What a difference a year makes!

I can hardly believe that this day has come, and at the same time I can hardly believe it has taken so long to come, but today (10/13) marks the one year anniversary of leaving Hope Hospital!! We have officially been out of the hospital for a whole year!! Throughout this year we have only returned to the hospital for the occasional check-up and visit... ONLY VISITING!! On Sunday, I actually sat down and read through all of our emails from beginning to end. Surprisingly, it was not as difficult to do as I thought I would be. I had been avoiding it up until then, but when you know there is a happy ending, it actually is not so bad. However, while reading through them it is amazing how quickly you are transported right back to those dreadful moments: watching the helicopter take off from St. Mary's,



our short stay at Loyola, our transfer to Hope, and sitting in the room, day-in-and-day-out with nothing to do but watch all the monitors.





As I read the update after the first surgery, seeing how we were talking and thinking in my head, "Oh, if you only knew there are three more surgeries to come!!" I remember us begging to go home, thinking there was nothing we wanted more, and then when that day came, thinking we weren't ready yet!!



Going home with the PICC line, having home nursing in the house, giving the 18 daily doses of meds--seemingly all at different times of day, and mixing up the super-concentrated formula so that she would start gaining weight. Well, a lot has happened in a year: no more PICC line, no more home nursing, 7 med doses only twice a day, NO problems with weight gain, and we are crawling, talking, and adjusting to being the big sister!!



Looking at Mary Alice today, you will have a hard time believing that any of that happened just last year. Only a few scars serve as reminders, and even those fade into the background if you're not paying attention! The truth is that we will NEVER forget and we will NEVER be the same! We are blessed to not HAVE to remeber every second of the day. We continue to pray for the friends we made in the hospital, little Jordan and Stephen's family. I know that there are some of you who also continue to pray for them and for that we thank you! Mary Alice is a DELIGHT. She is active and full of personality. She is a complete social butterfly. She is SO SMART, loves reading books, loves to TALK incesently, and LOVES ICE CREAM!! What more could we ask for?? We a small celebration this evening, complete with cupcakes...I think she enjoyed! ONE year out!!