Christmas Time is Here!

We are constantly reminded by this sweet face that we received our own Christmas miracle!

James' last email (yes, one month ago! I am not a good blogger) is below. Merry Christmas!

It has been awhile so this one is long...

Two weeks ago our little girl turned 3 months old and she is doing great. Miraculous. Going back and reading my own updates from August and September, it is hard to believe how far we have come in such a short amount of time. It seemed like each day was an eternity with the proverbial fire hose of medical information showering us as we monitored various levels and our heart raced at each of her movements. The anticipation of reading the daily creatinine level with my heart beating out of my chest. The consistent support we received from each of our friends and family. The fervent and sincere prayers of so many, answered by a merciful God who we give all the glory to. So many times Sarah and I look at each other and just say how blessed we are.

Now, Sarah and I are forever changed parents, living a life of pseudo-normalcy with our healthy 3 month old daughter and our healthy 3 year old son. We refer to PK as our miracle child and often share her story. Everyone we come in contact with in from the medical and developmental fields are shocked at how wonderful she is doing. Sarah went and visited the Presby NICU the other day. They were so happy to see PK. The nurse manager was in tears and told Sarah that they didn't know if PK was going to make it, but because we were so positive, they were positive. Your support kept us positive. I am melodramatic and in the fraud investigations business so I often see things through negative eyes. But throughout all of this, I felt a peace like I had never felt before. I knew God would heal our baby.

Below is the latest, so some of this may be duplicate if you have received a couple of Sarah's updates.

Overall: PK is a super smiley baby who loves her daddy. She also loves to watch whatever Luke is doing whatever it is 3 year old boys do. Sarah loves the fact that when she asks PK, "Do you want to go Neiman Marcus?", she gets a big smile every time and I get heartburn. She is vocal, just like her father, mother, and brother (she never had a chance). She is in the 90th percentile in height and weight, and because of her constant need for milk, she doesn't sleep through the night yet, and I stress "yet".

Kidneys: As of my last update, the dialysis catheter has been removed and PK will forever be reminded of her start in life by the two scars to the right of her belly button. On August 19th, I added the prayer request that her creatinine level would drop to .4. At that time, her level was at 1.6 and had dropped from 5.3 and I even put the comment that a little higher would be fine as I knew it was a long shot. Well, her most recent blood test returned a creatinine level of .36. Yes!!! Within the range of a normal baby. Our nephrologist guesstimated that her kidney function was at around 70% and would continue improve. Score one more miracle for God.

Brain: In my last update the neurologist was pleased with her progress and we were going to stay on the seizure medication and have another EEG in 5-6 weeks. Well, 5-6 weeks past and the EEG came back completely normal with no signs of seizure activity. We are now in the last week of weaning her off the medication as people can experience some withdrawal if you cut off the medication cold turkey. The neurologist was very excited and said that we do not need to see him again. It is not everyday that these guys get to deliver good news like this. Also, a representative from early childhood intervention (ECI) came over and spent some time with Sarah and PK. Due to her traumatic start she had an automatic referral for ECI to track her progress. She told Sarah and we don't even qualify for a full analysis and that PK was hitting some 4 month milestones.

For anyone who ever questioned whether or not prayers get answered, I ask that you go back and read our story (http://porterkate.blogspot.com/). This was not a series of random acts or doctors and nurses doing their job (although they performed admirably). Ask anyone who was in the operating room at delivery or in the NICU those first 72 hours what they thought PK would be like at 3 months and her progress would not be on their radar. GOD DID THIS. Your prayers were answered.

I do apologize for the communication hiatus. I hadn't been this professionally unproductive since the Internet bust of 2001 so I needed to get back to work in October and November.

P.S. Through Sarah's work with Gail Davis (free plug - http://www.gdaspotlight.com/), she has become friends with a great man named Nando Parrado. Nando is most famous for climbing out of the Andes mountains after his rugby team's plane crashed. He wrote a book called "Miracle in the Andes " and in the 90s they made a movie out of his story called "Alive". Sarah saw him at an event a few weeks ago and was reminded that when the plane crashed, Nando had a massive head injury and the other survivors thought he was going to die, so they left him outside of the plane. Three days later, he was beginning to show signs of life and it's since been attributed to his being left outside in the freezing cold. Three days. The same amount of time PK was under induced hypothermia. Gave me chills when Sarah told me that.