She's our overachiever!

Just got off the phone with the night nurse....and Faith made a few more steps in the right direction! 12:00 last night they moved her settings on the sipap to 21% oxy - that's room air!!!!
About 5am she was doing so well they moved her to a nasal cannula with high pressure! WOW..I'm so amazed at how God is working in her little body!!!

They also started a feed through a small tube and she is keeping that down and she pooped right away! So everything seems to be working right:) Our prayer now is that she will continue to digest her food and not get "backed up" and this is the time where fluid my build up in her lungs where all her digestive parts where. We don't want that to happen, because that could lead to a chest tube. So keep the praying up.....What a mighty God we serve!

OFF THE VENT!!!

PRAISE THE LORD, Faith is off the vent!!! She is now on Sipap which is oxygen support through her nose and doing GREAT!! Just a quick update to let you all know:) I'm going to try to give a more detailed updated later tonight!

Once again thank you so much for all the prayers! To God be the glory great things He has done!!!!!!

Holding Faith for the first time!

Holding Faith for the first time was soooooo wonderful! I think I held her for 2 hours, I didn't want to put her down! She stayed very relaxed and her oxygen levels were very good! Faith took a good nap in my arms. I knew I loved her very much but my heart was so overwhelmed with JOY! Yes there were a few tears..but tears of joy!

She has a little bit of jaundice, so here she is working on her tan with her daddy! I think this is the ONLY time he will allow her to lay topless! LOL

Aaron got to do the first parent diaper change! Yes, he changes diapers and doesn't complain!
I think he's a GREAT daddy!

We are cautiously optimistic, she is making little baby steps everyday but she has a lot more to make. The Dr's are pleased with her progress and say she really isn't following the book
of CDH babies...thanks to our Lord and all your prayers:)
We can't believe she is a week old...the shortest and longest week! WOW!

Thanks for all your prayers, we can sure feel them! Please also keep the rest of us in your prayers too.. Elizabeth is battling a cold, the kids are back at school and Aaron went home to try to get some work done so he could come back this weekend! So I miss them all:( But we are taking in "One day at a time!"

Thanks again for all your prayers, xoxo to all of you!

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Faith Opens Her Eyes

5 days old!

Here is a picture of what happens with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). The diaphragm doesn't form completely allowing the stomach move up and put pressure on the lungs. The corrective surgery involves moving the stomach back down and closing the hole.

Faith was able to come off the medication that kept her so still and she opened up her eyes for us this morning. Awesome to be able to finally see her open her eyes and move around. The smiley face on Faith's tummey is where she has an incision from surgery.

Grant was pretty disappointed when he first found out he was going to get another sister, but he was really excited to see Faith today.

She looks so cute we just want to pick her up and take her home with us. Faith is very stable, and the next step will be starting to ween her off of the ventilator. Everything is baby steps no major changes for awhile.

Out of Surgery!

We haven't been able to see Faith yet but we just got an update from the surgeon. He said the surgery went well and Faith remained stable throughout the surgery. We were hoping that they would be able to stretch Faith's diaphram to repair the hole, but they did have to use a synthetic patch. Little bummed about that, but were glad to hear that her left lung was more developed than they expected.

Thanks sooo much for everyone who prayed and sent us words of encouragement. It was very humbling to hear from all of you. Please pray for a speedy recovery.

She is in Surgery

Surgery started about 2pm. It should take 2-3 hours.
Prayers will already being answered before the surgery. The team were able to move Faith to the conventional vent! This is the one the surgeons prefer to have the babies on for surgery. Faith was VERY stable on this going into surgery.

Thanks for the prayers keep them up:)

Surgery at 12pm today...PRAY

We got the ok that surgery will be at 12pm today, so pray it up when you can today!

Faith had a good night!

We will post updates when we can!

Upcoming surgery and prayer

Family and Friends in Pacifica

It's 8:30 on Thursday night and for the most part it's been a good few days. There have been a few times where Faith takes a few steps forward and then a little bit later she takes a few steps back. Overall they still are pleased with where she is on all the different monitors.

