Adjusting to a new life.

We have officially been home for a week.  It's been crazy to say the least.  You would think that the hardest part of bringing your second child home would be just that: adjusting to a life with 2 children.  That has actually been the easiest thing to do!  Daniel has been such a great big brother and is constantly trying to help.  He is at every diaper change during the daylight hours.  He drops everything he is doing to help on binky patrol or to use the diaper champ.  I'm sure that will one day wear off, but we are enjoying his enthusiasm at the moment.
Daniel is in the phase of singing everything he says rather than talking normally.  It's hilarious!  It's adorable too.  He makes us laugh so much.  And the way he sings...oh...it's the best.  He tries to sing all "opera" and his whole body shakes and it's hilarious.  I wish I had a video of it, you guys would love it.  He is definitely the comic relief that we need right now.  We are so glad and thankful to be home with him.  We are sad to be leaving him again for a few days next week.

Ready to go to school

It's easy to say that Daniel is getting a little more comfortable holding his baby brother.

PJ is doing well.  On Monday we did notice a little bit of a yellowish spot on his bandage from his back.  There is a little, pin-head size spot of something on his incision.  To put it lightly, we freaked out.  At first we were panicing that he was developing an infection. We called the nurse practicioner at UCSF to see what she thought.  We were a little relieved to know that it couldn't be an infection because he didn't/doesn't have a fever.  He's eating well (to my demise at night!) and sleeping well.  Of course it happened after hours on Monday and then Tuesday, lovely enough, all of the phones were down and internet was down.  The only source of communication we had to the outside world was local calls on our home phone.  Talk about horrible timing!  We had been waiting all day for the nurse to call us back.   While we were eating supper at the table last night, we heard our cell phones go off at about the same time.  The phones were working again!  There was a voicemail on Mitch's cell phone from our nurse.  We had emailed her a pic early that morning to show her what it looked like and she said that she didn't think it looked too bad.  This morning we got another email from her and she said that she showed Dr. Gupta the pic and he didn't seem concerned.  She thinks it's serous fluid, which is basically nothing to be worried about.  The lower-left side of his incision does have some bogginess to it though, which is new as of this morning.  So, please pray that that goes down.  The bogginess that he had in the hospital is still going down, but now there is some bogginess in a different spot.
There are SO MANY things that we are constantly looking for.  It's like we are waiting for something horrible to happen sometimes.  It's hard.  I was just thinking that I really need to rest in the fact that God has a purpose in all of this.  I may never know what it is, but I need to praise Him still.  It's not an easy thing to do when we feel like we can't truly enjoy having our newborn son at home.  Don't get me wrong, we are loving it to pieces, but we are also living on the verge of discovering something that is going wrong.  Before PJ was here, I was resting in Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths"...that verse has taken on a whole new meaning now that PJ is here.  I need to trust in God during this time.  Trust that He will give us the discernment and clarity that we need during this time, because He will.  It's easy to get distracted when life gets complicated and overwhelming, but God is so good, He will never leave us or forsake us. 

Smiling while he sleeps.

All in all, things are going good.  We are LOVING having PJ here with us, finally!  I must admit, those sweet 8 hour sleeps during the night are long gone!  It feels like as soon as my head hits the pillow, he is crying and ready to eat again.  I'm sure my exhausted state and raging hormones are such a delight to be around! :-)

Thank you again for all of your constant prayers.  We go to Reno on Wednesday to meet with the pediatric neurologist and then to San Fran Friday (4th) to go to Spina Bifida clinic all day, where we meet with all of the dr.'s all day.  We are so relieved to be going, we need some encouragement that things are going ok.  Please continue to pray for us that we would get through this rough patch of time.  I recieved a word of encouragement from a dad we met at UCSF with a 23 month old who has spina bifida as well.  He told me to hang in there because the first few months are the toughest and that it really does get better.   PJ is such a blessing and we are so thankful that God would gift him to us, we just want to take good care of him!

