Lynette called us the night she was having the baby looking for the phone number for her OB/GYN. I looked in our contacts, but we no longer had his number, so I gave her Nancy’s phone number hoping Nancy might have it.

When she called Nancy, Lynette shared that she was currently in the hospital and in labor, but that the nurses at the hospital were unable to find the number for the delivering doctor.

With Lynette already in labor 2.5 months early, the last thing she needed was for the nurses to be unable to find the Doctor’s phone number, so as she hung up the phone with Lynette Nancy prayed “Lord, open those nurses eyes. They must have the number, please show them where it is” and left it in the hands of God.

The next day, Nancy visited Lynette and the new baby girl in the hospital and Lynette said to her:

“Thank you so much for getting a hold of Dr. Pitsanuk for me last night”

Shocked, Nancy said: “I wasn’t able to find the number last night either, who told you I called him?”

“Dr. Pitsanuk showed up in the hospital a little bit after we had spoken,” said Lynette, “and he said that you had called him and told him that I was in labor at the hospital and to come in right away.”

Whether it was an angel of God or a vision, there is no question that the miraculous hand of God has been on this baby girl and her birth from the beginning, and we are faithful that He will continue to give this little girl the miracles and strength she needs to hold on to life. Keep praying with us!

According to Rusty’s most recent status update, “…Baby went from being on 80% oxygen to 20% over night! Our prayers are being answered. She will be given another shot for her lungs in a few minutes. Pray she does not have any negative reactions! We will have name for her soon. right now i want to call her “fighter”. Thanks for all your love and support! God hears our prayers!”

Keep praying!

Rusty arrived today!!  He and Lynette named their beautiful little girl Olive Hope. She was born 1.295  kilos and she is fighting for her life right now.

Today Olive had a Pulmonary Hemorrhage. DEFINITION: Pulmonary hemorrhage (P-Hem) is an acute, catastrophic event characterized by discharge of bloody fluid from the upper respiratory tract or the endotracheal tube. The incidence of P-Hem is 1 in 1,000 live births. P-Hem is present in 7 to 10% of neonatal autopsies, but up to 80% of autopsies of very preterm infants. When evident clinically, P-Hem is usually massive, is associated with bleeding in other sites, involves more than one third of the lungs, and has a high mortality rate.

Currently, she is not getting enough oxygen and they can not turn it up any more.  They also changed her antibiotic and they are afraid there may be some bleeding on the brain and are getting ready to do an ultrasound.

Rusty and Lynette (who has been discharged from the hospital) will be staying in our home in Chiang Rai which is near the hospital, and have a good support team around them – an American couple who speak Thai and have nursing and counseling backgrounds – but we need prayer for this little fighter to survive.

Let’s keep believing for miracles.

Dear friends and family,

We have been overwhelmed by the prayers, love, and support we are feeling from all of you. We feel like we are on an emotional rollarcoaster….trying to hold on to hope for our little one, making decisions for her care, and then being moments from thinking we will have to say good-bye to her. We named her together today after Rusty arrived…Olive Hope Polinder (2.8 lbs)…born at 28.5 weeks.

Today was rough. Started off encouraging. One important medicine that we were encouraged to get to her ASAP (surfactant for her little lungs that didn’t have time to develop enough) was driven overnight from a friend of ours from Chiang Mai. She received her first dose at 1:00am last night and responded well, giving them the ability to decrease the level of oxygen she is on from 60% to 40%. This morning she had her second dose, and seemed to be responding well to that. This afternoon around 2:00 I was getting discharged from the hospital and got a phone call to come as urgently as possible to the hospital she is at (about 10 minutes away) and said she wasn’t doing well. We arrived to find out she had a pulmonary hemorrhage and they needed to draw my blood for a possible transfusion. Her heart rate was dropping, as well as her oxygen level. We sang to her, prayed over her, and cried that we wouldn’t have to say good-bye before Rusty landed and met her. It took about 25 minutes for them to stabilize her with a new respirator. They had to then increase her oxygen level to 100%…which increases the risk of other complications.

Current complications she has…PDA (a little hole in her heart that hasn’t closed). They gave her medication for this tonight that helps 80% of pre-term babies with this problem.
She also has an enlarged heart…but they said with the last x-ray that it seems to be getting a little smaller.
Possible Intraventricular hemorrhage (bleeding in her brain). This can only be confirmed by an ultrasound which has not been done yet…this is the Dr’s assumption by symptoms she is seeing.
It seems like the pulmonary hemorrhage has stopped and is looking better.
The bleeding has made this little one anemic, so this evening she was starting on a blood transfusion this evening around 9 our time.

