this family are being carried by those prayers and by the arms of our mighty God.

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Women of Faith is coming up this weekend...and I am so excited!!! Becki and I will be travelling to Columbus...and so will Holly and some other friends of ours. If you are going to be in the area, we would love to meet you for supper on Friday evening (or actually afternoon).

If you are going to Women of Faith in Columbus on April 30-May 1st, or if you are just going to be in the Columbus area and want to meet us for supper, please let us know! We'd love to meet you.

We will be at the Cheesecake Factory at Easton at 4:30pm for an early supper. Come to meet us...or come to meet Holly...or come for the cheesecake. We don't care why...just come! And, let us know if you plan to attend, so we can ask for a table for the right amount of people!

I am planning on taking lots of pictures...and I'm sure Holly-girl will too. You know, hers are always better than mine! Maybe we can even blog from the hotel! Also...you never know, I might even bring home a souvenir to give away. So stay tuned!
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If you've been wondering how I'm doing with my peeling back the layers project (as if you have nothing else going on!), I'll tell you. Big sigh....

Sadly, I've crawled back under my layers and retreated. I wish I could tell you I've claimed victory and cast off the layers (or shackles, if you will). But, it's been a one step forward, two steps back kind of thing. I'm admitting this for the sake of honesty and accountability. You know, knowing the truth and being set free doesn't mean that we don't sometimes struggle. Sometimes, we don't walk in the freedom we've been given. I'm no exception.

The thing about our gracious God, though, is that "His mercies are new every morning...His compassions fail not"...and "great is His faithfulness". When I am faithless, He is faithful. When I reach for the Doritos, He remains steadfast. He doesn't give up on me, even when I'm shrinking in the face of the struggle before me. He remains with outstretched arms, offering me strength and victory...if I will only take it. Like the prisoners whose prison walls have fallen down, whose shackles have been loosed...I only have to take the step...to walk out of the prison and embrace the freedom. Yet, I have retreated, feeling more comfortable in the prison...or beneath my layers, away from feelings that are painful to explore.

I have said many times that the only way out is through...whether it is grief from loss, illness, death, disappointments, unmet expectations, abandonment. Whatever the cause, the only way out from the pit or the layers, or the prison...is to walk through the pain and sorrow. To recognize it, experience it, and release it to the care of our loving God who is able to heal our pain and take the sorrow upon Himself. He longs to wipe our tears, if we let Him. He longs to comfort us in all our tribulation so that we may comfort others with the comfort He gives. He longs to make us into a new creation....to complete the good work that He begins in us...and to see us flying free from all that entangles us, keeping us from being the people He created us to be.

So...here I am again. Ready to let Him work, praying for strength to resist the desire to retreat under my layers, and trusting Him to complete the good work He has begun in me. It's really not about the food anyway. It's about going to something other than the Lord for comfort. He is my comforter...and He is all that I need.
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O.K...so there are some other things I'd like to share soon. I love watching the Lord work! And, He is definitely working. But, it's getting late...so those posts will have to wait. (I know you're just on pins and needles! ha-ha... =)