She has been on a breathing machine since birth. The team started her on a conventional ventilator after birth but by early Tuesday morning they had moved her to a high frequency vent. Faith continued to do very well on this, but the goal would be to get her back on the conventional vent for surgery. Today the team of Dr's felt Faith was more then stable to move to the conventional vent and they would plan for surgery mid-day Friday. We were comfortable with this as well so by 4pm she was on the conventional vent and did very well for a couple hours but by 7pm her CO2 level was way to high again on this machine and they switched back to the high frequency vent! The surgery can still be done on this vent but the Dr's prefer the conventional vent...so the surgeon will reasses tomorrow morning but the Attending Dr still feels surgery will happen tomorrow, but it is all a wait and see game.

We have felt overwhelmingly blessed by all the people praying for our sweet baby Faith! Keep it up because we sure can feel it! Thank you so much!


Speaking of prayer....a group of people have put together an awesome way some of you may be able to lift Faith up in prayer tomorrow....

At 1pm tomorrow (Friday April 24) during her surgery
four different gathering places to pray for Faith!
Tulare ~ Tulare Community Church led by Pastor Steve Duyst
Visalia ~ CVC High School led by Vicki Dykstra
Tipton ~ The Nace home led by Jim Nace

Can't make it to those locations ~ stop and pray wherever you are!

Once again we want to PRAISE our Father for all that he has done in Faith's life already!

We are still praying for a miracle and complete healing and have FAITH that it can still happen!

Because you gotta have FAITH!

The first 24 hours

The Dr's tell us to expect some good days and bad days. Today was a good day! And we are praying for many more of those. Faith had a team of people working to keep her oxygen and carbon dioxide stable last night and into the morning, since then she has been doing very good. As well as she is doing the Dr's contuine to remind us, she still is very certical. If Faith keeps doing well the Dr's will operate on the hernia as early as this Thursday.

Faith also got to meet most of her family today! Although we can't hold her yet, everyone was able to see and talk to her! Grant, Olivia and Lizzy were so excited they were the first people to see Faith! They already love her so much and can't wait for her to come home. All three handle seeing Faith "hooked up" very well. And of course her grandparents, aunts and uncles got to meet her too!

Took a little break to check on Faith...It's 8:50pm and Faith's CO2 stat was at a normal level! They've been working all day to get that stat down and for it to be at normal right now is WONDERFUL!!!!! Thank you Lord :)

I'm sure a lot of you are looking for stats.....because they have to move so fast after birth to get her "hooked up" they didn't even geta chance to weigh her.. They have given some estimations .......

Weight: 8lbs something

length: 21 1/2 inches

head full of brown hair, long fingers and toes, reminds us of Elizabeth when she has on her pink bow, but she reminds of Grant when she doesn't have a bow!

Leaving comments

Some of you have been wondering how to leave comments without signing up for a blog account. Here's how to leave a comment.

1. Below each post is a link that says ____comments. Where the line is, this will be a number, like 0,1,2,3 . . . CLICK ON THAT. A popup window will come up with a fill in form.

2. Write your comment in the blank box.

3. Next choose an identity. You can sign in with your Google account and it will automatically fill in your information. You can choose Name/URL and a place to leave just your name is an option. And lastly, you can choose to remain anonymous and no further info about you is required. So choose one of the buttons NOW and then click PUBLISH YOUR COMMENT.

4. Now your comment is on the blog and we'll read it and will have it forever and ever. Faith will have it when she gets older to read about all the people pulling for her from the minute she was born.

Now, don't be shy! Leave us more comments. They help us get through the day! God is good!

Faith arrives

Faith Sienna was born at 10:07PM. Tina is doing good. Faith is doing better than the drs expected. She is on a breathing machine and has lots of monitors hooked up to track her progress. Keep up the prayers.

