Neely Jane Phillips---due June 21st, 2011

Here is a copy of an email I sent out last week regarding Neely. (For those of you who've been following the blog and praying for us, I apologize for the delay in sending this update).
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"We are grateful for what God has done in just a matter of weeks (from our perspective). I have been praying that God would heal little Neely and that we would be recipients of a miracle baby; I have also prayed that God would graciously prepare our hearts for whatever story he is writing and that no matter the consequence, we would remain faithful and trust His ways.

We praise him for yesterday's good news! After meeting for an hour with the genetic counselor and discussing all of our options, based largely on what the ultrasound showed in the next hour, we were already exhausted. But PRAISE JESUS that when the moment of truth came, we not only saw and heard a strong heartbeat, but the cystic hygromas AND fluid on the back of the neck had reduced in size!! This was huge as I had been nervous all week about what we might see. Because of this, we decided not to pursue further testing and allow the cells to be discarded. Of course, if we get to 20 wks and something is off, we understand they will have to extract new cells, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. We are trusting that at the 20 wk appt, the hygromas will be completely dissolved. Though we rejoiced when we heard the chromosomes were normal, we were told yesterday that was the biggest, most important "chunk" of information because usually cystic hygromas are associated with some form of trisomy and this proved not to be the case with us! Praise Jesus for his mercy and for sustaining health and life in Neely. The doctor is still a bit concerned, only because of the remaining presence of the hygromas and because he couldn't get a solid view of the heart, but we are trusting for the best!

In the meantime, I feel like I can finally be excited about this baby girl. I cannot say how thankful I am for all of you---for your commitment to intercede for us and for your friendship and love. Thank you for encouraging us with truth when our hearts were filled with anxiety. We have experienced the body of Christ like never before!
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A note about the name: Neely is a name we have liked and hung onto since we were first married. Tom and Diana Patton, the missions pastor and his wife at St. Paul's Prebyterian in Orlando, did our pre-marital counseling and had three children, Nathan, Noel and Neely. Neely was the youngest, was kind, courteous, and spunky in her own way. We wanted to honor them because of their influence and impact on our VERY young married lives. Jane is my maternal grandmother's name (spelled with a "y") and my mother's name is Janene, from "Jayne." On trips to Tennessee to visit family, I remember people calling both my mom and grandmother (Memaw) "janie." I wanted to honor both of these women by passing their names onto our daughter.

I return to the doctor (perinatalogist) in three weeks for another ultrasound. Our prayer is that the cystic hygromas would be completely gone and the heart, in particular, would be normal. Would you pray that with us?

In the meantime, here's our little monster contemplating his new big boy bed...he took a full 3 hour nap in it yesterday. When I heard he was awake, I slowly opened the door to find him safely on the floor, reading books!!