Welcome baby Jonas!!

We welcome our sweet baby boy Jonas...

Born December 16, 2008 at 6:10 am (GMT Morocco time)

Weighing 8 pounds, 2 oz.

Elijah meeting his baby brother for the first time. He wasn't quite sure what to think, but was very sweet with him. He kept saying "baby brother crying" because he was whimpering in his sleep.

Great news! We had a beautiful baby boy on Tuesday, December 16th at 6:10 am (Morocco time), about 2 weeks before his new year's eve due date. Morgan delivered naturally and had a quick labor -- we arrived at the hospital after 5 am and she delivered only an hour later! Morgan is feeling really good physically and has healed and recovered quickly with this birth. Baby weighed 8 pounds, 2 oz. and is named Jonas, meaning dove which symbolizes peace, or a peaceful being. This is a special name for both of us, and it translates well to Arabic so our friends here can connect and remember his name (like with Elijah, the Arabic name is Elias so many of our friends call him Elias). In Arabic his name is Younis.

We are really asking and needing a lot of prayer for his health. The first 12 hours after his birth he wasn't nursing well and was showing signs of difficulty breathing, so they ran some tests. On an x-ray the doctors found fluid in his lungs and started oxygen, IV fluids and drew a bunch of labs to see if he has an infection. It turns out he is showing signs that it he is septic, meaning an infection through his whole body. The next day he was having trouble keeping a good blood pressure and was too weak for his heart to pump well, so Jonas was intubated (put a tube in his nose to help him breathe) and had a central line put in (to monitor his cardiac status better and have good access to give medications and draw blood for tests). The great news is that they caught it really really early and started treatment with antibiotics and a slew of other things in his first day of life. They are giving him tons of fluid in his IVs this evening and into tomorrow to keep his blood pressure up, and make sure his brain and other organs are getting perfused well so that there will be no long term effects. So they warned us that tomorrow he will be very swollen from all the fluids. They are saying the next 24 hours are a critical time for him, so we are especially asking you to pray with us that he pulls through this next day well and starts to show improvement.

We are going to be posting regular updates here on the blog about his health so check back. Please continue to pray with us that God's peace would be on our family; that the doctors would have wisdom and knowledge to treat and care for him; for supernatural health and protection for Jonas, a miraculous healing, and no long term complications. Also remember Elijah as his world has been turned upside down with Mom and Dad being gone (and baby brother out of Mommy's tummy -- he's still not sure what happened there!)

Will post more as we know it...