Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen...

On Wednesday Obe and I went to the Children's National Heart Institute in DC for our Fetal Echocardiogram. On our way there we decided to saturate and arm ourselves with God's Truth and Promises.
I read Hebrews 11 out loud. The chapter starts off with these words:
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible...without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him..."

The chapter goes on to talk about men and women that stood up against insurmountable odds, they had every strike against them in the natural world and to those that didn't, like Moses, they refused entitlement and wealth for the sake of Greater Riches and promises from God.
As I read this chapter I was filled with great humility and faith rose up within me that this same God that caused men to "conquer kingdoms, perform acts of righteousness, obtain promises, shut the mouths of lions, escape the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, parted the Red Sea"...this same God was now walking with us and girding us up to face whatever giant we were now up against.

Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.

Four words that break my heart and make very little sense to me right now....

What Doctors say:
After 5 hours of indepth heart sonogramming and deliberations we found out that the pediatric cardiology specialists believe with "100%" certainty that our son has a rare congenital heart defect called, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Basically, this means that sometime between now and when he's born they believe that the left ventricle in his heart will stop functioning and he will be born with half a heart. These babies have at most 48 hours (that's what they told us with our son's condition) after birth to receive open heart surgery because their heart is incapable of pumping oxygen rich blood to the body on its own. This procedure on avg has a 50-85% success rate (meaning the baby's life is sustained). However, there are many other complications due to the intense toll these complicated surgeries have on their newborn bodies. For example, brain damage, slowed speech, collapsed lungs, acid reflux, contamination, the list can go on and on..life is taken one day at a time and they have to undergo a series of open-heart surgeries by the time their 18 months old. They told us everything and gave us all our options. We sat there listening to what they projected his life to look like from now until he's at least 20, since their oldest survivors of HLHS are now only in their early 20's.
Even though they can offer much hope there are still so many risks and unknowns. If you want to find out more about this syndrome this site is good because its a testimonial of a beautiful little girl named, Grace with HLHS: http://www.heartofgrace.net/WhatIsHLHS.html.

Many of you have sent us messages and emails asking us how things are going...it's been a tough and confusing week...we thank you again and again for your prayers and concerns for us! We have been wrestling with this diagnosis all week, crying out to God, seeking His face and making preparations for the potential challenging journey ahead of us. So thank you for your patience.

What we say:
We feel very fortunate to have such an amazing, world-class team of pediatric heart surgeons on Judah's side but right now we do not see Judah as a "HLHS" baby (despite what the doctors say). We believe that God is not done with him yet and who but God truly knows the heart of man, He is still perfecting him and safely knitting him in my womb and He alone ultimately has the final Word.
We are asking God for a Creative miracle in his life and for His kingdom to come, His will to be done. We praise God for our son. He already is such a gift to us...we are completely in love! We know that God has a plan and a purpose in all of this and we are still holding on to dear life to the promises He has, the ones not seen, as well as the ones that are for today. No matter what the outcome, we are committed to Praising the King through little Judah's life.

Will you please continue to stand with us for our son, Judah Aslan?

We are not ready to relinquish him into the miracles of modern medicine. Our prayer is for God to be victorious in this situation and continue the work of Master Creator, Great Physician, making his heart wholly His for His mighty purposes. We are also praying that He would uphold us during this time, give us strength when we're weary, fill us with Faith and Hope and that fear would not cloud His purposes in our lives. He's put a new song in my heart each morning and I can say with all my heart that "His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in my weakness, so I will gladly boast in my weakness so His power may rest on me." (2cor.12:9)

We feel like we're in for the fight of our lives.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2cor4:19)

What God's Word says:
"For I know the Plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future, then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your heart." (jer.29:11)