UPDATE - Dan & Abby Fitch, Missionary - New Zealand 3/8/10

Ezra is now 15 weeks 2 days old. On Saturday he will be 4 months old and it's his due date! Of course we never imagined that we would spend the last 4 months in Waikato hospital. It is amazing how much the Lord has done during this time. He has allowed us to see our little boy grow before our eyes as he would have in the womb. We've also seen God's perfect plan in action; looking back a year ago  on March 22nd when He provided Dan with a boss and job that would allow Dan the time off to be at the hospital through this time. But our journey isn't over yet!

This morning Ezra had an eye check and the news was a true blessing to hear. Dr. Dixon thinks that Ezra may end up with partial vision in his right eye, only time will tell. This is a huge praise and miracle. As we have said, the only other cases where Dr. Dixon has dealt with this situation, the child's eye shriveled and no longer functioned within a couple of weeks. This can only be attributed to God's hand in Ezra's life. We want to thank you all so much for your prayers for this specific matter and we implore with you to please keep praying. The power of prayer has made this happen so far, and Ezra is only going to continue to improve if we are constantly praying for his continued progress. I know that this time has been a huge growing time for us and we just hope that your prayer life has been strengthened and encouraged through this as well.

What we know so far is that Ezra, will end up having a contact lens constantly and also wear a patch every day for a couple of hours (like his cousin Lochie, who also wears a patch). They did actually remove his lens during the surgery so his eye wouldn't be able to focus on its own without a contact lens. As you can imagine, it is a bit daunting thinking about putting a contact lens into a tiny baby's eye! Thankfully the contact only has to be changed at the longest once a month or preferably once a week.  Dan does have experience handling contacts since he also wears them, so this is a bonus!

The next step now is to be transferred back to Tauranga. The doctors will hopefully do this within the week. Then we can get to know the staff there since we will be dealing with them once we are back home. They will fit Ezra for his contacts when he reaches Tauranga next week. It sure will be nice to be back in our own bed and Dan won't have to travel so far to get to the hospital.

Also to update you on Ezra's jaundice, to our eyes Ezra is looking a bit less green, which is a good sign, but they are continuing to test for various things that could be causing it. He is having an ultrasound probably today or tomorrow to look at his liver and gall bladder to check how they are functioning and for any blockages. He has continued to do really well with his breastfeeding, which is very exciting. Today he got weighed again and he gained around 50 grams; yay! He is now 1886 grams (4.16 pounds). We are thankful for this time to rejoice in God's working.