We had twins, one was just born 4 1/2 years before the other

Hey everybody, its Mitchell.
Quick update for everyone. PJ's back is looking good and his head circumference is staying close to where it was at. (Normal newborn growth is 1/2 to 1 cm per week.) PJs fontenelle, the soft spot on the head, is still soft as well. All good signs. Heather and I are in way letting our guard down, we measure his head and keep an eye out fo the other signs the doctors told us about it.
We are adjusting to life with two kids. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God gave us Daniel for a special reason and I am now seeing that come to fruition. Daniel is the most gentle hearted kid I've ever met. I really thought he couldn't get any sweeter, but he did. If someone needs a toy or is without he goes and makes sure they are ok. So cute! (I know he's not perfect, but he is sweet.) So Daniel's gentle heart has shown itself in spades with PJ. Daniel is quick to help with diaper changing and cathing. Daniel loves his role as dirty diaper disposer and binky patrol. He is also quick comfort him if he's screaming. What a sweet big brother.


Ok, so onto the title of the blog...
Heather and I were so enamoured with PJ when he was born, as we were with Daniel. The nurse's asked us if PJ looked like our other son. We told them no way. Heather and I got to thinking and wondering. Well we pulled out the computer and asked a couple of our favorite nurses, they know who they are, and each of them picked out Daniel's photos from birth and said they were PJ. Finally we realized my goodness they could be twins.

We'll let you be the judge in these photos.
Take your best guess

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Shame on you if you cheated. JK I'm sure most of you knew without the answer key, but for those of you that didn't know 1, 2, 3, and 5 are Daniel. 4 and 6 are PJ. I obviously know they don't look like identical twins, but there are some striking similarities.

We are home!!

Yes, that's right...we are FINALLY home!  Not for long though, we go back to SF in two weeks for Spina Bifida Clinic (a slew of dr. appts smushed into one day).  I can't tell you how excited and ready we were to come home and the drive yesterday couldn't have taken longer!!!    But to back track, I'll update about the weekend before.

Our good friends Jeff and Shana came to visit us and meet our newest addition. We were excited for them to come because we hadn't seen them in forever and we needed them for a distraction. We had to wait all weekend for a head ultrasound and hear whether or not we would be sent home. We spent the weekend in the hospital around PJ's feeding/cathing schedule and then in the down times we spent most of it walking....usually walking to somewhere to eat...haha...let's just say we let our food guards down for the weekend!! We had A LOT of laughs. I was telling Shana that most of our laughter came from the boys and from shock and awe at some of the down right hilarious things that come out of their mouths. haha...good times.

Shana and PJ...they must have coordinated their outfits that morning :-)

Shana giving me a make-shift manicure outside of Starbucks!

 Dinner at Park Chow in San Fran.  The dessert was amazing too...does it help that everything on the menu is organic??!! lol

The weekend was a good one and we were so thankful for their visit.  We are so thankful for everyone's visits.  Having my parent's there for a few days before PJ's birth and then them staying for a week after his birth was such a gift to us.  They have been such an amazing support system and source of home for us while we were there together.  We felt bad the many times that they had to sit and wait in the hospital while we had to cath or feed PJ.  They were so patient and understanding.  Having Daniel there with us too was so great and made it easier to be there and enjoy each and every moment.  A few days later Kyle, Jen, Andy, and Kendra and our nieces/nephews came as well.  It was so sweet for them to drive all that way to see us and more importantly meet PJ.  I know that there are a lot of family members and friends that would have loved to have been there but just couldn't.  Their prayer support has been so amazing and comforting.  We have enjoyed talking to them on the phone giving them updates, texting them pictures, and just knowing that they are praying for us and been so great.

PJ had an ultrasound on Monday soon after we got to the hospital around 8 am.  So, we thought we would hear the yes/no about whether or not we would get to come home.  Not only did he get that done, but he got his brace on his foot (FINALLY).  It's actually really endearing.  He looks precious in it.  It's this tiny boot.  It looks like a walking boot that you get after you get a cast off.  ALSO he got circumcized in the afternoon.  Poor guy had such a big day and we felt bad for all that he had to go through.  I could tell he wasn't himself because he didn't eat very good that day and he slept a lot.  I don't blame him, he went through the ringer!  Finally in the late afternoon Dr. Shimotake (LOVE HIM!!) gave us the go.  So, right away we called Daniel and told him that we were coming home the next day!!  My mom later told me that after he got off the phone he told her "now that's the news I've been waiting for!"....doesn't that just melt your heart?!

