Joseph is home and doing well, praise God!

We arrived home in France on 19 November - the date Joseph had been due to be born! Since then he has been thriving, and now weighs 3.300 kg, about average for a newborn baby. According to the pediatrician who examined him last week he has normal muscle tone and eye control - we just thank God for His grace and encouragement; our hearts are filled with hope, no matter what the future holds we know that God is GOOD and is in total control of Joseph's life. We are delighted to have him home - he is so full of life, and I just love looking at him and thank God for all He has done to save our little Joseph.
We are so grateful to all our brothers and sisters for their prayers and christian love. I believe that the Lord continues to fight for him and I thank you all so much for your support from many miles away. God bless you all and Merry Christmas to all of you!

To watch a video which summarizes the early days and shows Joseph leaving the hospital on 7 November, click here.

November 4 2007 - Joseph will soon be home

Dear friends in Christ,

During the last few weeks Joseph has steadily gained weight (he now weighs 5 pounds 13 ounces) and improved his breathing abilities and the doctors are now ready to let him go out into the big wide world!
He had an MRI scan this week, but we will be told the results after we leave the hospital, as it would seem that it is extremely complicated to analyze a brain scan of a premature baby, and it will take a while to prepare the report.
We prefer, however, not to dwell on what is happening inside Joseph's brain, we are just overwhelmingly happy that we have our little baby son and can enjoy cuddling him and feeding him. The prospect of taking him home is almost unbelievable and I can only say 'Thank God' for bringing us to this happy point after the trauma of the early days. When I look at Joseph as he was in August he seems like a different baby compared to the chubby one I see today. It is clear that God has intervened in his life and I pray He will continue to lead him, and us, on a daily basis.
And, we will never forget the immense support we have been given from our brothers and sisters in the States and elsewhere and we will never tire of thanking God for your faithful prayers. Praise God for what He has done and for what we hope He will do in Joseph's life! And many many thanks to all of you for your continued prayers for Joseph and his development.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness" 2 corinthians 12:9

Tuesday, October 23

Dear faithful friends,
I have just returned from a long, happy day at the hospital, feeding Joseph, on demand and cuddling him. He no longer has the tube in his nose and the nurses are coaxing him to take all his nourishment orally. He is a bit weak still and had to have a blood transfusion today, but I managed to cuddle and breastfeed him while he had the blood dripping in via the intravenous line in his little arm!
Despite all he has been through he is a responsive baby and seems completely aware of everyone, and I am convinced that his progress is thanks to God's intervention after hearing so many prayers from you all and our brothers and sisters in France and elsewhere.
We are starting to make serious plans to go home - we haven't been told a date yet, but we think it might be in a couple of weeks!!!
So, praise the Lord, and thank you all for your prayers for Joseph, we will post a photo or film of him next time!!

Every day we hear the doctors and nurses say "Joseph is doing really well".
He is learning to take more milk from the breast and the bottle without tiring, and his monitoring is now reduced to an apnea monitor and occasional use of the monitor on his foot to measure oxygen saturation and heart beat. He loves his cuddles as much as we do, and we are starting to think about the very real possibility of taking him home, one day in a few weeks' time...
We thank God for his progress and we have committed Joseph's future into the Lord's gentle, loving hands.

Here is Joseph having a little look round and a smile!
Click here: Joseph 10 October

Thank you and God bless you for your continued prayers. God hears them all.

October 7 - Joseph leaves his incubator

Joseph is 7 weeks old today, and to celebrate the nurses moved him out of his incubator and into a little cot, still connected to his monitor and still with his nasogastric tube, but now out in the warm air of the room !!! The reason for the move is mainly because he has put on enough weight - he now weighs 4 pounds and 4 ounces - the extra body fat will allow him to regulate his body temperature.
We are delighted and joyful and I thank God for the care He is taking of Joseph and for all the prayers from our brothers and sisters. We are truly privileged to have such prayer support for our son and I am sure that he would not be sleeping in a cot tonight if it had not been that God has had mercy on him and has lent His ear to all your prayers in favor of Joseph. So, a big thank you to you and please continue to ask the Lord for healing for Joseph in his head.

The photo on the right of the screen was taken today.

With love in Christ

Michelle

1 0ctober

Joseph has been putting on weight steadily over the last few days and now weighs just over 1.700 kgs (about 3 pounds 11 ounces I think). It is wonderful to see him developing some chubbiness where before he was so thin.

His general health is improving hand in hand with his weight gain and a couple of days ago he was moved into the ward next door !! This is a sure sign that his health is improving and we were pleasantly taken aback by the move ! The healthier the babies are the further up they move until one day Joseph will go right out of the door and straight home !!!

All the nurses know that christians are praying for Joseph around the world and my hope is that they will associate God's invisible hand with his progress. He hasn't had the MRI scan yet and we continue to entrust the repair of his brain to God in prayer. In the meantime, he is acting like a normal little baby boy who lets us know when it's time for his next feed and likes nothing more than to fall asleep snuggled up in the arms of his mum or dad.

We thank God for Joseph and for all who have prayed for him so far. I will try to upload a recent picture sometime this week.

God bless you all for your faithfulness and prayers.

25 SEPTEMBER 2007

Dear praying sisters and brothers across the ocean,

Here is a link to a new, short video of Joseph taken yesterday.
http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=-1230213147388164562&hl=fr

Please accept our heartfelt thanks for your continued prayers. God is clearly answering as we mostly have encouraging news !

Joseph is finally putting some weight on ! ! He now weighs 1.520 kilos which is over 3 pounds I think. We thank God that he is alert and bright-eyed and we just love spending time with him ! !We have entrusted God with the repair of his brain so we feel freer to go about the normal parenting activities of cuddling and changing his nappy (diaper). We have now been given freer rein by the nursing staff to take him out of the incubator without their help, although we usually have to wait 3 hours between cuddles as he gets tired quickly. While he is in our arms he is still connected to a monitor as although his respiration is better he does occasionally forget to breathe and has sudden drops in his heart beat. The good news is that he corrects these ‘dips’ himself which shows that his brain is getting better at regulating his body.

He is continuing to be fed mainly by nasogastric tube but before every feed they give me time to ‘try him on the breast’ for half an hour – sometimes he does very well and other times he is a bit sleepy and just falls asleep on me ! Every day we feel more encouraged and thank God for every cuddle and chance to tell Joseph we love him. He remains in the most medicalised ward in the intensive care unit – I feel sad sometimes when I see other babies come and go and moving into the less medicalised wards while Joseph remains where he is, but God knows what He is doing, and I am encouraged to know that Love endures everything and with His love we can endure whatever He allows in our lives.

Please pray that we manage to find a new routine when my husband goes back to France next week to work. It will be strange and difficult not to have his daily support, but we know that God will continue to provide support and comfort. Please pray also for the continued healing of Joseph’s brain. (They may postpone the MRI scan to a later date as he is a bit frail for the moment).

God bless

Michelle, and Emmanuel