I’m sitting bedside with Josiah at the moment. Shari is doing Kangaroo Care – skin to skin contact – If you want to see some new photos of Josiah go to http://picasaweb.google.com/ihopemail .

The update on Josiah’s stay at Children’s Mercy is this. He has been putting on weight very slowly as per last email – Last night his weight was up to 3lb 6oz – Which is almost double his birth weight, but small for a 36/37 week baby. After much deliberation it is now clear that Josiah will go into surgery on Monday (we haven’t got a time yet) They will put his intestines back together and also fix a hernia caused by the earlier sugery. Then at a later date they will fix an inguinal hernia that has appeared. The surgery is quite painful and therfore he will be intubated again as well as being put back on TPN.

So how long til he comes home? Well it all depends how well he reacts to the surgery. It should take about 10 days from the surgery for him to start processing food through the digestive tract and besides that he needs to be able to breathe on his own, keep a constant temperature and be on a consistent growth course – I am hoping it will be before June – but who knows

Thank you again for all prayers and support – we certainly appreciate it in this season

Jono