Neela's Birth Story...

Neela Lu Waddel came into this world on June 27, 2009... She joined her four brothers and two sisters. Neela was beautiful, just as my other six babies had been. Neela was born with a cataract on her right eye. She had surgery when she was three weeks old, and had it removed at the University of Iowa Hospitals. Neela's natural lens was removed due to the cataract covering the whole surface of it, which meant she needed to wear a contact lens to serve as that lens that was removed. She has been wearing hard contact lenses since she was three weeks old, yes in and out everyday. It was a challenge at first for my husband, Bart and I to hold our newborn baby down just to slip the contact under eyelid. Bart and I rely on our faith to carry us through obstacles in our lives that we feel can't be dealt with. Our God is a mighty hand in all of our decisions with our financial issues, employment issues, and most definitely our children... How else would we have made it this long without having Jesus Christ in our lives daily. Raising seven kids is a team effort and the Lord has blessed us with eachother. Our lives are living proof of our faith with seven blessings in our lives, and an incredible support system of family and friends. Our faith was tested again, when Neela was four months old when Bart noticed a little lump under Neela's right ear. Within a day I took Neela to our family physician, who told us that it was just a lymph node, not to worry. We went on with our daily family activities and craziness until a few months went by and noticed that Neela's mass was growing in size. Yes we went back up to our family physician, again... they looked at her and said, "Yes that is still a lymph node"... til Neela turned her head and he said, "Wait a minute I think that is something else, I need to get another opinion of another physician here." So ended up telling me that he has not seen anything like this in 25 years of his practice. Ughh that was a kick in the stomach for me right there. I think my heart wanted to jump out of my chest and start beating right on the exam table. Our best decision he said would be to go to the University of Iowa Hopsitals again. So we scheduled an ENT visit there and were seen with a few weeks. Doctor came in and told us that it possibly was a venous or a lymphatic malformation, but couldn't be certain without an MRI. I was ok with this decision because they are the experts, but the hardest part was waiting a whole month until the pocedure. It was a lot of prayer and tears, because we didn't know what to expect to this whole situation. MRI was done and ended up showing a Lymphatic Malformation on the right side of her neckline and extended down into her chest lining. Doctors told us that she had macrocysts and microcysts that would need to be taken care of. The macrocysts can be treated with injections of ok-432, which one of our doctors partner heads this study in the United States, 12 sites to be a matter of fact. How blessed are we to get this kind of care only an hour and a half away... God truly did provide this facility to treat her condition this close to us. A few months went by noticing slight swelling of her lymphatic malformation everyday. Until she was about 8 months old she developed an infection in her LM... it swelled about the size of an orange. She was miserable and in a lot of pain. Bart and I had to admit her to UOI Hopsitals for heavy doses of antibiotics and hydration. Within four days she was slowly but surely getting better. Although her swelling stayed with her until now. She is set to see her doctor Richard Smith, MD on May 10 to get a plan for the summer for Neela. I am confident that the he is going to be granted wisdom from God about the best treatment options possible for Neela. Our faith has grown stronger these past few months and I think its exactly what the Lord intended on us once again as a family. With being busy with our day to day activities with our kids... I think Bart and I tend to wander like "sheep" from our faith. I think this is the Lord's way to reel us "sheep" back into his mighty hand. I feel in my heart that we need him now, in the future and forever with our marriage, not with just Neela but for all of our children. He is great.. He is might... He is a healer... He has unconditional love... He forgives... He is here for Our Faith... and for Our Family..... We believe and are gonna trust every possible decision that he puts in front of us. He has done miracles with our family and Neela already. Will keep you posted about our May 10th visit. Please pray for this condition and the awareness for all families that are dealing with it. I want to thank our families and friends for their prayers as well. We love all of you!