If no news is good news...

Is all news bad news? I guess that depends where you get your news.

The news we received from the cardiologist today is... wait for it... "sorry, we haven't looked at Mayla's ECG yet so we can't tell you when she's going home. However, when we do, if all looks good, she could go home as early as Wednesday, IF we are able to look at it today. If we can't look at the ECG until Wednesday, she can go home as early as Thursday." You can imagine which we are praying for currently. Seriously though, what takes so long? The cardiologist did mention they had a lot of ECG's to go through, but I would argue, if you have a child on the verge of going home, why not look at that one first, or at least with a bit more priority so the parents can sleep in their bed for the first time in the last three weeks. Yeah, that would be cool. We will find out when we arrive in the morning if we go home Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or some other day.

Otherwise, Mayla had a rather eventful day. Of note today was her first bath which went a little worse than a game of brick-ball in a glass house played by the Bad News Bears (if you have no clue about the bad news bears, youtube is your friend). Over the last three weeks, Keri and I have learned a few things about our beloved. One, checking her temperature in the holiest of holes often results in a smelly mess. Two, any attempt at changing a diaper and checking her temperature without a diaper under the rear end of the passenger results in a smelly mess. Three, placing food in the top of the disposal results in a smelly mess from the opposite end of the disposal. Four, Mayla has many traits of her father. Five, new nurses don't always pick up on the queue's of parents. Six, when Mayla wakes up from a nap you have a short window to do, something, before she starts crying, gets mad, and makes all things difficult, particularly taking baths. Seven, never, never, never, never, never fill up a sink with enough water to drown the babies father, and expect a mother to be able to bathe her child with just two hands, no life jacket, a father "trying" to take pictures, and a baby trying to win the 100m freestyle at the 2028 Olympics. Eight, they don't make muzzles for babies, just dogs, and some cats, but definitely NOT babies. You can probably imagine now how that went. Still, it was fun and certainly memorable.

Today Mayla also had an x-ray on her heart. While the x-ray looked great according to the doctor, it was quite the adventure. Following our first adventure in bathing, Keri, the intelligent and loving mother she is, took a stab at feeding an unhappy baby girl. While it didn't start so great, the feeding got better as Keri continued on and Mayla chilled. Amidst one of Mayla's coffee breaks (read: she's a lazy eater, definitely doesn't get that from dad), another seemingly new nurse (trend here?) invited us to bring Mayla downstairs for an x-ray. "So let us get this straight, she is just now FINALLY a bit relaxed following World War 6 in a sink and you want us to keep her chill for an x-ray?" Well, we began our way downstairs and not surprising, the x-ray room was big, empty, and cold. Keri and I suited up in our ultra-stylish lead dresses, it did make my legs look particularly nice, and we proceeded to strip Mayla to her diaper. Imagine her pleasure in just a diaper, a cold room, on a VERY cold medical grade stainless steel table. We were then instructured to "hold her still". I was holding her arms/hands above her head while Keri womanned the legs. Mayla proceeded to once again over-draw her account at the Gasket Bank and the technician encouraged us saying how good it was that she was crying (I'm sorry, what? I can't hear any longer...) because it opened her lungs up. Later the doctor said, while what he saw was great, the x-ray itself wasn't super good because Mayla was exhaling. DUH!!!!!!!!! SHE WAS CRYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I think I saw that scene in a movie once.

After that our morning more or less wrapped up with us trying to relax her. She fed and even slept for almost four hours leading up to our meeting with the cardiologist. During our meeting, Mayla had another fabulous encounter, and we are super glad we were not there for it. Mayla had more blood drawn from her foot. The last time this happened, I think she popped 4 dozen blood vessels in her head and was on the verge of imploding. Not exploding, imploding, which in my head looks way worse. I'm sure it was a bad situation for all involved. After the meeting we came out to see one of the new nurses feeding Mayla which may not seem like a big deal, but Mayla does not respond kindly to hiccups nor not being burped. Both of which happened so we returned to our crying beloved. Keri was quick to swoop her up and soothe and relax her, kein problem.

The rest of the day/evening was probably pretty normal for a new born, feeding (which went really well today thank you), sleeping, crying, smelly messes. To say Mayla had a tough day is an understatement, but she is a trooper, tough, and learning her fingernails are weapons. Not good for the enemy... Seriously though, we did have a good day today and continue counting our blessings, of which we've lost count. Each day we fall more in love with our beloved as we learn more and more about her. She makes us smile, cry, tired, and all kinds of other stuff. Through her, He furthers our joy, and we are incredibly thankful for that. He is good, all the time!

In other news...

Surprisingly to Keri and I, we have recently received some emails and questions about how to pronounce Mayla's name. This surprises us because it never registered to us that there would be any question. So, at the risk of offending some, please accept our apologies if we do so, we are going to "attempt" to clear up any pronunciation misunderstanding now. For Americans and other native English speakers this should be pretty easy, for our German speaking brethren and sisthren (yup, just made up a word; of course I thought I made up Mayla too and it turns out I didn't) it could be a bit more difficult. So, you American and English speaking types, go to your nearest calendar, open to the fifth month of the year, and say the name of the month, then add "l-a". For our German speaking brethren and sisthren, go to your nearest American or native English speaker and ask them to go to their nearest calender, open to the fifth month of the year, and say the name of the month, then add "l-a". Sorry, that's the best I got. Any other questions can be directed to myself, Keri, or Mayla as soon as she can speak.

Even more "other news"

I received a call today that I did not get the job I interviewed for. Not because I wasn't good enough or they were not impressed with me, quite the opposite actually (according to the HR lady). After a month of conducting interviews and wasting countless peoples time, they opted to cut the position from the budget. Granted, I don't work in HR so that "could" be code for, "you are no good and we are not even sure why we called you for the first interview, let alone the second. I mean, you didn't even stick around for your daughters surgery, you went to an interview instead???" Since I'm not in HR I will not speculate on whether the reasoning is legitimate or not, I am however a trusting individual so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Interestingly, the Lord has been preparing me for this the last couple days so it really wasn't a surprise to me (thanks J.C.). Sure I'm disappointed, but the last time I didn't get a job it worked out perfectly since I would have started the week Mayla was born, I'm sure you can imagine how much I would have enjoyed the last few weeks under those circumstances. So, it's clear the Lord has a plan in all of this and I will rejoice in the Lord always, for He is good! I don't have a clue what He is doing, but that seems to be the trend lately and things are going pretty well thus far so I'm going with Him.

After all that, I really don't know how to end this but to say, selfishly, please continue praying for us and Mayla. We have a lot of adjustments coming up with bringing Mayla home, not having nurses and doctors around, wondering if her heart still works when she does anything without squirming, wondering if she is getting enough oxygen, wondering if she'll be a pro-waterskier or race car driver (I'm good with either), etc. We continue to praise God for all he has done and the steps we have taking so far, but we have much more to come and ask for continued prayers for a routine at home, more progress with feeding, Mayla continuing to grow strong, me losing my pregnancy weight (just kidding), our future in or out of Switzerland, favorable ECG results, and anything you can think of that I haven't already stated. As always, thank you for your love, support, and prayers. This has been an amazing experience and we are humbled to be on the receiving end of God's grace and literally the global church coming together. Thank you!

Here's your window of opportunity, don't blow it nurse lady

Window missed...

Ummm, Will wasn't planning on swimming today.

How many hands "should" it take to give an almost 3 week old a bath? Well, that depends how much water you put in the tub.

Yeah baby, the curls are coming.

Und jetzt? Alles tot!