They are having a hard time stabilizing her. She is on 100% oxygen…which we want to be reduced as soon as her little body can handle it. We thought we were also going to lose her this evening around 6:30 when he O2 saturation levels dropped to 10%. They were able to give her some medication to bring it back up.

We are exhausted emotionally and physically. So glad to be together again. Pray that we will have the strength we need for the moments ahead and the ability to trust Jesus through all of this. Pray for sweet little Olive…that Jesus would work a miracle and breath life into her little body.

One top of all of this we are having insurance complications and unsure what will be covered…so please pray for that.

Much love,

Lynette and Rusty

Not the news we wanted to hear this morning.Looks like there has been swelling in the brain overnight, we have a meeting with the doctors this morning. Pray for wisdom. Also have the Elders of our church coming from the mountains to pray healing prayers over olive this morning. The Lord is our only hope..I life my eyes to hills, where does me help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

When the Polinder’s called the hospital first thing this morning, they were informed that the baby had suffered a seizure and wasn’t doing well at all. Prayerfully, Rusty and Lynette made the decision to stop making heroic efforts to keep Olive alive, knowing the torment it caused her. When they arrived at the hospital, they said to the nurses, “Can’t we just hold her? We just want to hold our baby.” Minutes after she was taken from the incubator and placed on her mother’s chest, her vital signs went up.

Suddenly, her temperature dropped and the nurses wanted to put her back in. Lynette pleaded to keep holding her, warming her with her own body heat. She held her for three hours, and Olive’s tiny body seem to draw strength from her mother and begin to heal. Her will to stay alive is evident, and we believe this is the Lord’s will for her as well. Please keep praying for a miracle.

From their facebook update: We took her out of the glass, and lynette has been holding her to her chest. Olive loves the attention, and she seems to be doing well. There is much concern with the brain problems. We have just been singing God’s promises over our little girl. She is part of a Covenant. She belongs to Christ! she continues to fight, we have seen progress since lynette has been holding her. Love you guys. Rusty

Olive has made it through another day. Lynette and I are headed to bed. Very hard to leave Olive. Bethany(our dear friend) gets here in the Morning. Norm and Carol (Lynette’s folks) in route as we speak. Lynette and I just sat and read all your comments! You have no idea how much your support helps us! Thank you!

Olive made it through the night! Libby our dear friend took her through the night. Libby and Jan giving her skin to skin, praying and singing over her! Please pray as we meet with doctors today to understand what is going on in her brain. God touch her. Keep fighting Olive! And thanks to everyone fighting with us!

I am overwhelmed by all of your prayers, love, and support. I wish I could respond more individually, but all of my time is either with her or trying to sleep. So grateful and thankful to have such an amazing group of friends and family holding us up right now.

The doctors did an ultrasound on Olive to check the damage caused by the cerebral hemorrhage. On a scale of one to four, she registered four – the highest level of damage. According to doctors, this means she will be handicapped in some way. Of course, Lynette and Rusty simply yearn for their daughter to live. They are seeing bit-by-bit improvements as they and their friends take turns cuddling Olive with life-giving touch. Please join with us in prayer that the damage will be reversed as the Holy Spirit and the Body of Christ love on this precious one.

Dear loved ones,

Yesterday was such a special day. We were both able to spend hours holding little Olive on our chests spending time talking to her and singing over her, We have been overwhelmed by the e-mails, phone calls, facebook messages, and visitors. We are being held up by the prayers of so many we know and love, and also by many who have heard the news who we don’t even know personally.

Today has been like each day so far since little Olive Hope has arrived…filled with moments of joy, moments of fear, moments of uncertainty, sadness, hope and thankfulness.

This morning she had an ultrasound done to assess the level of intracranial hemorrhage that she had the other night. There are four levels–one being the least severe with little long term complications and four being the most serious and highest risk of long term complications. Olive had a level four intracranial hemorrhage. The doctors are telling us that if she makes it she will certainly have serious cognitive and motor damage..(mentally handicapped, cerebral palsy…and the list could go on). There is also a high risk of blindness due to the high concentrations of oxygen they have had to keep her on. She is also still anemic so she is getting blood transfusions. And this morning she was very jaundiced so we had to keep her under a photo-therapy light most of the day. Because of her brain damage she is no longer able to blink her little eyes. They remain open ALL the time unless we reach and blink them for her. They only have her on IV so far and say she can’t have any breast milk until they hear bowel sounds. My milk has come in, so as of now I have been pumping and storing it in the freezer.

