At last!

Captain is home! I can’t believe he’s finally home! When I arrived at the hospital this morning and the doc told me he could go home, tears filled my eyes and I ran and hugged the nurse. Even as I look at him right now, I could pinch myself because I can’t believe it’s all over.

William’s surgery went well, and we were so grateful for our surgeon, Dr. Collazo, and his expertise in saving our child’s life. It is amazing to think that he does this on a daily basis. I will forever be grateful for his hard work and his family’s sacrifice in getting him through school and to where he is right now. The world is a better place because of Dr. Collazo.

And some of you are not aware of some of the small yet big miracles that happened to us along the way. One of them was meeting Dr. Ben Cramer. Last summer, one of my college friends who I had not talked with in years randomly flew into DC for a meeting. She remembered I lived here and contacted me to get together for dinner. We had her and her husband over and as we began talking, she told us that she was staying with her sister and brother-in-law who had just moved here for his job. When we asked what he did, she replied: He’s a Pediatric Cardio Anesthesiologist at Inova Fairfax Hospital (our hospital). Ten days later we found out about Captain’s heart defect. Ben and his sweet wife had us over the night we found out about everything. Ben was the one who took William from us the morning of his surgery. And he was also the one who kept checking up on him for the remainder of our stay. I cannot tell you how comforting it was to have a familiar face and someone we admired make sure our child stayed asleep and pain-free while in surgery. Some may call that a coincidence, but I call it a miracle.

Another miracle that we encountered is that Dan, Cooper and I had moved to a new city (Oakton) exactly a year ago. In finding this home, we prayed that we would be led to the place that would be a good fit for us. We found a place, felt good about it, made an offer and got the house. A few days later we met our neighbors. The one right next door turned out to be a Neonatologist at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Go figure. And he was one of the doctors that kept a watchful eye on William while in the NICU and when he came home. He and his dear family have done so much for our family to which we are immensely grateful. Coincidence? No. Miracle? Yes.

These are a few, yet there are countless other examples of when we have seen the hand of the Lord in our lives. We have received such superb care and help from these doctors, nurses, friends and family along our journey. I do not have time nor space to personally thank all the angels on both sides of the veil that have come into our lives and alleviated our burdens. This has been the hardest thing we have gone through, yet we have seen more miracles in the last 10 months than we ever have before.

William still has a feeding tube but as he continues to gain more strength to eat on his own we will be able to get rid of it. It may take a few months. The surgeon said that William has a little bit of leakage in his valves, and there is about a 25% chance that he will need additional surgery in the future. This could be in 1 year or in 15 years, or not at all. Regardless, he will be monitored by the cardiologists for the rest of his life, and we pray that we will never have another hospital visit.  

Driving home from the hospital today, I couldn’t help but think that a chapter in our lives has closed. And for that I am grateful. I know there are still challenges to face in front of me, but at least I don’t feel like I could lose my child or that I will have to walk this road alone. I can breathe a little easier and relax a bit more. We are sure in love with this little guy, and we wouldn’t trade him for anything.