Natalie Jean Henke: Our Hearts!

Day 6 of waiting to see little Natalie's blue eyes again. We spent another day watching and waiting for pressures to stabilize. Tonight, they lifted the paralytic about 30 minutes before we came home. We hope that this will be the beginning of coming off of sedation and getting on the road to recovery. We miss that wacky little girl playing peek-a-boo with us. She is a nut and we can't wait to see her smile again. The doctors are still very impressed with how good she is doing and how good she looks. Brad and I find ourselves watching her chest and her little heart beat and continue to be amazed and so grateful for what they have done for her.

The plan for tomorrow is to watch her pressures when she is off of the paralytic, and hopefully the sedation too. They are still giving her a lot of medication for pain. There is about 6-8 different lines running into her, so every one that they remove is a hurdle. They are still trying to get fluid off of her. She is starting to look much more like herself .

Yesterday, the hospital sponsored a Christmas Store for all the families that are spending Christmas in the hospital. It was amazing to see all the donated items. Each family could get 3 board games, 2 stuffed animals and some stocking stuffers and then still had 6 tickets to get other gifts. Once you picked out your gifts you went to the wrapping room to wrap presents and have some snacks. We grabbed a few gifts for Natalie, and a board game for us to keep busy.

I think about all the bad things that are happening in this world right now. Experiences like this bring me back to the good work that God is doing in our world. I think about how fast the bad news travels, and I only wish that people would hear about all the good things that happen, too. It's too easy to focus on the bad and forget the love that God shares with us everyday. Thank you Lord for bringing us back to the reason for the season. The giving of the ultimate gift. The Gift of Jesus!!! Thank you, Lord God, for providing us a way to be closer to you and a chance for us to have everlasting life with you.

As we get ready for another Christmas, even though we are far from home, we are together. Brad and I hope for Natalie to be awake and comfortable with her new present. Her new heart. I think we all got a new heart for Christmas. Not new, but newly transformed. We hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and are blessed with family and friends.

Here are a few pictures from the last two days of Brad and I passing the time. If anyone has any good words that use the letter z, x or q, let us know:) Also, Go Vikings!!!! I hope that there is one more big win in their bag of tricks.