Dear Friends and Family, First of all, thank you so much for your faithful prayers for our family during this trying time. We don't know how we would get through this without all of you surrounding us with love, prayer, care, meals, etc. Truly we are so blessed to have you in our lives! Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is being honored because of your selflessness and sacrifice in His name! Thank you!!! If you are squeamish, don't like medical details, just ate dinner, etc....just stop reading and pray! :) Otherwise, feel free to read on Here's the update from the OB/GYN appt. today: - We are 7 weeks pregnant and saw the baby! The heart beat is strong and for that we are praising the Lord! - There is an extra sac of blood/fluid next to the placenta and I have been spotting off and on for a week. It also looks like there is a tear in the placenta which could mean a possible miscarriage or God could choose to heal it. (He healed my sister a little over a year ago when she had a tear at both ends of the placenta. :) - The cyst looks like is shrinking!!!* The large amount of progesterone that it holds could be serving to sustain the baby! Only God knows, but if He continues to shrink it, there may not be a need for surgery in 5ish weeks! :) - If the cyst doesn't shrink, then Dr. McNeely will remove it around week 12 or so. If he does this while the uterus is fairly small, it can be done laparoscopically. If the uterus is too big, it will be like a regular C-Section surgery. Prayer Requests: - Spotting would stop and the baby would live. - Our family would be sustained by God's grace as things look very different than "normal" around here since I have to be in bed 80-90% of the time. - God's hand would be on the cyst and continue to shrink it! Such a blessing that it has not yet ruptured like the other one when it was this size! - Hope would fill us and faith that God's best will happen no matter what! Mostly, thank you all for your prayers and begging the Lord for mercy on our behalf. We are so blessed and see God's grace all around us in His body who have stepped up to the challenge (once again...)! THANK YOU!!! Psalm 42:5-6a "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Confident in our Hope, Tina (Mark, too :) PS Feel free to forward to any other prayer warriors! :) *There are many types of cysts, but mine is a Cystadenoma. This cyst forms within the outer lining of the ovary. This kind of cyst has a one in eight chance of being cancerous, according to Women's College Hospital in Canada, but most are not malignant before menopause. -- "When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul." - Psalm 94:19 -- "When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul." - Psalm 94:19