So, we had to leave the hospital in the early evening to clean our room at the Ronald McDonald house.  We ate dinner there because a woman was cooking for the whole house.  A few years ago she was staying at the house with her infant in the hospital.  She had been there for a few months.  She decided to make the whole house dinner one night and while she was cooking she got a call from the hospital and they told her to get there right away.  Her child passed away that night.  So, on the anniversary of her child's death, she cooks for the whole Ronald McDonald house because she never got to finish that one meal before.  So, we were honored to have her cook for us.  The Ronald McDonald house is really something wonderful.  We are beyond thankful for what they have done for us. 

The next morning we were at the hospital at 7:30 because we had to be discharged by 8:30 for his uerodynamics test across the street by 9:00.  We were so excited to have him unhooked by everything and be put in the car seat and get out of there!!

Putting his going home clothes on!

 We are so happy to go home!!

Looking pretty handsome in that car seat!

So, after the uerodynamics test we were out of there!!  The drive took us all day!  We didn't get home until 8:30.  But, you should have seen the look on Daniel's face when we got home!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  :-)

This was right after he walked in the door!  He is so happy!

Showing us his craft.

Getting to hold PJ for the first time!

He was a little heavier than Daniel expected!

Daniel wanted to hold him before school.





All in all, we are so thankful and grateful to be home.  But, we are also thankful for the time that was spent in San Fran at the hospital. Yes, it was hard and difficult to only see PJ in the ICN, but there are many moments in which we feel blessed.  Mitch and I had a lot of time together and to be honest, we have grown closer in the last 3 weeks.  We have been able to revisit those "dating days".  We are thankful for that time.

We go back to San Francisco in 2 weeks and will have updated information on PJ then.  This Friday we visit our family dr. and then 2 days before SF we go to Reno to see a pediatric neurosurgeon.  We have a lot coming up.

Please pray for PJ and that his ventricles would remain stable and the "bogginess" on his incision site would continue to decrease.  Also pray that we would be that 10% in which he won't require a shunt.  We have been told in lengthy detail what to be looking out for and we are a bit nervous.  Please pray that if something were to come up that we would know and realize what is going on.  There is just so much now.  We don't have that comfort of being in the hospital and having dr.'s right there at his bedside.

Thank you so much, again, for all your prayers and thoughts.  They have gotten us through our tough times and we are so humbled by all of the love and generosity that has been shown to us.  

There's a light at the end of the tunnel!

This morning we came in to see PJ and he was wearing a onsie!  He hasn't worn a onsie yet and he looked sooo cute!  We also got him a new blankie.  His living space needed some sprucing up!  His little crib is definitely personalized, from the pictures colored/drawn by his big bro to the little animals from Daniel and Pappy and Nanny and the blankets made with love from church family.  This little boy is sure loved!  I know there are a lot of people praying for PJ and it shows.  God is truly amazing!  He is to be praised for sure.  There are so many ways, countless ways that He has been working through PJ.  There are many lessons that Mitch and I have learned through this process so far.  I know PJ's condition is life-long and I am sort of excited to see what God has for us to learn.  I know that there are going to be times in which I'll think I'm crazy for saying that, but honestly, our lives have been changed because of Daniel and PJ.  Things that used to hold so much significance just don't anymore.  I really love that!
So, now for an update.  PJ has been fitted for a brace on his right foot.  They told us that it is not a clubbed foot.  Clubbed feet turn in and down and his turns out and up.  His foot just looks really fragile.  The attending ortho is coming today to look at it and make a diagnosis as to what exactly it is and what we are going to do to treat it.  She may decide to cast him before we come home, which would be nice because then we wouldn't have to come back sooner that we do (Nov. 4th for appts).  In the mean time he'll wear a brace on his right foot.
His head circumfrence is 37 cm, last week it was 36.5.  The nurse practicioner told us today that all babies heads increase .5 cm a week, so that relieved my stress.  The bogginess, or fluid around his incision, is actually going down and the pediatric neurosurgeon is really pleased with PJ's progress.  So, on Monday we get one more ultrasound on his ventricles and if that is good....we get to come home on Tuesday!!!!!  We have a long weekend of waiting ahead of us!  But, our good friends Jeff and Shana are coming to visit us for a couple days, so we are pretty excited about that!  We are so blessed to have friends and family come and see us, it brings a little bit of home to us here, it's nice.  Hopefully they'll be able to distract us from the waiting we have to do for Monday, which I'm sure they'll do a good job at! :-)
That's about it for now.  Here's a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Taking a nap in the afternoon sun.

