Thankful Thursday

I didn't plan on being so late in getting this out. I have so much to be thankful for and didn't want to wait until next week to write it all.

We have had a whirlwind week. Although it has not been fun, God's hand was evident in it throughout. I want to try to share it all with you. Some of it will be a repeat for those who have read all my updates, but I will try not to repeat too much.

Last week on Thursday, I noticed Kaedra had a sore on her back. I called our doctor but he did not call back. I was able to get an appointment with him, but not until the next afternoon. I was very concerned about it and didn't know if we should head to the hospital or not. People who do not believe in God would say the next part was "luck" or "a fluke." Jill from the Kansas City hospital called to see how Kaedra was doing post op. When I mentioned the sore on her back, she wanted her to come in right away. I am so thankful for her call and that she could get Kaedy in so soon. If we had waited any longer, Kaedra's hardware might have become infected and had to have been removed.

I am thankful that Michael's brother was able to, once again, head up to Kansas City with him so that I could stay home with the other kiddos. When they got there, they put Kaedy into ICU right away. She was only in ICU because she was on a vent. By the next morning, the pulmonologists and ICU docs said she did not need her vent. I am so thankful that we were able to get her off of the vent and she has been off of it for 6 days now. This is an incredible blessing when originally we couldn't even get her ON this vent because she had so many problems breathing.

I am thankful that Sherria offered to drive up to Kansas City with me on Sunday night so I didn't have to be alone. I am not very good at driving long distances, I tend to fall asleep. I was a little fearful of driving for 4 hours with just Ethan and me and she right away jumped in and said she would drive up with me. We had a great drive up there, too, filled with lots of laughing, lots of praising and lots of heart-filled talks about God. Ethan slept 3 hours of the trip and was such a good little boy!

I am thankful for my mother in law who came at the spur of the moment to take care of the girls for us for 4 days. She was supposed to have gone out of town the week before and didn't go because of a storm. She decided to postpone the trip when Kaedra went up to KC and she was ready and available when I called her a day earlier than she had previously thought. It was wonderful not having to worry about the girls, animals and house.

I am thankful for Michael's brother who paid for our hotel room for us and bought food for us so we didn't have to eat out all the time. I am thankful for the good nurses we had who tried to make our visit easier. I am thankful that when the doctor went in, he didn't have to take out much skin and did not have to take out her titanium rod. After the surgery, they took her to ICU, much to our disappointment. We had been told we could not take Ethan into ICU, so I was going to go in and visit Kaedra quickly and then head back to the hotel. When I went to sign in to ICU, they asked where Michael was. I said that he was with the baby. They said "The nurse said to tell you it's okay if you sneak your baby in." HALLELUJAH! We were ALL able to go into ICU for the 24 hours she was there. What a huge blessing to us.

On Tuesday, I had a horrible headache and Ethan started to fuss a little. There is nowhere to lay down in the ICU or waiting room (that is quiet during the day). The Ronald McDonald House has a wonderful waiting room in the hospital that they allow people to use when they have kids that are inpatient. They also have 7 beds that people can stay in overnight or use for naps during the day. I went down there and took a wonderful nap in one of their rooms for about 40 minutes. Ethan and I felt so much better after that. I am so thankful for their wonderful facility. They were also so very nice and sweet. They kept oohing and aahing over Ethan and how cute he was. They were so sweet about what a good baby he is. (And he really is! He was SO good while we were gone. He was happy and sweet and absolutely wonderful. Another huge thing to be thankful for.)

After she went back onto the regular floor, we got a wonderful nurse from Oklahoma. She contacted the social worker right away to try to get us into the Ronald McDonald House. She was the only person who had gotten any results for us! We had been told we would get out of the hospital on Wednesday and all of a sudden the floor doc told us that pulmonology wanted to see us on Thursday. We went into action and did two things. First we prayed, second we called our pulmonologist in Tulsa and got him to sign off on Kaedy coming home so that we could just tell them that we didn't need to stay. The other problem we were having was the Infectious Disease doctors wanted us to keep making trips up to KC for the next 4-6 months. We prayed about that and talked to our local pulmonologist about an ID specialist here. He said he had one and even better, the guy here has dealt with titanium rods before. Hallelujah!

On Wednesday morning, we packed our bags and loaded our car as if we were coming home. We had prayed the night before that we would be let go and we had friends praying for us as well. We decided we were going to Believe God and act upon it. We got to the hospital very early because we did not want to miss any of the docs. Thankfully, once they started rolling in, things went very quickly and very well. The surgeon said we were good to go home as soon as Kaedy got a PICC line. The ID docs said that after our initial visit next week, they will allow us to see a local doctor. (okay, that one didn't go compeletely smoothly, but I prayed as Michael talked and they "saw the light" HALLELUJAH!) Believe it or not, Pulmonology was NEVER mentioned that day at all. We kept expecting someone to call and say oops, Pulmonology still wants to see you tomorrow. I think we expected it all the way until we got in our car and drove away.

I know I am missing several things but this post is already very long. If you made it this far, thank you. :-) God is so good. So so good. We had many occassions to witness to our surgeon and I am praying for him to realize that Kaedra is not "lucky," as he likes to say. God also used Ethan as an opening in many a talk about His goodness.

We are so incredibly Thankful for so many things. I wish I could explain it all better but I hope I gave you enough of a (long) glimpse of how His hand was with us all week. I am so thankful for all of you that prayed with us. I mentioned you all more than once as being our prayer warriors and result-getters. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

To see other Thankful Thursdays, click here