Our hearts are aching for this little one. We are willing and ready to care for a little girl with handicaps if Jesus chooses to give her to us. Part of us is also hoping and longing to see a miracle. Another part of us feels very afraid…of all the unknowns to come. She has had every possible complication and to the most severe level thus far…and yet there is something in me that keeps holding onto some sort of hope. And another part of me that doesn’t want her little body to suffer any longer. Thoughts are going and coming in all directions.

We have been asked today if we want them to continue aggressive treatment measures, or if we would like to stop those treatments and simply let her go. Yesterday I thought we were feeling ready to let her go because of how much misery she was going through…and now we have been through two days of holding her and seeing her vital signs increase…and I’m not ready yet to let her go.

All this to say…decision making has felt difficult, but today has been a day when I am going to bed with hope for life for this little one…

And just enough strength to make it through this day by threads. And exhausted.

Jesus has indeed been drawing us closer and closer to Him through this journey…our only place to find any hope in this circumstance.

We can feel your love and support all around us.

Love,

Lynette

Images and updates at Rusty and Lynette’s Blog

Had a wonderful day today. Olive was on 30% oxygen all day. And her lungs kept up for all 10 hours i was with her. The nurses are taking such good care of our Olive. A day of hope…we will take it! Thanks for your prayers!

Excerpt: …Our BIG prayer request is that she would have bowel sounds so that they can begin giving her the milk and colostrum that I have been freezing. She has only been on an IV with dextrose and some other electrolytes and is soooo little and skinny. The Dr. says that there are many factors at the moment for why she has to be NPO (nothing by mouth), but the biggest fear is that if we give her nutrition before her gut is ready, she may get necrotizing enterocolitis… <– read more –>

Olive’s platelet count was very low today. They also found more infection in her blood. No bowel sounds yet. Lynette is having a hard time sleeping and starting to feel a bit sick, but thankful that her parents have arrived safe and sound

Much better day. Olive was very happy to meet her Grandpa and Grandma Miller. She was very responsive today. She does have swelling in her brain, and we are concerned so please just pray that God will continue to heal her. Lynette slept for 10 hours …and is now with Olive. I used to think facebook was a waste of my time, but now im so thankful for it! You have been our strength friends and family! Rusty

From Lynette’s Mom’s Facebook (via a FB friend): Even though her Olive’s head circumference increased last night, there are also signs of hope. She now opens and closes her eyes on her own. They were afraid of blindness and handicaps due to the bleeding in the brain. She had her first bowel sounds during the night, and so pray that they continue so we can feed her Lynette’s colostrum and milk she is saving up.
I believe God will heal Olive Hope “in his own time” and Lynette and Rusty are committed to take care of her regardless of the outcome as long as God gives her breath. They are counting the cost of what it will mean in Thailand, where handicapped people are treated rudely. he doctor and staff have been absolutely wonderful to Lynette and Rusty. Lynette and Rusty highly respect them.

Lynette wrote a beautiful letter to Olive and shared more pictures on their website.

Good news from Lynette’s Facebook Update:
Sat Morning: Today Olive regained the ability to blink and could sleep with her little eyes closed. She also had one stool and had bowel sounds!!!! She will undergo another ultrasound of her brain on Monday to assess if she has had any more bleeding. Her head circumference is growing, so please pray for this. I have a cold so was not able to hold her for the last two days…please pray for my health.
Sat Night: No complications to the colostrum thus far! They gave her 1 cc of colostrum 4 times today. A Thai friend of ours (Ichaya) is spending the night with Olive so that we can all get some rest. Rusty had a good time singing to her today. I’m trying not to touch her much until I am feeling 100% better.

Praise God, Olive continues to show progress. Her digestive system is responding well to the colostrum. She is still blinking and sleeping with her eyes closed. However, her head circumference continues to increase. Pray for good news from the ultrasound on Monday Morning (Sunday evening US time). Read the full post here.

Here is the latest update on Olive Hope. Rusty and Lynette, are doing a great job of updating their own blog, so we will discontinue the updates on this post. Please continue to join with us in prayer for Olive and the Polinders and update your bookmarks or rss feeds to continue following the Polinder’s directly!