 Mitch's first time feeding PJ.  Little buddy wasn't ready to eat when I was ready for him, so Daddy got to do it!

This is such a cute video.

Finding our groove.

Everyone is gone now and so Mitch and I are trying to find our groove and create some kind of schedule.  I guess we already have a schedule seeing as though we cath and feed PJ every 3 hours.  Although, PJ has been a litle bit pushy on the feeding part...3 hours just seems too long to wait! :-) I don't mind, I like being needed by him!
This morning Mitch and I woke up early to go to a place called Crepe Vine for breakfast.  It was a little too froo froo for us and we are actually now eating in the cafe at the hospital...haha.  Oh well.  Yesterday we were able to get away from the hospital for a bit and go to Target.  You don't know how comforting a place like Target can be!  It's a little escape from the hubbub from the hospital.  I do stress myself out on our way back wondering if PJ is hungry and stressing that he is fussing and I am not there for him.  So, we try to keep our trips (when we do make them) close and quick.
Yesterday PJ had an ultrasound and it showed that his ventricles are still looking great!  Praise the Lord!  We were able to watch the ultrasound and Dr. Gupta actually showed up while he was getting it done and we got to talk to him (he is the pediatric neurosurgeon that did PJ's surgery).  He said that his incision is looking good.  There is some puffiness from fluid building up around his incision so they are keeping an eye on that.  Please pray for that specifically.  I'm not sure what they are going to do if it gets worse.  We are waiting to talk to the nuero team again to ask them that.  Right now that is our main concern.  And also that his ventricles remain stable. 
Last night when we came back from dinner, we walked into the wing he is in and he was missing!  It made my heart skip a beat because we weren't told that he was being moved!  They moved him to the north wing which is the wing for the "well babies" because they are transitioning babies to get ready to go home!  Which we have been told may be next Tuesday (only one week from today!!).  We can't even begin to describe our yearning to come home and be "normal".  It's tough being here everyday.  When we finally made it to our new "home", we were able to give PJ a bath for the first time.  He's had a bath already but we weren't able to give him one ourselves.  Oh my, what a delight!  He absolutely loved it!  I should have decided to feed him before bathing him because as soon as that warm towel was wrapped around him, he was out like a light for the night!  Mitch was able to spend some cuddle time with him...I must admit, I was soooo jealous!  All I wanted to do was rock him and smell his sweet skin!  The nurse even put him in his very first shirt!  He hasn't worn any clothes yet, so I have to say, he was looking pretty handsome in his white shirt!
Ok....now to the good part...pictures!  Enjoy!

Here's PJ's incision...it's actually looking good.  But you can tell there is some puffiness around it.  The redness is normal, kind of like a birthmark for spina bifida babies.

Looking at mama.

Enjoy the video!



Looking at daddy.

 Getting his ultrasound. He was so good!

 Starting his bath!

 Washing his hair.

 Rinsing out the suds!

 He loved having his hair washed!  Doesn't it look like he is so relaxed?!

 Like I said, out like a light!

 Look at those precious feet!

 Spending some time with Daddy.

 Good morning sunshine!  Looking at mama!

 Wide awake and content after eating.

I could do this all day long!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the little video.  Please continue to pray for PJ and for his healing.  We want him to heal w/o having to have any sort of intervention in doing so.  There are so many babies here that are truly sick and it makes us so thankful that PJ is such a healthy baby.  He just has some physical issues that we have to deal with.  There are so many things to be thankful for.  Yesterday there was a baby behind me that was in really bad shape.  The dr.'s and nurses were breathing for him and working on him while his dad just stood there, overwhelmed and scared.  I felt guilty, rocking PJ and feeding him.  We are so blessed to have this amazing baby who is in such better condition than a lot of these babies.  God is so good and we have to praise Him everyday for it.  I can't believe we would ever doubt God, especially now after seeing how He is in control and He has our best interests at heart.  Thank you for your constant prayer for our family.  It means so much to us.  We love each of you.

It's a bird, it's a plane, nope, just the Blue Angels!

