Please Pray for Hannah

written by Keith

                     Hannah at 12 weeks

We are pleading for prayer

1^st Samuel 2:6-8

Hannah’s Pray to the Lord:

“The Lord brings death and makes alive;
    he brings down to the grave and raises up.
⁷ The Lord sends poverty and wealth;
    he humbles and he exalts.
⁸ He raises the poor from the dust
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes
    and has them inherit a throne of honor.

This prayer from our Hannah’s name sake is Ellie and my prayer tonight.  We are needy and require to be lifted up.  Hannah was born perfectly normal on September 7^th of this year.  All tests checked out perfectly except for failing the left ear of her hearing test.  For those who are not familiar with the hearing test they are testing for certain brain patterns and the hospital test often have false positives.  So we were told not to worry and just to reschedule.  They were sure that she would pass the next time.  We didn’t know at the time, but our sweet girl was under attack.  Last Friday Hannah was diagnosed with CMV or cytomegalovirus.  This virus is very common, and most healthy people over the age of 2 never know they have it.  However, in newborns this virus can be debilitating.  Hannah probably contracted it while Ellie was pregnant or during the birth.  The mayo clinic and other sites I have been reading say they believe about 50% of US has contracted CMV within their lifetime and 1% of infants catch this disease.  Of those 1% 80% of those kids are not affected by it.

Hannah however was not one of those 80%.  This virus has attacked her hearing and brain which has left her with significant hearing loss and now a small head.  Her small head a long with an MRI indicated some type of brain trauma.  We were told about the hearing loss about a week and half ago and that led to the testing and final diagnosis of CMV.  While we were grieving the loss of her hearing we were given options on how she can hear again and live a very normal life.  While the thought of her having to wear hearing aids her whole life is painful, it is now dwarfed with the real possibility that she may have a mental disability for the rest of her life because of the brain trauma.  This has brought us to tears and has caused us to grieve even the possibility of our little girl going through so many struggles in life.   

It’s painful and almost unbelievable that a random virus that I have never heard of singled out our little girl.  Our lives have been turned upside down by what feels like the lottery of diseases. It's strange to say but we are praying that she just has hearing loss.  Frankly we are begging and pleading with the Lord that she just has hearing loss.  So please pray with us that her brain is unaffected.

We are going to be talking to a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor early next week.  After having a couple of conversations with our doctor and a Neonatologist friend of ours there is a real possibility that Hannah will have to go through several days of an antiviral treatment.  This treatment may have to happen in the hospital.  If the virus is still active these drugs can put it in remission, but she will not regain hearing or brain activity that may have been loss. 

The friends that we have told have been asking us if we need anything.  Honestly right now we don’t even know what we need.  But I do know Hannah needs prayer.  Please join with us in prayer.  Ask your friends to pray for Hannah.  I selfishly want to see her name on Facebook posts asking for prayer.  Doctors can truly do little to help her brain, but God can.  He can heal her and protect her brain from the disease.  He can allow her to have all her cognitive and developmental skills.  He can provide!  Hannah of the Bible prayed that she would have a child.  One of the reasons we named her Hannah was because of 1^st Samuel 1:19 “the Lord Remembered Her”.  We are praying that the Lord Remembers Hannah.  Samuel was her child and his name means ‘because I asked the Lord for Him’.  We are asking for our Child’s mind to be safe in the midst of disease.       

                        Artwork hanging in her room

There is real hope that her hearing is all this disease has taken, and with technology that can be improved. I will continue to pray for this hope, but also please pray with Ellie and I that we hold on to the hope of health lightly, as we all know it is temporary and passes. So I pray as tears come down my face that my hope is in Christ.  I need my hope to be in the Lord, and want it to be true that this chance disease is but a single event in His loving plan.