If...

you make your way onto my blog today and are reading this post, please pray for baby Leah Helen Bosshard as she is currently undergoing a lengthy surgery to remove a very large neck tumor. She is 12 days old and the brand new daughter to my dear friends, Laurie & Mike.

*****UPDATE******

Here is a copy of the email I received last night from Laurie. Nothing beats the power of prayer!

Quick update, because we are exhausted and we are with Leah now in the NICU but I wanted to let you know the good news.
Leah's surgery began at 9:01am and she was back in the NICU around 5:45ish. The ENT surgeons feel good about the surgery and are
"cautiously optimistic" that they removed the whole tumor and preserved most of the cranial nerves. A lot will depend on how she does over the next few days, so she will
be closely monitored. They know they removed 95-99% of it and possibly all of it but the area around the carotid artery and under her
tongue were hard to identify. They said some of the teratoma could still be there or it could just be some reactive tissue that is swelling b/c
of where the mass was. They will have to monitor her tongue movement and see if the left corner of her mouth moves and her left shoulder moves,
b/c those are involved with the nerves in question. But, we are in the NICU now and the left corner of her mouth and left arm have been moving a great
deal which is an excellent sign.

She is quite puffy from the surgery and they warned us that the swelling and puffiness of her whole body will get worse before it gets better, but it will go down
in a couple of days. She is still on pain meds and they are giving her morphine as needed b/c you can tell she is in pain. They had to give her blood and will probably
give her another blood transfusion tomorrow b/c they are drawing so much blood from her constantly to check her labs and you can't take that much blood out of a tiny baby
continuously.

The tumor does not pin her head down to the left side anymore, it is so great. She is on her back and her head is facing the ceiling for the first time in her life. She is still intubated with a breathing tube and they won't remove that till probably Friday. When they do, we will be able to FINALLY hold her for the first time. She will have her feeding tube with my milk for a bit. They will put that back in a couple of days once she has healed and then hopefully we can go to breastfeeding partially in addition to the tube and then soon, the tub will be taken out once she gets the hang of sucking.

Her facial features are not squashed anymore, they are centered and beautiful. Please continue to pray for a smooth recovery with little pain and that they discover as she heals that all the tumor was in fact taken away.

We can't thank you enough for all your love, support, and prayers. We could not go through this alone and we feel the love from all of you. God is on our side and giving Leah the strength to recover so she can come home and we can all be a family again soon.

We are going to spend some more time with Leah and then say goodnight b/c we are running on little sleep.
Much love to all
Laurie, Mike, Matthew, and Leah