Pictures of Our Addie Girl

Addison Grace Gates, Welcome to Our World

Deep breath.

That feels better. For those that have not heard, Addison Grace Gates was born at 5:43 pm on Friday, August 25th. She was 6 lbs, 10 oz and 20 in long. It was the greatest day of Marcie and my lives. She is absolutely gorgeous and we could not love her more.

We've had some struggles since then. Marcie had a terrible spinal headache a few days after the birth, and on Addison's 5th day on this earth (Wednesday, August 30th), she was extremely lethargic/sleepy/not eating. We took Marcie to the hospital that morning to be treated for her headache, and as the day went on, we realized we needed to get Addie some help as well. So my mother-in-law and I went to a different hospital to check Addie in. They sent her to the ER (again, at a different hospital from Marcie). Marcie's mom went back to be with her and I stayed with Addie.

It was hell, being alone with Addie, feeling so helpless and unable to be with both my wife and daughter...but we made it through. I watched the Tigers stomp on the Yankees while I waited, to keep myself from freaking out too much, and to remind myself that there were in fact other things going on on this planet. Eventually, they gave Marcie a blood patch to get rid of her headache, and about an hour and a half later, she was able to come and be with Addie and me at the children's hospital. Praise Jesus.

Addie steadily got better as she, and in turn, Marcie and I, stayed in the hospital for four days and three nights. We're still not 100% sure what was wrong with her, but it was somewhere between her mom being on Vicotin, which could have, in effect "poisoned" her food, and a simple viral infection. Praise God that she didn't have any bacterial infections! It was hard to see her stuck with needles for blood cultures, iv's and even a spinal tap (I didn't watch that one).

She was discharged on Saturday, September 2...her original due date, incidentally. Since then, she's done much better. She still has some swallowing difficulties that we're trying to work out, but other than that, she's doing quite well. Marcie got a high fever early this week and went back to the doctor, but everybody is doing quite well now.
Throughout all this...trips to way to many doctor's offices, hospitals and ER's, and consultations with way too many doctors, our God and the prayers of his saints have lifted our heads when we could not lift them any longer. We can't imagine going through this without our families, who were by our sides the whole time, and the encouraging words of friends over the phone. Our church family continues to minister to us through providing meals for us and praying for us.

In short, the body of Christ has done its job in our lives. We have felt the presence of Christ with us through the care of his church. It has been unbelievable. It has been difficult for me to even pray in this time, but we have felt God lifting our heads nonetheless. His grace is all sufficient, and I don't know if I've ever known that truth so intimately.
We appreciate continued prayers as Addison is still less than two weeks old and is very fragile.

Sorry we haven't updated much. Our internet access has been limited, and quite frankly, in the midst of everything, the idea of talking on the phone wasn't all that appealing.

Oh, and yes, our choosing of the name Addison was definitely influenced by the locale of one Wrigley Field, but Grace has NOTHING to do with Mark Grace. That's just silly. Grace is both a family name and one of our favorite virtues. Addison is truly grace: an undeserved gift to parents who struggle each day to love and care for her the best we can.

Thanks. You have our love.

And I guess I'll be posting all the pictures in the next post. Can't take the time to get them to work here.