They warned us that in the NICU it's a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs. So we thought we were prepared for that. It turns out the down days are harder than we thought. Mckinley has had several down days in a row now and it's just so hard to see her go through all this. With down days come lots of extra tests and pokes and IV's and we have to watch her struggle to breathe. I've always heard parents say that it's hard to watch your child go through something hard and not be able to do anything, but I never had any idea how strongly I would feel that until now. She started off doing very well with breathing, but in the past few days she's had a harder time. They have had to give her more help to stimulate her lungs. And when she doesn't breathe well it makes her heart rate drop and sometimes she forgets to breathe and they have to reach in there and move her around so she will remember. Also, when she has bad days we don't get to hold her and that breaks our heart also.

But we are just so thankful that God sees her every breath, every heartbeat, and that He watches over her when we can't. It's teaching me a good lesson in life about worrying. Every time I start to worry I just turn that worry into a prayer. Me thinking about it and wondering about the future doesn't help me or Mckinley. It just makes me upset and dwell on the bad even more, but when I turn it into a prayer I feel God's peace because I know He's taking much better care of her than I ever could. In a situation as hard and scary as this it makes me thankful that I have no control and that God has all control.

Specific prayer requests right now would be:
-That her breathing and lung function would improve.
-She has a heart murmur and they have given her one round of medication but believe it has opened back up. If it has opened back up they can do up to two more rounds of the medication, but if that doesn't work she will have to go to Atlanta for surgery. We are really praying against that.
-That she would continue to gain weight and grow stronger so that things like breathing aren't so hard for her.

A praise is that they did a cranial ultras0und and that she doesn't have any bleeding on her brain which can be common in preemies.

Also, we are looking forward to spending her first Christmas with her. We are going to the hospital first thing on Christmas morning and giving her a baby Bible, a cross to go in her incubator with her, and a little stuffed animal that can stay in there with her also. The Hawk's gave her the Christmas story for children and hopefully we can hold her and read that to her. So we have a lot to pray about and a lot to look forward to with her. Thank you for your continued prayers. We've been in awe of how many people God has sent to pray for her. My dad has even gotten e-mails from prayer chains in Pennsylvania and knows someone praying in Vienna, Austria. What a blessing to have so many lifting her up in prayer.