Please Pray for Cody

***UPDATE: APRIL 29TH 8PM***

Hi Everyone!

I am emailing you from Cody's hospital room this evening. THANK YOU for all of your prayers, love, and emails of support!

Cody's surgery was "uneventful" which is great! They replaced the shunt completely, and now we are praying for a healthy and speedy recovery so that Cody can start developing again! We are also asking for prayer that this will resolve many of the issues that Cody has had for the last couple of months. We have great hope that it will.

Again, thank you all for being so wonderful and caring. We love you and will be in touch again soon!

love, Trac

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On August 23 of 2007 I received this email from my best friend and Maid of Honor at my wedding, Tami. Her sister had just given birth to a beautiful baby boy named Cody.:

Hi Mimers! We need prayer right now. My little sis had her baby and he is the NICU. He is stable, and we are waiting for diagnostic tests to determine the situation with his brain. My sister had an abruption and had to have a crash C-section. Cody Douglas is almost 32 weeks (short by a day). He is doing okay overall, but they think he may have been without oxygen for awhile. This situation caused him severe distress and damaged his brain. They are doing some diagnostic tests and he may need a shunt for the fluid that has built up in his brain. We have to wait and see...he may re-absorb some of that on his own, but we have to wait.

I've had several other emails regarding 'Cody the Miracle Baby'. He is going into surgery again today. Below is Tami's sister's email for a call to pray...

Even in the midst of how crazy this last couple of weeks has been, we can still take time to be thankful for having such a supportive and caring group of family and friends that surround us and lift us up. Thank you!

Now onto Cody. As I learned last week, Cody is still surprising us, and God is still in control. After being in the hospital since Saturday, it is clear that Cody's hydrocephalus is worsening. We were hoping that it would be related to a GI issue or that it would have to do with the positioning of the tube. It is clear now that it is due to a shunt malfunction. Cody's ventricles are continuing to enlarge, and he has been pretty miserable. It was difficult to watch him get worse, but we wanted the shunt malfunction to "declare" itself, and now it has.

The plan as of now (10:00pm on Monday night) is to have surgery at some point tomorrow for a shunt replacement. Now I know what to ask for in prayer:

Please pray for strength, wisdom, guidance, and knowledge for the surgeons, that Cody will handle the surgery and anesthesia well and that this will solve the problems he has been having, that Cody will be free from infection, and that people will continue to be touched by the miracle that is our Cody Bear. And while we are at it, let's continue to pray that Cody will have a period of health for a significant amount of time after this procedure.

Thank you all again so much for everything from bringing us food to offering to babysit to sending us encouraging words to just being there to cry with us. We love you all and appreciate the unconditional love that you have shown. Even Ty knows that his "baby" is in the "hopitol," and that he will "come back" soon. We are so fortunate that he also has a wonderful group of caregivers that helps there be a continuity in his life that is so important right now. Thanks again and we'll be in touch soon.

love, Trac