Welcome Home

Posting this a little early as we reflect this weekend on...

Preemie

Oxygen

Congenital Heart Defect

Total Anomalous PulmonaryVenous Return

Airlift

Cardiac Surgical Team

Open Heart Surgery

Chylothorax

Chest Tubes

Allergies - the kind no one had ever seen at Children's before

Pulmonary Embolism

Grace for Today

These were the words that surrounded the beginning days of your life son...days so exhausting and emotionally draining that there were times your daddy and I weren't sure we could do one more.  God's grace was sufficient for every one of the days that you were cared for so carefully until we could whisper the words "lets go home" on July 7th, 2006.  Though we would never choose to repeat this time in the life of our family, we would never trade it away either.  For your daddy and I, it was the refining fire that helped us put life into perspective.  Your name means "set apart for a holy purpose." It was the time when we did the hard heart work of understanding God's sovereignty and what it means to love having you more than we feared loosing you.

 We did our best to carry on as a family unit - living together all six of us - in Seattle.  We shared our time between the Ronald McDonald House and the hospital room.  Your big sister turned 8 while we waited for you to heal, your big brother learned to swim, carp hunt with a bow, and use hand sanitizer at every corner he came to in the hospital :-).  Your sis, Samarah Jo was just 2.  She learned how to take very long showers and that no one would be upset if she used a whole bottle of shampoo.  Those were days filled with the love of our extended family and friends and we are so thankful.

So today we celebrate your homecoming.  Seven years ago today, we traveled back from Seattle together - forever changed.  From that day on I began recounting the gifts of God's grace in our life.  We have come to understand more fully that everything is a gift from God - not just what we would consider pleasurable in this life.  We consider your broken heart a gift.  We consider your fixed heart a gift.  We consider the scars all over your body a gift - to remind us of your story.

Fishing

Dirt Bikes

Rock Climbing

Grand Camp

Hunting

Gospel Community

Hiking with Dad

Airsoft

Stitches

Football

"I love you mom"

These are the" Corban words" that surround us today..

So glad to have you home son!