So for those of you that don't know each year around this time is something called Naval Fleet Week. So that I get it right I'm going to borrow from the Internet encyclopedia that is the best thing ever: Wikipedia.
"Fleet Week is a United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard tradition in which active military ships recently deployed in overseas operations dock in a variety of major cities for one week. Once the ships dock, the crews can enter the city and visit its tourist attractions. At certain hours, the public can take a guided tour of the ships. Often, Fleet Week is accompanied by military demonstrations and air shows such as those provided by the Blue Angels." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Week Taken 10/10/11) So I know that citation isn't correct for the MLA format or APA for that matter. Please forgive me its been a while since I've had to document a source.

Ok, back to my tale. So Daniel loves all things police and fire related because they are so big and loud. He loves parades and the like. I thought as Daniel was getting ready to leave it might be a nice reprieve from the routine he had gotten into here in San Francisco. Daniel, his cousins, Heather's brother, and father all piled into Andy's ultra cool super high tech-Minivan and headed north towards the water.

San Francisco is confusing with a GPS, I've gotten us lost a couple of times with it on and functioning properly. Sorry to Alan and Karen for that. In combination with the GPS we headed North and just wanted to find a place to pull over. And boy did we. If you get a chance look up the San Francisco Presidio. What a gorgeous location. The San Francisco Presidio was an old fort established in September 17th, 1776. The old buildings were cool and looked to be about WWII era. There were old cannons and cannon balls on display as well. Most importantly it was Saturday so parking was FREE! Parking down here costs an arm and a leg if you can find it. (For those of you that know what or where Fort Snelling is in MN this is similar. Just with the Pacific Ocean as a back drop instead of the Mississippi River.)

After we parked we walked toward the beach and as we rounded a corner I realized where we were and I was pretty amazed. To my right was the iconic Alcatraz prison. To my left, 5,000 yards or less, was the towering, and even more iconic Golden Gate Bridge. This is our third time to SF and Heather and I have yet to cross it and for the most part we haven't seen it very clearly due to the fog or our location in the city. So I was excited to be this close. As if that wasn't enough about twenty minutes after we got there a big, older plane starts a rumblin' through the skies.

This gorgeous metal bird is a C130 Hercules plane dubbed "Fat Albert."

Our view for the show.

So after Fat Alber warmed up the crowd it was time for the big dogs. And boy, oh boy, they did not disappoint. The Blue Angels, the elite of the elite, went back and forth through the sky. Up and down on a roller coaster of loops, twists, twirls, steep climbs only to be followed by steeper dives. It was something else just to have seen this on my own. That would have been cool on its own. I had something better. I had my son with me. That is an automatic joy multiplier. For those of you that aren't around Daniel on a daily basis you're missing out. (Disclaimer: I might getting off on a rabbit trail bragging about my son, cause I'm so proud. Sorry in advance.) So Daniel is one of the most exuberant children I've ever known. He's so smart and always discovering new things daily. What never changes is his enchantment with machines and the things they can do. So to watch him react to each time these planes would simply fly by and make a loud noise with their afterburners was a pleasure for me. I was explaining to someone that while they were practicing on Friday they would fly over the hospital. While Daniel and I would go on walks he would hear them coming and watch them fly over. His reaction was priceless. His screams of "whoa," or "ooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh, yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" were bordering on guttural noises and primal animal screams of excitement rather than intelligible words. I think his voice might have dropped a few octaves on a couple of the growls of glee. (K. All done, back to the blog.)

After about an hour of craning our necks and getting whiplash while whipping around as planes whizzed by it was over. We drove home through the Presidio in nearly stand still traffic due to the volume of people. This wasn't bad either because the streets were lined with TREES. Eucalyptus trees no less. They were so fragrant it was a nice change from Nevada's high desert landscape. Finally back to the hospital.

The day was done and back to reality. It was nice to take a break and take time to let Daniel know that in the midst of this I still care. I still enjoy his company. And most importantly I still LOVE just hanging out with him.

Ok this is getting really long and I think I was supposed to go join Heather in 10 minutes, who is nursing PJ, like 20 or maybe even 30 minutes ago. Ooops. Sorry Heather. I know that Heather was planning on putting up more pictures of PJ and doing an update later today so look for that as well. See you guys the next time I post.

And if you haven't figured it out this is Mitch writing not Heather. 

Daniel on the beach side just before the show.

The Blue Angels flying in formation over the Golden Gate Bridge. So Cool!

The beach was packed for the show.

The Blue Angels flying in formation.

If you listen close towards the end you can hear Daniel's excitement.

