We're Home!

Josh was released from the hospital on Sunday, so we hopped in the car (well, Josh didn't do much hopping!) and made the drive home.  He's been doing great.  I was worried that it would be hard for him to find a place to sit that was comfortable for him, but he's sleeping on the couch as I type.  I'm so glad it's all over.  It was a very long, stressful and exhausting week but it's behind us now.  

My parents kept the girls all week and they're driving them back here today.  It's been 10 days since we've seen them!  They did great up in OKC, but everyone is saying that Anabelle is really missing us.  She doesn't really know why she's out-of-sorts, but starts to ask for us when she's really upset.  I can't wait to see them!

There have been a few really funny stories from the week- here are just a few.

Josh's sister Bethany and her family came to visit Josh in the hospital on Friday.  They have 3 kids and the oldest was asking where they were going.  Bethany tried to explain that Josh had surgery on his heart and the doctor fixed it.  Liam said, "Oh.  Did he have a lot of anger?"

My mom was changing sheets on one of the beds and Sarabeth walked in.  

Sarabeth:  What you doing, Nana?

Nana:  I'm taking sheets of the bed to wash them, and then put clean ones on.

Sarabeth:  Why?  Did someone pee on them?

It's things like that that helped us get through the week.  Even though it hurts Josh to laugh, it's been good for him.

Thank you all again for your prayers, emails, notes etc.  We're SO blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

The recovery.

Thank you all for your prayers for Josh during this time. It has been a long and exhausting week, but the Drs are pleased with how he's doing. There have been many ups and downs over the past few days, and I anticipate that's not over just yet. He was in ICU overnight on Monday night and moved to a room Tuesday evening. No word yet of when we might be headed home. At this point he really needs encouragement as much as anything. I was optimistic this morning b/c he got some sleep last night and had been in a good mood, but the day hasn't proved to be great so far. Hopefully that will change quickly. He needs a good day.

Josh's Surgery

Many of you may know, but Josh is having surgery tomorrow.  His cardiologist found a congenital heart defect about 8 weeks ago that needs to be repaired.  Without going into all the medical details, they're replacing a restriction in his aorta.  The surgery is open chest, but not open heart.  We'll be down in Houston for about a week (hoping to come back by Sunday Dec. 21st) and then he'll have an extensive recovery at home.  We would appreciate your prayers during this time, and thank you so much to those who have already been so helpful to our family.  I'll put an update online after he's out of surgery and recovering.

Other than that, I probably won't be online much over the next few weeks.  So, on a much happier note, Merry Christmas to you all!

She did it again.

You may remember a story I posted back in June telling about Sarabeth climbing up her dresser & it falling over on top of her.  Well, we put her dresser in the closet with a child-proof door knob cover to ensure that wouldn't happen again.  There's still a dresser in Anabelle's room though.  Yesterday the girls were playing upstairs and had been in Anabelle's room for a  few minutes.  I was just outside the door and heard a crash followed by shrieking.  I run in to find Sarabeth pinned underneath Anabelle's dresser.  I picked everything up off her as fast as I could and Josh ran in to get her.  Two of the drawers were broken into pieces and the dresser isn't salvageable.  Poor Anabelle was standing in the background crying (completely untouched by the dresser) but scared nonetheless.  Through it all, Sarabeth has one tiny bruise on her leg.  That's all.  The Lord was really protecting her (the dresser was loaded to the gills!) and I'm so thankful she's not hurt.  I guess I should have learned the first time around- I'm sorry, Sarabeth!!

Pictures

Just some fun pictures from the last week or 2.

A New Week

I'm thrilled to be able to post some good things, and I apologize for the negativity of my last post.  It had been a very hard week!  The great news is that we're doing much much better and had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We hosted this year and we were thrilled to be able to do so.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of any people, just of the table and Josh's delicious cake (yes, he really did make it himself!)  Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!