I just wanted to share the very good news that Leah, Peta and I have been given the green light to book our flights back to Calgary tomorrow evening! We’ve had an adventurous couple of days; including an emergency surgery for Leah to deal with some unexpected hemorraging. Needless to say, whatever sleep we had caught up on is now long gone. As you can imagine, we are beyond thrilled to be going home tomorrow. Will update with some photos in soon!

Pictures!

Update – November 25, 18:30

I have to begin this update with a fairly lame confession for a professional photographer… in my packing haste of the other night, I grabbed the wrong laptop and my card reader doesn’t connect to it. I went to download them a few minutes ago to share a few with you and immediately realized my mistake. Oops. I will snap a few iphone pictures later this evening so that I can share with you all…

I am very happy to report that Peta continues to trend in the right direction. The team decided this morning to being ‘normalizing’ her; which meant that they removed all of the nodes attached to her head and most of the other tubes and cords, including the oxygen that she was on. It was pretty amazing to walk in this afternoon and see her face, free and clear of any devices. It also meant that Leah and I were able to hold her for the first time just a few short minutes ago (Leah is actually still holding her as I am writing this). What a powerful experience – I really didn’t want to let her go. For all of my bluster in the days leading up to to the birth (“I am pretty sure I won’t cry”) I have quickly been revealed as an impostor, or a quivering mass of goo as the case may be.

The team is still a little concerned about the possibility of an infection in Peta, and so have started a round of antibiotics just to be sure. So it is looking like we will be here through the weekend while they run their course. She has been sleeping a ton today, which is great. She seems to be catching up from not very much yesterday, and we pray that this will give her the strength to fight whatever infection may be trying to take hold.

Leah continues to do well, and was discharged from care this afternoon. We will be transferring to a local housing unit, just a few blocks from the hospital tomorrow morning. Let me tell you, we have been filled with nothing but gratitude for our medical system; it truly is incredible to watch it work. We have been supported by nurses, doctors, social workers and community health workers. Duane’s brother sent me an email from Cambodia yesterday, and gently drew attention to the fact that our experience is not the common one throughout the world. We are aware that had this happened at any other time in history, and in most of the rest of the world, that our story would be a much sadder one. I know I said this yesterday, but the blessings that we have received are humbling.

Emotionally, we are doing really well. There have been a few moments of grief or anxiety, where we wish that things could have gone differently, or ‘normally’ – whatever that means. Whenever that happens though, we seem to come into contact with parents and people who obviously have things much, much worse than we do.

Alright. That is all for now. As I said, I will try to update with some pictures (seeing as it a photography blog and all) later this evening. We also wanted to say thank you to everyone that has taken the time to comment or email us, it means more than you can know. We will write everyone back individually as soon as we can.

Love,

Kevan and Leah

November 24

Wow, I just want to give everyone the warning that this will be a fairly personal post. I apologize if it is a bit hard to follow, as my mental and emotional space is a little distracted right now.  As some of you know, I (Kevan) and my wife, Leah, have been expecting our first child. The other night, some of you saw on twitter and facebook a comment from me, saying that we were heading into the hospital because Leah had gone into labour. I realize that it has been a long time since I followed up on that comment, so I thought that I would do so in this space, where I can go into a bit more detail and explain why it has been so long since the last update.

First, let me start by saying that Leah delivered a little girl yesterday at about 3 in the afternoon and everyone is doing well. We have named her Peta Elizabeth. Leah’s labour was fairly difficult (having seen one, though, I am willing to assume that most are on the difficult side =) as she was in active labour for over 14 hours. The length of the delivery caused some complications with Peta as she was born.  The birth process pretty much exhausted her, and as a result, she ended up breathing in quite a bit of mucus. When she came out, her lungs were very, very wet and she was unable to breathe on her own accord. Fortunately, the amazing team of doctors and nurses at the Fernie hospital were right on top of things and started an intervention right away. They got her stabilized, and after a little while she was mostly able to breath on her own. I will be honest, it was a pretty helpless feeling watching 7 or 8 people working on our little girl. They had to put a tube in her throat right away, and were able to use suction to clear her lungs out a bit.

Because Fernie is a small, rural hospital, the medical team decided that it was best that both Leah and Peta go to a larger centre for some specialized care. So late last night, Leah and Peta were flown out by air ambulance to the Vancouver Chilren’s hospital. The team that flew out from Vancouver was amazing, and I know that we couldn’t possibly have been in better hands.

I also flew out to Vancouver last night (separate flight unfortunately).  I am thrilled to be able to say that Peta seems to be doing quite well. As of right now, she requires a low-flow oxygen assist and she is being monitored closely to see how things progress. It seems as though brain activity is normal at this point.

Leah is doing great as well. All bags and drips have been removed as of this afternoon. She’s a little sore, but nothing too bad. I know that every husband says this, but I was overwhelmed with pride watching her battle through that labour. Her strength and determination are incredible to me.

Though it has been an exhausting and stressful couple of days,  our joy and gratitude is overwhelming.  The care and kindness we have received from the hands of friends, family, and medical professionals is inexpressible.  Our daughter may not have had the easiest arrival into the world, but she has certainly been surrounded by love. All of the cliches about being a parent are absolutely and powerfully true. I learned more in that first 60 seconds of Peta’s life about unconditional love than I have in my entire life up to this point.

We are huge believers in the power of prayer, and are so thankful for the army of prayer warriors around the country interceding on our behalf. We know that regardless of whatever comes next, that we are in the hands of a very good and capable God, and we are content to trust Him completely. This experience really has given us reason to pause and count our blessings, and we’ve found that it is a pretty overwhelming list.

Just a couple of pictures for now that my dad managed to snap before Leah and the baby flew out last night. I have been taking a few pictures, but don’t have all of the tools I need to download them and edit them right now.

We will update this post at the top, when we get news or information that we would like to pass along. Thanks again for everyone’s prayers – they help more than you know.

Love,

Kevan and Leah