Heartsick

I have so many things to blog about, but let me take a minute here and ask you all for some prayers.

My dear friends, J. and R. had their baby on Friday, and on Saturday they learned that he has a serious heart valve defect. They thought at first he might have to have immediate surgery, but at this point they think a life-long course of medication will control it.

J. sounded like he hadn’t slept in four days when I talked to him this morning. He hadn’t. R. is exhausted too, not only from the emergency C-section but from the grief of being in a different hospital than her baby, and all while watching the other happy families up and down the hallway who are cuddling their new babies.

I wish so much that their birth had been easier. Not just the baby’s—though I’m sure they rather not have had an emergency C-section—but their birth as parents. Even under the best of circumstances, a new mother and father come wailing into a new world that seems larger, colder, and scarier because there is so suddenly so much more to lose. Our hearts are wounded, too, and there is no easy pill to take for it.

So please, if you’re the praying type, say a prayer for healing and peace for this new little family. If you’re not the praying type, keep a good thought for them anyway, and all of you go home tonight and love your own family extra hard.