home again

hi dear friends.

i am going to only write quickly to let you know that we are home from the hospital--as of about 3:45 this afternoon. heath had still not been drinking and we were pretty unsure about even wanting to go home, but we realized when we finally took him out for a walk around in his stroller that he would eat if he wasn't in his room. it was as if he had fallen into what I have heard called a "hospital lull" where you can't quite feel better because you just sit and sit and look at the walls of your room. the doctors had already suspected as much and they were willing to let us take him home. he stills feels really stinky and only wants to sit on me (which was lovely, oh when he first started feeling bad LAST WEEK), but he is actually reaching for his sippy cup and asked for mac and cheese. SO, we'll take that as a good sign that we are on the mend. sarah and pat are staying here to help out, which is great.

i will write more and do a little reflecting when i am not quite so exhausted. right now, the only other thing i want to ask for are prayers for our dear sweet friend, olivia. she had surgery on thursday at duke, strangely, and we visited in the picu briefly. then, i walked out of our room yesterday to realize that they were OUR NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS. after all the time we spent as roommates in the picu in the early days of both of them on ECMO (and they are 4 days apart in age), we have been through so much together. what a crazy coincidence. we decided that the next time we see each other it should be at a park in western nc!!!! olivia had a liver biopsy and her gall bladder removed. she is recovering well, and the initial look on the liver seems to be that it is a better case scenario. she still has some tough recovery, though, so please say a prayer for her and her family.

on that note, my friends, good night. i have a feeling it won't be a silent night in this house, but i am so grateful to sleep in my own bed, no matter how long it is.