I will keep this post updated throughout the day.

6:45pm

They are closing now, but that will take about two hours to close. She is doing fine.  We have not talked to the surgeon yet.
5:15pm

We just got word that it will be a few more hours. “tedeious work”

4:45pm

Still no update, but wanted to post the pictures from this morning. Sarah’s loses her first tooth.

2:45pm

No real update. They just told us that everything is fine. Nancy Clark came brought us lunch and is helping to keep Kim’s mind off of everything.

11:30am 

The actual surgery started a little late (2 hours). They had problems getting the MRI data to the OR suite. They made their first incision at 11:16. She is doing fine. I will give more updates when I have more to give.

9:30am

So far everything is going great, but the actual surgery still hasn’t started yet. Pastors Eric and Terry came down to give us support and pray with Sarah, Kim, and I before the surgery. That really gave us a sense of peace during something so scary. it also gave us an opportunity to get to know our new pastor. I guess this day is just full of blessings. Sarah lost her first tooth during pre-op. They started the MRI at 8:56am, so they are just a little behind. The surgery is supposed to take about six hours, but it will be longer for closing and post-op stuff. She was very brave going in. Her surgery is in the OR’s Brain Suite, so we could not go all the way into the induction room. She was chatting up the nurses all the way back. She made them bring her a pillow so she could put her tooth under an actual pillow when she went to sleep. The tooth fairy has to go the the ATM now and turn that tooth into cash for when she wakes up. One of the nurses told her that the Tooth Fairy pays out double when you lose a tooth in the hospital. Dr. Mangano (the surgeon) was very optimistic about everything. He believes that she should have some movement in her right arm and leg following the surgery, but her biggest deficit will be her speech. As many of you know if there is one thing that Sarah likes to do is talk, so speech therapy should be easy for her. We look to Jesse for an example of what to expect, but we know that no two kids come through this surgery the same way. We will just keep our faith in the Lord that he uses Sarah to show people how wonderfully we are all created. I will update this when I have some more news. Everyone please keep praying.