Fear and Thanks

"... The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge;
My savior, You save me from violence.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised ..."

2 Samuel 22: 2-4

Well it is several days later, and Tara and I are still struggling with Laura having to go through open heart surgery on September 9, 2009. It is what we have talked about most since Tuesday morning. When the date was finalized we were both gripped with a near overwhelming fear that our Laura would not survive the surgery. That God would choose to call her home during the surgery. We know God is working in this situation. We have seen it in the way everyone we know has prayed, offered words of comfort and basically rallied around our precious angel. But we are still scared.

In the last few days we have each had conversations with people who have either been through what we are going through, or are going through something similar. This has been a huge comfort for us. We see Gad is watching over Laura and Tara and I. We know he will not let anything happen that we cannot handle. It is just hard to work through all of this, when we have a date for her surgery that is just three weeks away. She will not even be three months old at the time her surgery is done.

The flip side is, that Tara and I cannot believe that God has given the doctors and surgeons the knowledge and skills necessary to work on a heart that is so very small delicate. We now see that He has kept us here in Houston for this reason. This is the best place in the world for Laura. For that we are grateful as well. That last bit was hard to write, for as many of you know we want to move out of this city in a bad way.

We are so blessed to have friends, family and coworkers that care about us and our daughter so deeply. At REI many of my coworkers either have already, or are planning to, donate sick/vacation time to me, so I can be off for her surgery and still get paid. At Second Baptist, they are allowing Laura to stay in Tara's office, so that Laura can have a further reduced chance of getting sick before the surgery. Your emails and prayers the last few days have meant the world to us. Thank you.