Hang in there Hogan!

Thank you God for moments like this one.

Hogan Sayer Dominy

Oh Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them. Isaiah 25:1 NLT

I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. Psalm 16:8 NLT

Dear Hogan,

I am so glad that you are here tonight.

I am so glad that we made it through another day and we are having our "guys night out" in your room in the NICU! I think I am enjoying tonight as much as I did the first night you were here.

Hogan, you are my hero.

You have battled many battles over the past week. You have battled harder than anyone thought you would or could. Keep up the good work Hogan. Your journey is far from over. I think God has bigger plans for you. Your story is far from over little warrior. I can see some signs of exhaustion on your face but I also see so many signs of strength!

Your mother and I went home after lunch to see your brother and sister for a couple of hours today. Noah and Lily were asking about you! I think your mom really enjoyed seeing them. I brought your mom back to the hospital to hold you at 3 this afternoon. She was so excited to get back to see you! I went to watch a few minutes of the G Day game. It was nice to go outside and watch a little football on a great day but my heart and mind couldn't help but think about you. You are always on my heart. You are always in my mind Hogan. I walked around wearing my "baby wrist band" from St. Mary's. I couldn't be more proud of you.

As I walked around that stadium, I wondered how many people I passed along the way were going through trials in their life. I know not many people have to battle Trisomy 18 but there are lots of things that can change a life that doesn't have to be fatal. Hogan, let's pray for those people tonight. Let's pray that wherever they are and whatever they are having a battle against, that they would find the point that you are focusing. That they would look to their Savior. It might be a relationship problem, it might be a work problem, it might be guilt problem... who knows! Let's just lift those people up tonight. There might be someone that reads your blog and your story changes their life. Hogan, you and I both know that all of our days on this earth are numbered. The good thing about that is if someone if reading this blog tonight and they feel like they want to give up because of mistakes they have made or whatever, they have time to change! Their own journey isn't over yet. Hogan, your journey isn't over either. Let's keep praying for others just like they have been praying for us and focusing on our point. God is so good. I think that I love you unconditionally but I know that their is only one that can do this. It's your real Father in Heaven. Thank you God for letting me be with Hogan tonight to pray! Thank you for using his life to change lives. Thank you for using others to change our lives.

Ok.... getting back to today....

When I got back to the hospital this afternoon I was told that you had a major fight on your hands while I was not here. Your nasal passage ways are so small that it doesn't take much to cause you trouble breathing. This isn't a good thing with someone will small lungs like you and especially when your nasal passage gets stopped up. Nurse Louise went to work on your to try and bring you back and get you stable. She had to work with you to get your back going again and had to put your feeding tube back into your other nostril. Thank God that she worked quickly and was able to help save you. This evening you started having the same thing happen. You were starting to have more trouble while you were feeding so Nurse Laura went ahead and put your feeding tube back in your mouth and also talked to Dr. Morales about the situation. They decided that you should go back on the vapotherm machine. I am glad that everything got done quickly and that you are now stable again tonight. I am praying that your air passage way gets better and that your heart wasn't too stressed from today's problems. You have had a tough time of it today but I am so happy you continue to fight.

Hogan, I hope you know that even when your mother and I aren't sitting in front of you or holding you that we are still with you in our minds and in our hearts. I also want you to know that if for some reason that we didn't ever show up in front of you that Jesus is always going to be with you. I don't want to scare you little guy but I want you to know that we all have a beginning and an end in this world. I hope that we all live a long and happy life together but nothing is certain. We never know when our next breath could be our last. I don't want you to ever think that you are alone Hogan. God is always going to be with you. He will never leave you. He loves you Hogan.

I hear your episode was so quick that I don't know if we could have saved you if we would have been at home with you. Hogan we are praying for a peace about taking you home with us. Although the equipment has been delivered. It doesn't mean that we are going to rush you home and not feel comfortable about being able to look after you. We won't take you home unless we feel confident that we are ready and have a peace about it. We all want you there but we also want to make wise decisions. Let's keep praying about that decision too!

I think you have proven that you are not a "wimpy white male" like most white boy babies are tagged. You are a true warrior that God has given enormous strength and resolve. I didn't think that I could learn any more from you but I keep learning. I look at you and I see peace. It would be so easy to blame someone for your problems. It would be easy to quit because nobody expected you to still be alive. I think you are on a mission. I am praying that God will continue to work through your 3 pound body!

Every night your mother and I go downstairs to get a something to drink on the third floor before heading back up to the NICU. Every night we usually see "healthy" babies downstairs in the window. I am so happy for those parents that have those babies. I watch them and I pray that their parents don't take anything for granted. I know that I did up until we were told you had Trisomy 18. I didn't think about the "ones" in the statistics. You were one of the "ones" Hogan. You were chosen by God. You have changed lives. You have changed hearts! I told your mom earlier while you were snuggled up to her that you were a "lover" and a "fighter". You are 3 lbs. of power and love!

Hogan, we could have lost you very easy this afternoon. I appreciate you hanging around a little longer. Let's just keep fighting through every day every hour together. Let's ask God to give us protection and to give us the ability to block out all of the clutter and to focus on the task at hand. Thank you God for another night together and thank you for all of our friends that continue to life us up. Hogan, we are truly blessed.

I love you.