Caden Update

We are thankful to be able to tell y'all that Caden had a good night last night! After the stress of being in JET rhythm, followed by his scare yesterday, the doctor's goal for the evening was simply to let Caden rest and his heart recover. He was getting a little too fiesty, however, and breathing over his ventilator a little too much so they ended up giving him a paralytic to ensure that he would rest. We are starting to get the impression that we are going to have a little spitfire (in the words of his nurse) on our hands. Hey, we'll take it. God clearly knew he needed a fighting spirit to make it through all this!

When we came in this morning, we were glad to see that his swelling had gone down a lot. The goal is still to close his chest tomorrow. Today, they are working on weaning some of the medications, and the epinephrine in particular. They turned off the paralytics and both the meds that were keeping his heart in sinus rhythm, and his heart remained in sinus rhythm, which is a huge praise.

I came to the hospital by myself for the first time today while Adam met a friend for lunch, and I told Adam I was terrified to be there alone. And sure enough, just minutes after my arrival, Caden's blood pressure plummeted again. Thankfully, they were able to get it under control much more quickly than last time. He still hasn't started moving since turning off the paralytics, but we should be able to see him start taking some breaths on his own and opening his eyes soon. We're so proud of our brave little boy and just how great of a job he's doing with everything - he's living up to his name for sure!

Our friend Megan of Meg Davidson Photography, who I do my photography work with, has set up a page on facebook for Caden (Candles for Caden). If you'd like to join us and get updates there too, we would love that! Also, Megan is the most generous person ever and such a sweet friend and she has decided to donate half of the proceeds of every photoshoot she does in 2011 to help our family. So if you think you might need pictures done any time soon, you should definitely contact Megan. I'm totally not even just saying this because she's giving us money, but Megan is one of the most talented photographers I've ever seen - her work is just beautiful! The last thing we want to think about right now is money and how we are possibly going to pay medical bills and buy medicine for Caden on the budget of an inner-city missionary . . . so we are grateful again for the Lord's providing for our every single need.

Megan and InkSpotts Stationary also created this beautiful badge that just warms our hearts. Here's what Megan said about it: "use it as your profile picture, post it on your blog, spread it everywhere you can! We want the Stanley's to look across the internet and not only hear our prayers, but see this and know WE ARE ALL A PART OF CADEN'S HEART!"

We are blessed by you, and blessed most of all by our sweet little guy. We know he is fighting hard, we are fighting alongside him, and we know our God is fighting for him. It is truly (truly!) a joy to see how God is using an amazing baby boy with a broken heart to touch and heal the hearts of people all over the globe. I am humbled and honored to be a small part of that. Keep praying for our sweet little Caden!

Oh and don't forget you can send encouraging notes and prayers for Caden to his email address (he's already very tech-savvy) cadenstanley@gmail.com - we read him the notes people have sent every single night so he knows how loved he is!!