Prayer Request for Annie

This is a special post - near and dear to both of our hearts. Michael and I both ask for you to remember our niece Annie in your prayers. Annie is almost 9 months old, and this Wednesday she will be having a pretty serious surgery to correct some bones in her skull that grew together too quickly. When Annie was born they realized she had what is called coronal craniosynostosis. So basically one of the openings of her skull closed too early. The openings of the skull normally remain open until about 2 years of age to allow the brain room to grow and expand during that rapid growth time. This condition causes some asymetry in facial features and could restrict the growth of the brain if it isn't corrected.

So, this Wednesday, Annie will be having surgery at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. They will go in and open those bones back up and repair them. She will be in the hospital for probably 5-7 days and will have some pretty severe swelling. She will have to wear a little helmet for many months following the surgery to protect her recovering and precious head.

The surgery is somewhat common (especially at TCH), and we have faith that everything will go just fine. But it doesn't change the fact that little Annie has to go through this and will have a pretty rough road of recovery here over the next few weeks. Our hearts also go out to my sister Kristina and our brother in law Oscar. As worried and anxious as we feel, it is obviously nothing compared to what they must be feeling to have their precious baby go through this.
Please, pray for Annie during her surgery this Wednesday morning. It should last at least 3-4 hours. She will be in the pediatric ICU for the first night and then should get moved to her own room after that. Thank you for keeping her and all of her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Annie is such a sweet and precious child. She has the biggest smile and is so expressive to everything around her. She can't take her eyes off her big brother Gabriel and big sister Grace. And boy do they love her. She has the most contagious laugh and is so much fun to play with.
I will be sure to post an update following the surgery. Thank you all again.

Here are some sweet pics of our little Annie. :) I also included a cute little video of her having some fun when I was there on Friday. I just love those little bouncy chair things. :)

(you can hear some of Annie on this video; the main little voice you hear though is Grace who was "helping" me and was watching through the screen with me.) hehe