Daniel and his cousins after the show. Believe it or not this is his serious face. And I absolutely love it!



6 days old already?!

Hello everyone!  What a couple days we have had!  Sorry that we haven't been able to update in a couple days.  Things are nutzo and it always seems like when we can update we don't have enough time or we don't get wireless internet.  Mitch and I are sitting in the cafeteria at the hospital (it's around 7:00 am now) drinking coffee and eating donuts.  We just came down from the 15th floor where P.J. is.  I fed him and was able to get an excellent snuggle session in for about a half hour.  Man, I could hold him all day long!
I got discharged yesterday afternoon...which took FOREVER!  I was so ready to breathe some fresh air!  After getting discharged we went and at lunch.  I started to get stressed out because it was getting time to nurse and we got a little lost on our way back.  Needless to say, we will be sticking around the hospital from now on!  We checked into our Ronald McDonald house last night and did some laundry.  We were so exhausted, but couldn't go to sleep because we had to semi-unpack and I had to pump.  We didn't get to bed until after midnight.  I woke up around 4 to pump, again, and we got back to the hospital by 6 to cath/feed P.J.  We haven't been getting much sleep, but hopefully we will get into some routine where we will be getting more than 4-5 hours of sleep.
P.J. is doing good.  He has had an ultrasound on his head to monitor the fluid between his ventricles and he is looking good.  They said "microscopic" changes...which is good news.  His head circumference isn't changing which is another praise.  However, the fluid needs to drain somewhere and since it isn't draining in his head, it has started to drain around the incision.  It has been building up around there, so the dr. is monitoring that very closely.  He may still need a shunt placed if the fluid continues to build up in his back.  So, we'll see.  We aren't sure when they would determine yes/no on that. 
Cathing is going ok as well.  Mitch is doing so good at it.  I, on the other hand, am struggling at it.  Granted, I've only tried 2 or 3 times so far, but I am just taking a little longer to get the hang of it.  I'll get there.  P.J. doesn't even make a peep when you are doing it too!  That makes it a lot easier to do. 
Breastfeeding is going well.  The only hurdle we have to cross is P.J. falling asleep w/in minutes of latching on.  He freaks out until he is eating and then he passes out once he starts.  So, they are supplementing a little bit to keep him satisfied.  He is quite the eater...go figure! :-)  So, just pray that breastfeeding continues to go well and that he would stay awake for it!
His incision looks good.  It is about 3 inches, vertically, on his lower back.  It is a little red from stretching a healing, but the dr.'s say that it looks good.  We took pics of it, but I haven't decided on whether to post them or not.  They aren't easy to look at, especially on a little baby's back.  We'll see.  I'll wait to post them for now. 
Daniel has been such a great big brother.  Everytime he gets to the hospital he is bursting at the seams to see his brother.  He likes to caress his head, touch his little fingers and check out his toes.  We really miss Daniel and being around him all the time.  We have really enjoyed having him here with my parents.  They are going home tomorrow and let me tell you, we are dreading it.  We miss Daniel so much when he isn't with us.  I know that he really loves to be with my parents, so that helps, but it is hard not having him around!  He is our entertainment and our source of snuggles!  Hopefully we won't be very far behind them going home.  We are hoping we only have a couple more weeks here.
Ok, I suppose I've made you all wait long enough for some more pictures!  Please continue to pray for us and especially for P.J.  Pray that we wouldn't have to shunt him (not the end of the world if we had to), pray that his incision would heal quickly, and pray that we would continue to get guidance from the dr.'s with everything; his back, his head, his foot/leg, physical therapy, etc.  God has been so good.  He has been so faithful to us during this time.  There are so many ways that He is blessing us right now!  Although it is a tough time, it is so great to know that God is in control and will continue to do His will.  He has been a source of comfort and strength during this time and we can't wait to share with all of you someday specific ways in which God has provided and given us hope.  Praise the Lord for lessons and learning experiences.  Even though these lessons that we are going through usually aren't fun, they have become accepted and appreciated.  We are thankful.

Getting held by Daddy sure is nice!

Saying goodnight last night was not easy!  But, just look at how peaceful he was!

Taking an afternoon nap.

Right before discharge.

Look at those lips!

Daniel loves P.J.  He is so gentle with him and can't wait to see him everyday!

This was taken this morning...Love love love snuggling him!

 This morning he was awake and more alert than ever!