Theres a Rainbow at the End of the Storm!!

Hello all,
Well since my last post a lot has happened. A lot of great stuff. The best being the fact that we have our precious little Princess at HOME!!!!!!!!!

Our last month in the hospital consisted of many meetings with doctors, nurses, dietitians, and many many more people that I can not even remember. I am sure our paths will cross again at later dates on trips for check ups.

Such a happy girl!!

On Jan 11th Sarai graduated from NICU to the "floors" and this time till the end of our stay, well I shouldn't say that we did go back to NICU for 4 days. The doctor decided that it would be best for her if they plicated (stitched down) her left diaphragm. So yes Sarai had yet another surgery before leaving to come home. This one was fairly straight forward and very quick. We did end up back in the NICU after the surgery for her recovery and a little visit with our favorite nurse! On the fourth day we were back up to the "Floors" and on the road to going home.

Going for a ride back up to the "floors"

Daddy and Sarai!

Daddy took four of the boys and went home and Mommy and big brother Danny stayed for the duration until discharge.

Danny got to do a lot of holding while we
were at the hospital

The biggest thing during January was getting Sarai to fully breastfeed. It was so frustrating when we were on the floors cause mommy knew Sarai could do it, however i was not able to breastfeed her until we met with the speech pathologist. She came once when Sarai was sleeping and then never showed up for our future appointments. As you could imagine this was more than frustrating cause all that was on my mind was, there is no way I was taking her home tube feeding and wanting to get her to the breast.

My Baby Burrito

So what did mommy do? When we went back to NICU for her last surgery I spoke with the head nurse and said "The only thing I want you to allow me to do while we are down here is to breastfeed Sarai." She was actually very surprised that she was not breastfeeding already. And so, they let me and lo and behold by the time we went back up to the "floors" Sarai was breastfeeding only, during the days!
I just love this picture!

YAY Sarai....and Praise the Lord that she never had a hard time with it! So for the last week and half in the hospital mommy breastfed during the days, in the evenings mommy and Danny bathed her and put her to bed before going back to the room. Throughout the nights she was tube fed, they tried giving her a bottle but she was having nothing to do with it. LOL

Curly Hair after her bath!

The other thing that mommy had to learn was how to give Sarai a NEEDLE! I really did not want to have to do this, however Sarai needed it to be done for awhile yet and if she was to go home it was something mommy would have to learn. Goodness by the time everything was over I think I was ready to be a nurse!

My Mommy is going to do what to me?

Giving my little girl a needle was definitely a scary experience but I learned quickly and we have it mastered now. She gets the shot twice a day for the blood clots in her leg and neck. She will get it until the end of March so we are halfway through now. And amazingly enough that was the only med she came home on besides her vitamins and iron. Another reason to Thank the Lord. We have so so so many things to be thankful for and blessed with.

All bundled up for her walk to the room!
Doesn't Danny look so HAPPY?
Pretty in Pink!!

For Sarai's last weekend in hospital I was given a daypass for the Saturday and then an overnight pass for Sunday. Her weekend consisted of a visit from:

Had to add this from her visit with Cousin Harmony
I think they are Super Diaper Changers..LOL

Auntie Candace, Uncle Jason, Harmony and Steph, followed by a visit from Auntie Rachael, Auntie Gwendy and Jenny, a lot of cuddles and a shopping trip to Walmart and Babies R us! Come on what weekend would be complete without a trip to Walmart...LOL

Of course mommy couldn't wait to dress her up and do a photo shoot!

It was great....to finally have my sweet baby girl in my bed all night long, I laid awake for the longest time just staring at her and Thanking the Lord for bring us through the Storm and now I could see the rainbow! Staring at her and thinking about what strength the Lord has given her to go through not 1 but 3 open heart surgeries, Heart failure and the diaphragm plication. What a MIRACLE she is, laying there beside me and the only thing left that would make one realize it all is the scar on her chest, which by the way is fading very well. WOW was all I could think. WOW is still what I think!
I love her little hands

On the Monday we went back to the hospital to check in and Sarai was officially discharged that morning.............YAHOO.....Danny was even doing the leprechaun jig and clicking his heels...LOL. To watch her feeding tube finally being taken out brought tears to my eyes as the thought "this is it the last tube is finally out" ran through my mind. After 2 months and 12 days we were finally FREE!!

Tube Free and Beautiful!!

