(The sign says, "I'm going home today!")
Well, I think that today is FINALLY the day we get to bring our son home. We are waiting on visits from a few doctors this morning, but everything is looking good. Josiah is off his monitors and other than the feeding tube he's going home with, he only has ONE last line in. (Down from 21 after his surgery.) His last line to go is his PIC line which is basically an IV that has a special tube that goes all the way to his heart. That will go today-- and "the club" will go with it. (That's the board Josiah's arm is taped to in all the pictures-- that just keeps him from bending his arm and kinking the tube.)
We will be back at the hospital for his first follow-up appt. probably next Friday, and we will see his speech therapist and OT as well as lactation at that point too. Right now I have been given "permission" to nurse him twice a day, but they think that once he builds endurance a little more that he will have NO trouble transitioning to being fully breastfed. (Which WORKS for me because I am SO sick of pumping...)
We can't stress how very happy we are with the care Josiah has received here at Duke. His doctors and nurses and therapists have just been amazing to him and to us. We feel so blessed to have this team of people on our side.
I got very emotional last night thinking about our journey. These doctors (specifically his surgeon, Dr. Lodge) LITERALLY saved his life. The cardiologists monitored him so closely that first weekend before his surgery and pulled ALL WEEKEND LONG shifts staying on top of his critical oxygen situation. Without the care he received here and at Rex, our sweet Josiah would have not made it. I can't even breathe when I think about that too long.
I think again about the meaning of his name (which we didn't know ahead of time)-- Josiah, healed by God. And I think of how often I have questioned God in his timing with our adoption and this pregnancy-- and I just can see so clearly now how He has been in it with us all along and has been acting on our behalf for OUR benefit so that our transition with our boys could go as smoothly as possible. I am thankful that Nico didn't come home 3 weeks ago. I don't know how we could have made it through this trying to be here and with him at home... we couldn't have done it. It was because of God's mercy towards us that we've had to wait.
I have been clinging to Psalm 13 for months now...
How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Just a day before Josiah's birth I read the same passage in the NASB version and the last verse is translated:
6I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
And now-- drumroll please... I have MORE good news to report. I hate to jinx it, because it's not something that's at all definite, HOWEVER, I am too excited not to share it... We got a call from our social worker yesterday that Nico MAY possibly be coming home as early as June 26. Yes, June 26 of THIS year. Yes, less than TWO weeks. Now, it's NOT definite and may not happen on June 26, however, if it's not then, it will be very shortly afterwards. Pretty cool huh? I was so excited I could hardly sleep last night. It was the first thing on my mind every time I woke up to feed. In just a few short weeks our entire family will be together. How much more bountifully could God deal with us?
I have been updloading pics every day... sorry you have to scroll through so many...
http://picasaweb.google.com/ng.mangine/JosiahAtDuke
