Oh love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee

I don't listen to a lot of Christian music. If you ask my kids what we play on the way to school they would probably respond: Taylor Swift, Pitbull or the Greatest Showman. Admittedly, I could do better. All that being said, one of my very favorite parts of church has always been the music. And that has been one of the things that drew us to our current church, because the music and the way they embrace worship is so powerful.

We talked to Stella's Cardiologist this afternoon and her entire team was unanimous in voting against any surgical intervention of her expanded neoarortic root. YAY. We are still going to talk to her surgeon in the morning, but we feel like we have a good understanding of what has caused it to enlarge, how to best monitor it going forward and why it isn't as scary of a complication as we thought it was. Stella is still special (always) in that they don't see this complication a lot with single ventricle kids. However, they do see it more commonly in other CHD cases - so they have a good baseline to monitor how this root could potentially grow, and unfortunately, what another open heart surgery to repair it would entail.

All in all, we are feeling a whole lot better than we were a week ago. This afternoon I was texting with a friend and told her that I keep thinking about all these complications like a bucket. We add in leaky valves and enlarged neoaortic roots and the bucket keeps getting fuller, but we don't have the option to unload anything from it to make it a little lighter. But ultimately, as long as Stella is stable, I'm cool carrying around this damn bucket.

I just said damn after starting off this post talking about Christian music. You are probably thinking I should lay off the Pitbull. But here is what is funny about today. While I was waiting for the Cardiology team to call a friend suggested I listen to a sermon from a few weeks ago. The sermon was awesome, albeit nothing relevant to what I was worried about. Regardless, it helped pass about 25 minutes of the day waiting for the phone to ring. And at the end of the sermon, in closing prayer, the pastor quoted my favorite Christian song ever. I've quoted it on the blog years ago, and I have it printed on a canvas over Stella's crib. And in that moment, everything felt peaceful.

My favorite, from Indelible Grace: "Oh love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee"

Thank you, every single one of you, who has emailed or texted that you prayed for us today. We felt it, we love you, and we hope you can take these lyrics into your week feeling as full as I did today after listening to Yvi's sermon and prayer.

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust lifes glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be