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.