We left the hospital, went back to the room and waited for Nana to come. That night we packed up the room and the next day we went to spend a night with Nana, Papa and uncle Joey. I think it was an amazing moment for;

Nana to be driving her little "Angel" to their home...

and amazing moment for Papa to see his little "Angel" in his home

...and an amazing moment for Uncle Joey to see his little niece for the first time and see her smiling and looking so very healthy! I think everyone was able to sit back and take a deep deep breath.


Sarai even got to take in a hockey game and not any hockey game, her uncle's hockey game!

Yes I let him hold her in his stinky gear..lol

Had to get a pic of her with Nana and the players
in the background!

I wish we could have spent a few more days with Nana and Papa but at least we got to spend one and we will go back for visits! And I will take this moment to say "Dad, Mom thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the days you dropped what you were doing to come and support us, mom for the many many days you took to be with us, you will never know just how grateful and blessed we are to have had you there for us! We love you guys so much.
A visit from Oma!

We also went and had a little visit with Sarai's Great Grandmother. I think it was a great moment for Oma to see Sarai smiling and healthy in her home and to be able to show off this little miracle of a girl to all her friends

On February 10th, 2010 Sarai went on her first plane ride....back home! Sarai did great.

I think it was a great moment for Daddy and her big brothers to see Sarai coming through those gates, finally on her way home! The best moment for Daddy and Mommy to finally have their little Princess laying right in between them on the bed! How we talked about that day for so long. However the Greatest moment was on he evening of February 12, 2010, walking into our home and looking at us altogether, our big HAPPY FAMILY!!! We are complete!
Josh enjoying holding his lil sis at home!

I sit here now, in our home, looking at her and it feels like I just woke up. Like we just went through the roughest storm we have gone through and I am so glad that our hearts were changed, that we were somewhat prepared and that our foundation was moved from the sand to be established on the ROCK!!! Without God I have no idea what the outcome of this all would have been. We can not deny nor can many who have been supporting and praying with us, that GOD IS GOOD!!! That He listens to our cries, that He is in control, that He wants us to rely on Him and Him alone, That He will provide for us everything we need including doctors with great talents as the doctor who operated on Sarai's heart, That He is real, that He still performs Miracles, for Sarai is a MIRACLE. God is the SAME Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. The things we read about in the Bible, the things the Lord did in the Bible, He will still do them now and forever and why? Because He does not change!!

One of our many many cuddle moments!

Thank you to you all who have supported us in any way, in Prayer, financially, by calling with encouraging words and Believing with us and never doubting! Thank you So very much and may you all be greatly blessed!

I think the most memorable thing said about her was when Sarai was laying on the floor at Nana and Papa's and they were sitting there watching her and Papa says "You know you should have named her Miracle!"

Now we are relaxing and taking in the Rainbow at the end of our Storm.

Fun times in the city!!

It was a good picture!! (they are all looking)

Well three months in this big city has made way for many experiences! Many trips to the big mall where we took in the seals, lemurs, mini golf, movies and a lot of window shopping.

This has to be one of my favorites! Daddy and his boys!

Enjoying the evening out in the snow!!

Then we have the out of the ordinary trips we went on included an evening at a huge park in the city where they had a man made lake for ice skating (didn't get to do that as we had no skates), a very fun snow hill and lot and lots of space for the kids to be free!!! We also came upon an outdoor ice festival near by our hotel. It was so cool.














The kids were able to see some very cool ice sculptures, a huge carved ice bridge, an enormous carved ice castle and some very cool gigantic ice slides. It was so cool and we went in the evening so we could see it all lit up!

Noah with a little ice dude, Josh peeking through one of the windows on the ice castle
and Noah and David in the ice Maze

The Awesome Ice Slide!

Noah and David in the Ice Maze

Ice giraffes...this was my favorite carving!

We also went on a few swimming excursions to on local pool and one pool in another town not too far away. It was a lot of fun for us all. It will be so nice to be able to have Sarai join us on our family outings!






This month we also celebrated not one but two birthdays! Mick turned 12 and Danny turned 8.

They both got to pick out their cake, and had a special day with breakfast and dinner out and visiting with Sarai!

There are many other things we would have loved to do, however there are always other times to do those things and it will be something to look forward to in the future!
Enjoy our pictures!!
Love to you all

It's ALWAYS a challenge getting a good one of them altogether!!