At the hospital

Well it's been a slow day. We got to the hospital at 8am Monday morning, started on patocin at 10:30, now it's 5:15 and Tina is still comfortable enough to facebook! Doctor just came in and said she will be back to brake Tina's water so things should progress quickly. We are at UCSF in a corner room on the 15th floor and we've had an awesome view of the bay and both the Golden Gate and the Bay bridge!

Happy Easter

Christ the Lord is risen! We thought today would be a great day to start our family blog…”One day at a time with the Highstreets!” As we start this journey the Lord has placed before us, we can’t help ourselves from thinking about the journey Christ took to the cross and stand in awe of what He did for us! By no means are we comparing our lives to Christ, but his was a journey that was not easy but he wanted to do the will of his Father. And this also has become our prayer, we don’t really understand it or want it to be the way that it is…but HE IS IN CONTROL and we will PRAISE him always! Our family has had its share of storms the past couple years, and there have been times when we say “SERIOUSLY GOD” is this what you have planned for us! But there have been a lot more times where we have laid it at the foot of the cross and said “God you are SERIOUSLY in control and we wouldn’t want it any other way”. Better to be in the storm with God than anywhere else without HIM.

Some of you may be reading this and wondering what is going on with them? Well here is a quick overview to get you caught up to speed. In August of 2007 our 6 month old daughter Elizabeth (aka Lizzy) was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. CF is an inherited genetic life shorting disease with no present day cure. Elizabeth follows a daily routine of meds and treatments, but is also a thriving, vibrant and very loveable two year old. She is a wonderful blessing to us as well as our other children, Grant a fun loving, creative 8 year old and Olivia our always smiling, enjoying life six year old daughter.

Once we felt like we were only in a light rain after Elizabeth’s diagnosis, our family did not feel complete and we decided to have another baby:) We were very much aware that our baby could be born with cystic fibrosis but also feeling at peace that God was in control and our love for this new baby would not change! At our 20 week ultra sound we found out we were having a GIRL and our doctor found that our baby had a condition called “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia” (or CDH). This came as quit a blow to us, as we were prepared for the possibility of CF but not something completely different!

CDH is not related to CF or any genetic disorder. It is a birth defect that sometimes is related to a chromosome disorder but not always. God answered our prayers and the testing for any chromosome disorders and Cystic Fibrosis came back negative! PRAISE THE LORD! So what is CDH? The baby’s diaphragm did not grow together correctly leaving a hole on left side allowing room for parts of intestines and liver to move up into the lung cavity. This then puts pressure on the heart moving it to the middle and making less and less room for the lungs to develop properly. After many checkups and test, the doctors have called her CDH middle of the road and call her condition very serious. They have told us to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Just what you want to hear!

After much prayer we have decided to name her FAITH! We think her name says it all!

So what is the game plan?

We have decided to come to UCSF Hospital for care. They are one of the top hospitals to deal with CDH in the US. They will induce Tina on April 20th with a whole “Team” waiting in the wings to care for Faith. Not knowing how developed her lungs will be, they plan to intubate her right away. Once they feel they have her stable they will perform a surgery on her to correct the CDH. This usually happens sometime during the first week of life. Then they will work on developing the lungs. The doctors have told us best case, would mean one month in the hospital but could be up to three months. There is a wide range of other complications that may happen but we are still praying for the Lord to perform a miracle! We believe that this can happen and ask that you pray along with us!

Please pray, pray and pray some more! Pray for healing, for her lungs to be strong and developed, for the doctors to be on top of their game, and for us as a family as we journey down this road. We don’t understand why this has to happen; we do pray that if this is about being a witness to someone somewhere that the Holy Spirit will give us the right words to say.

So we are taking it “ONE DAY AT A TIME” and trying to live each day for HIM no matter what the storm may be. We plan to update the blog often, so check back with us when you can! We thank everyone for your many kind acts, thought and prayers! How wonderful to be part of the family of God! We couldn’t get through all this without you!

WE SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR AND WE WILL PRAISE HIM IN THIS STORM!