Many of you who will read this have been diligently keeping up with my wife's blog. She has done and, I'm sure, will continue to do an amazing job articulating our circumstances and intimating our emotions as we go through what has been one of the darkest season of our lives.
I encourage everyone willing to read her updates as well. http://thenotsosmallings.blogspot.com/
As a brief synopsis for those unaware of our situation, Lauren and I officially became first-time parents of a beautiful baby girl that we named Everly Lynne on January 8th, 2014. This date is meaningful in so many ways as it was the exact day, three year prior, that Lauren and I met for the first time.
Lauren had a C-section as it was predicted that Everly was going to be a sizeable newborn and thus a safety concern for both mommy and baby for natural delivery. Evie gave us our first shock as parents when she came into the world at a mere 8 lbs 3 oz...3 lbs below the original guesstimation!
Our second shock was the abundant dark hair she was sporting. Only about fifteen minutes later, shock number three came as nurses began noticing that Everly was having difficulty breathing. Someone threw out the term Pierre-Robin Sequence, but the phrase sat stagnant in the air, no one addressing it further possibly out of fear of explaining what that meant to the parents of this brand new baby or simply because no one quite new what the condition truly entailed.
It has been a crazy three weeks since, filled with struggles, false hopes perpetuated by misdiagnoses, and crushing blows as Lauren and I readjust our expectations upon learning Evie's PRS is more severe than what we were originally told.
While in the midst of this struggle, obviously Lauren and I spend an immense amount of time in thought and prayer about our sweet baby. This is, of course, understandable and natural. However, I feel we'd be remiss to not take moments to recognize and lift up those people in our lives that are going through their own struggles.
Lauren and I love a God that cares for all of the approximate 7 billion people on this planet! To many, it's hard to fathom that a God wants to be and can be personal and relational with so many individuals. However, our God, according to The Bible, made EVERYTHING. From vast galaxies to microscopic organism, our Heavenly Father created it all. He has the omniscience to know every detail of His creation. He knows how many hairs are on Everly's head...and they are abundant!
If we truly ascribe ourselves to the ways and teachings of Jesus as we claim to do, I believe we must, as much as we can, care for others as Jesus did. While we can't reach out to 7 billion, Lauren and I can reach out to the thousands of people we know...many of whom have showered us with so much love and support in our time of need.
It does well for our souls to include friends and families in our prayers along with those we lift up for Everly. In some ways, I feel closer to God than I ever have before. I long to talk to Him, and I speak for Lauren and myself when I say we desire to pray for anyone else who wants/needs us to do so.
Hence, this is our OPEN INVITATION! Please email/call/text us with anything that is on your heart. Your struggles, fears, and worries will be lifted up along with our own. In doing so, Lauren and I can maintain perspective of our own situation in the light that so many others are feeling similar pain and sorrow. Our greatest desire is to bring a little hope and strength to others as so many have been doing for us.
Please, please, please. Let us know what we can pray for...you can be as vague or specific as you would like. We just want to include you in our prayers. Congruently, we extend our warmest thanks for the prayers lifted up on behalf of our own family. We have handshakes and possibly awkwardly long bear hugs for everyone we see that has given us such amazing support.
With All Our Love,
Brad & Lauren Smalling
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