We are all very excited about Matthias joining our family! Thank you all for your prayers, emails and calls.

Below is an email from Michael and Mandi explaining Matthias' situation. We ask that you please continue to pray for Matthias and the Collyar family.

Thank you!!

Most of you on this list know that we have been concerned about Matthias for about 2 months now when we found out through an ultrasound that he had a small head - smaller than normal. We've had several doctors look at him while Mandi was pregnant and the results have been encouraging as far as there being no longterm effects - the risk has been there, but everything was good so far. After he was born, the nurses checked him over and I was eyeing him like a hawk. The good news was he was a small baby with a small head. The head measured small, but it was considered in their "normal" range on the graph. And he screamed loud from the get go and acts normal like any other newborn.

Yesterday we got a little bit of disturbing news, but not horrific yet. They did an ultrasound on his brain and found out that he at some point in time during the pregnancy (more than likely 2 or 3 months ago) had what they call a "mini-stroke". This is what caused the brain to measure small in the womb and basically made it develop a little slower than the rest of the body. The good news is the brain has been resolving the problem and has grown since then to look somewhat normal. His brain is just not as developed as they'd like to see a full-term baby - more like what a 25 or 26 week old premature baby's brain would look like.

The outlook is unclear at this moment. The good news, like I said, is he's behaving extremely well. We'll have to go to Little Rock to see a Pediatric Neurologist in the next month or so. We might find out more there. Basically, we'll be doing what we thought we would be doing and that's watching him develop to make sure nothing looks abnormal - and parents are always a good judge of that (tongue-in-cheek). It could be that he grows up to have a perfectly normal life or he might have some sort of handicap or any number of things in between. All this to say thank you for your prayers. We're happy, sad, nervous, mad, joyful, scared, etc. A roller coaster of emotions. Please continue to pray for peace of mind and that God would grant this little boy the resiliency to beat these odds he's been given here at the beginning. We all know kids are resilient and don't know when to quit. It just makes for a better story when Tom Rinaldi from ESPN does a story on him after he beats a 55 year old Tiger Woods in a playoff at the Masters - but I don't have very high expectations.

(I'm kidding by the way for those of you who are offended by my attempt at humor in a stressful situation - that's just how I roll).

Other than that, Matthias is pooping, peeing, screaming, looking at you, keeping us awake like any newborn. Hopefully we'll get out of the hospital today or tomorrow. We really do appreciate all the emails and calls and thoughts coming our way. It's awesome to have family and friends who care. I'll post more about things as we know them on the blog. Thanks everyone!

Michael, Mandi, Makayla, and now...... Matthias