Holding his own...

Charlie is doing well considering the major surgery that he underwent just yesterday. His numbers were not quite as good as they were yesterday, but that was to be expected and the doctors and nurses are pleased with where he is. It seems like we are the only ones holding back! We know it is not a good practice, but watching the monitors with all the numbers going up and down is a hard habit to avoid. It is amazing that we now know what all those different numbers and lines even mean when just a week ago it was completely foreign to us. Charlie is resting very comfortably now. They have increased his pain medications and are keeping him fairly well sedated. He needs time to heal and re-stabilize now.

We were not able to stay with Charlie very long today, but it was for a very good reason. We are coming to realize that there are truly amazing people in the world who are completely willing to support perfect strangers. Last week when we knew Charlie was on his way, we put in a call to Deacon Nick from our parish to come to the hospital and baptize him. We have had this plan in place for months, but it just so happened that Deacon Nick was in the middle of coaching at a basketball game when the time came. He was able to tell his team at half time that he had to leave and why it was necessary and the 11th and 12th grade boys he coaches stopped to say a prayer for us and Charlie with Deacon Nick before he left. Yesterday Deacon Nick came to the hospital to be with us and wait for news from the surgeon. He told us that his team had been continuing to pray for Charlie and wanted to do something for him. They decided to have the team sign a basketball and Holy Family t-shirt and wanted to present it to us at their Senior Night game which was tonight. So, we went to Holy Family tonight for the game and special presentation. These are truly remarkable young men, who went out of their way to come over at the end of the game to thank us for coming to see them play. As we have said, we truly believe that it is because of the prayers of everyone, including these boys we do not even know, that Charlie is doing so well.

Neither of us ever thought that we would be so perfectly content just sitting and watching him, but we are. We miss him when we are home and the NICU has honestly begun to feel more like home than our house. The people there have been amazing and the nurses have begun to fight over who gets to take care of Charlie. Everyone loves him and we cannot wait until you can all meet him! All is is going to take is a little more patience...