O Lord, our hope!

We have a special candle that we light when we want to say something to God, but we don’t know what words to use to pray hard enough. *Last updated Feb 16, 8:15 PM*

When Jon and I were struggling through our first miscarriage, I often felt totally at a loss for words to pray — all of the sorrow and anger and confusion were just too great. One night, I felt like the Lord gave me a special prayer: “O Lord, our hope!” I still don’t know if I can explain what it means, but it seemed to encapsulate all of the longing and pain and hope I felt, even when I didn’t have words to say it. Sometimes even saying the words was too much, so I “made a candle”:http://annagram.org/extras/candles.html with the prayer on it. We still light this candle when we need to.

We lit it through two more miscarriages and through much of my pregnancy with Lucy. Every time I look at it, I’m so thankful to have our daughter in our lives. O Lord, our hope!

We lit it last week when we learned that a friend of ours gave birth prematurely, at 18 weeks, and little Christian Alexander was born still. O Lord, our hope!

We lit it this morning to pray for little two-month-old Ramona, Jane and Andy’s daughter, “Simon’s”:http://boydsnest.org/news/2006/friends/ sister. She was diagnosed yesterday with a major heart defect and they are doing open-heart surgery right now to correct it. We cannot pray hard enough to express our longing for Ramona to live and heal and thrive. O Lord, our hope!

The Lord is good, and he hears our prayers.

h4. Updates

*Feb 15, 7:45 AM –* As of midnight last night, Ramona was still in a really tight spot, but her condition wasn’t as dire as we thought a few hours earlier (see “Ann’s comment below”:#comment-2547): her oxygen levels were still really low and fluctuating, but they weren’t as low as immediately following the open-heart surgery. The question as of midnight was, “Will she last the night?” (If so, then it becomes, “Will she last 48 hours?”) We haven’t heard an update since midnight, and we are assuming “no news is good news” at this point.

*Feb 15, 10:15 AM –* Here’s a morning update, quoted from a family friend’s email:

bq.. Ramona had a good night. She is not out of the woods, and things are touch-and-go, but she had a good night. Praise God. Her oxygen levels have been fluctuating but at the highest point were, I believe, at 80 so that is great. Currently she is on a lot of medication to assist with this, and we do not yet know how successful the surgery was at making that increase happen [independently]. As they wean her off the medications, that will become more clear. The encouraging news is that the procedure that took place (rather than the shunt), if successful at increasing her oxygen level, gives her a much better chance that she will be able to have the necessary future surgery [needed in several months]: 50/50. There is hope!

Please pray for supernatural healing, protection against infection, strength and God’s peace for Andy and Jane, a continued sense of normalcy for Simon, and that Jane and Andy are able to be present with Simon and draw their strength from God and each other.

p. *Feb 15, 11:00 AM –* Ramona’s oxygen levels have risen to 84 this morning (where 95ish is normal), so that’s just fantastic. What a little fighter. And believe it or not, we have a request for a “milk drive” from her doctors. The long and the short of it is that Ramona may need nourishment soon, and breast milk will be the best thing for her. She’ll need more than Jane can provide. (Long story, apparently.) So: if any of you are still nursing, please let us know (by emailing milk4ramona@boydsnest.org) and start setting aside any and all frozen milk, in the event Ramona will need it before long. Email that address with any questions you have about the drive. Thanks for considering making such an amazing gift to Ramona!

*Feb 16, 11:45 AM –* Here’s this morning’s update, digested from email from that family friend (Jen S.):

bq.. Ramona had an OK night last night. As expected, she did have a few dips in her oxygen level, the lowest of which was 74 yesterday, but she has been hanging out in the mid 80s which is good. At her highest point yesterday she momentarily hit 92! They are removing her heart stimulant and reducing her ventilator setting, and if she remains stable they will close her chest [this weekend]. The doctors will not be checking to see if her arteries are growing for weeks or months, which was a bit different than we thought. They do not need to grow for her to go home, but her vitals must be stable.

Prayer requests:

Ramona has an elevated white blood count and is acidodic (which means her pH is off), both signs of possible infection. Please pray for these two things to normalize. They are broadening her antibiotic treatment, so please pray for protection from infection.

This is the beginning of a long battle, friends, and she has a long way to go. Please pray for sustaining strength for Ramona, Jane, Andy, Simon, and their families. Little Ramona is holding her own and fighting hard.

p. Also, coming soon: a website dedicated to news, updates, and pictures of Ramona. Watch this post for launch details.

*Feb 16, 8:15 PM –* We’ll close off this post and refer you to a new website dedicated to news and prayer requests for Ramona: “RamonaMae.com”:http://ramonamae.com. Check there for all the latest!